Last month, members of the group Answers Coalition protested outside of the Third Avenue bar the Continental, accusing the bar of having a racist door policy. Owner Trigger Smith was defiant in the face of their criticisms of his "unwritten dress code," and there was another demonstration yesterday outside the club. And now, it seems that the City Commission on Human Rights has been investigating the allegations of racial discrimination. more ›

On Friday night about 30 people demonstrated outside Continental, the bar on Third Avenue near St. Mark's Place that used to be a grungy music venue and is now just another bar. Protesters carried signs blasting the bar for a racist door policy, and one demonstrator, Shaniqua Pippen, told the Local, "This is the first protest. And I feel like if we continue more people will come, and something will change." Pippen claims that when she tried to patronize Continental in June, a bouncer, who is also black, told her "Your kind don’t know how to act." And this isn't the first allegation of racism leveled at the bar. more ›

Why can't a Williamsburg luxury rental building offer, besides a doorman and health club, a nod to the founding of the country? That's what new development The Continental does, and Curbed observes it's almost genius (besides being weird), since "the building is across the street from Continental Army Plaza, which has a statue of him at Valley Forge." No word on whether landscaping will include cherry trees. Funny sidenote: Christopher Walken as The Continental. more ›

Yesterday a press conference on the steps of City Hall was held in response to the eviction and closing of Tonic, the downtown venue that shut its doors after nine years. A committee of musicians, cultural activists, and supporters made a call for public and political intervention to protect new music/indie/avant/jazz in New York City and to ask the city to provide a minimum 200 capacity, centrally located venue for experimental music. From the press release, the coalition is asking: more ›

Happy Halloween! If you missed the Mountain Goats Saturday night at Bowery Ballroom, you've got another chance to catch them tonight at the even cozier Knitting Factory. This show is extra exciting thanks to the packed lineup of not-to-be-missed opening bands. We're talking about Grizzly Bear (read the Gothamist interview) and The Tears & Prayers of Arthur Digby Sellers (as seen in Gothamist Does CMJ). more ›

NYC 2012 released the design for the Olympics Stadium in Queens yesterday. It's at the point where New Yorkers will soon need a crib sheet of all the stadium plans being proposed: Brooklyn Nets Arena, new Yankee Stadium, even the old West Side Stadium. The proposed Olympics Stadium would be the new Shea Stadium, but expandable to fit 80,000 visitors. The NY Times makes the point that it's not "high-tech" looking like the West Side Stadium, and Gothamist has to say, thank God (we really hated the West Side Stadium design), since something super high-tech would probably look slightly incongruous in Queens - though the World's Fair monuments are holding up well. more ›