Last night, members of a block association at Quincy Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, volleyed back and forth at a community meeting regarding a local BDSM business that recently moved in the neighborhood.
At the meeting, held in the basement of the Macedonia Church of Christ, residents voiced their concerns about the legality of the business (called The Taillor Group) operating out of a home, and what its presence represented on a residential block with children. An NYPD Officer from the 79th Precinct was there to take questions and, at times, acted as a mediator between the conflicting parties.
Several neighbors have been locked in an ongoing dispute with Charlotte Taillor, the owner of the business, since she moved to the block in January. Taillor says that a neighbor has been "harassing" her and the members of what she refers to as her "collective," both verbally and in the form of repeated Department of Building complaints. In the meeting, Taillor, who was accompanied by her attorney, repeatedly said that she intends to move out as soon as she can, and pleaded for people to cease with the complaints. She also said that it had cost her over $10,000 to move to the block in January, and that as a "mom and pop" operation, they didn't have the funds to relocate immediately.
Laurie Miller, who lives next door to Taillor, spearheaded the meeting. She denied that she had allegedly harassed the business, and said that she had been informing locals about The Taillor Group, and the nature of their business.
"If it was a meth lab I’d be just as upset," Miller told Gothamist. "Because bringing these transient, nefarious-looking guys into the community that aren’t part of the community but coming in to do whatever they want to do and then bounce? They have no vested interest in the quality of life in this community."
Miller added that she had amended her lifestyle, such as parking her car on another block and putting sticks under her doorknob.
"Those are the kinds of fears I’m having," she says. "Every time I open my door, come home, the anxiety is who I’m gonna see outside."
Scenes from the meeting last night at Macedonia Church of Christ (Paula Mejia/Gothamist).
In the meeting, several residents questioned why Taillor had decided to bring the space to a solely residential block, instead of busier local thoroughfares such as Nostrand Avenue. "She could have saved everybody a lot of trouble if she just, like, talked to [her] neighbors first and said, 'Hi, look, here’s what we do,'" says Pablo Power, a resident of the block. Locals also wondered if it was legally permissible to operate a business out of a residential space, given that the building doesn't appear to be zoned for commercial activity.
Andrew Rudansky, the Senior Deputy Press Secretary for the Department of Buildings, confirms that the agency attempted to inspect Taillor's space on February 14th in response to a 311 complaint. (Since they weren't able to access the space that one time, he says the agency will attempt an inspection one more time before the complaint is closed out—this is standard procedure for the DOB investigating these complaints, Rudansky said.)
In order for a home business to be legally compliant in New York City, Rudansky said it must be "accessory to the residential use of a house, and can occupy no more than 25% of the property," meaning that the property can't solely be used for a business, and that the DOB has to confirm that someone also lives there.
In an email, an NYPD spokesperson told Gothamist that "the Commanding Officer is aware of community concerns related to the location and address those concerns as they arise."
(Courtesy of Charlotte Taillor)
Taillor's business currently operates on the ground floor of the building, which is occupied by her and another tenant, who lives in the apartment upstairs. Taillor herself does not currently live at the property, though she stated that she intended to move into the apartment upstairs when the current tenants left. The owner of the building in question, who wished to remain anonymous, told Gothamist over the phone that the upstairs tenant is moving out, and that he'd discussed Taillor moving in as a "possibility" in case he wasn't able to imminently sell the building. The landlord—who says that he's been out of United States for roughly the last two months, and has only recently heard rumblings of the dispute—said that he'd intended to put the building on the market, and will do so when he returns at the end of the month.
"They’ve been no problem whatsoever, to be honest with you," he says of The Taillor Group. "Which is why I was very surprised at all of this." He says that Taillor had rented the space through an agency, and that "provided everything is legal, I have no problem with this," noting that the agent had told him that Taillor's business was "basically...a group of therapists."
For the moment, Taillor is raising money to leave the block via a GoFundMe, and by continuing to try and run the business.
"I don’t feel there’s any resolution until she moves out," Miller says. "Because they’re still going to be bringing their clientele through the block to get here...you could swing from the ceiling fan for all I care. But when what you do inside your private house affects me in the public, that’s where the issue is."
