New Regulations for Outdoor Drinking?
At this month’s CB6 Public Safety committee meeting, there will be a discussion about an Assembly Bill sponsored by Assemblywoman Millman to amend the alcohol beverage control law in relation to rooftop and rear yard bars. The bill stipulates that “rear yard and rooftop permits in cities with a population of one million or more”…
At this month’s CB6 Public Safety committee meeting, there will be a discussion about an Assembly Bill sponsored by Assemblywoman Millman to amend the alcohol beverage control law in relation to rooftop and rear yard bars. The bill stipulates that “rear yard and rooftop permits in cities with a population of one million or more” would have to meet the following requirements: There is only waiter service to patrons in outdoor areas; no amplified music is allowed; and the outdoor spaces will close at 11 p.m. on weekdays and midnight on weekends. As the bills states, “Such outdoor use tends to be disruptive for residents who live within earshot because of the late hours of operation and the high noise levels that have the capacity to travel into their homes. This legislation recognizes the need for a balance between these sometimes competing interests.” (We’re sure some folks over at CB1 would be pleased!) If you care to discuss hear the community board committee’s take on the proposal, its meeting is on April 25th at 6pm.
Text of Bill [Word Doc]
Photo by owen.iverson
tybur6, I lived around the corner from two bars that would rock out well into the night. When I moved in there was one bar with no patio. Another opened, and would set up a dj in the back yard and advertise parties with dj sets starting as late as 4 am. It was really and truly awful. They finally realized (or the city helped them realize, via fines?) that they were terrorizing the neighbors and within a week the bar next door, which had always been relatively quiet — a big party every few months would go later than I liked but I survived that — completed work on their back patio. They had speakers out there the size of refrigerators.
I’m a pretty good sport. But sometime around midnight on a weeknight I like to expect that I could go to sleep.
Dude can crack wise, but the truth is that drunk hipsters with pricey electronics and fat wallets and zero street sense turned that corner into a prime place to prey on drunk hipsters. It was all pretty quiet until they started tottering around inebriated yelling into their iphones.
And as a renter in a non-regulated apartment, I hardly got the benefit of whatever sprinkles they put on the gentrification sundae that is Clinton Hill.
heh. dude is funny.
I admit I wouldn’t want to live above one of these joints. I love going to franklin park in the summer, but if it was right under my kid’s bedroom window, I’d be pretty pissed at 11 when they were still going strong.
But… don’t these things require CB approval as it is? Seems to make more sense to have this hashed out on a case-by-case basis, rather than saying that this is the right answer for every bar everywhere, from crown heights to williamsburg to lower manhattan.
imho.
Yeah you hipster boozers. Quit making my neighborhood profitable and attractive to outsiders. I’m gonna be a multi-millionaire soon. I didn’t ask for this. When I moved in, this place was a dump. There was crime on the streets, and there was very little business to speak of.
Now I have to listen to you laugh and yap about politics. I just want a quiet little place in an uber-trendy neighborhood in the most populated borough of the most populated city in the United States, that is close to restaurants and bars and public transportation, and has lots of amenities. That’s all I’m asking. And the building can’t be over three stories high.
That’s why I support this legislation that makes blanket restrictions on any city of million or more people. Because that gives individual communities more choice.
Background is rising noise complaints throughout city.
Habano Outpost getting complaints during the DAY. Cake Man Raven just ‘busted’ for sidewalk music last year… Huge crackdown on illegal parties in Willie/East/Bushwick….
arrest in sunset at event (not for noise)…
As our fair borough blows up, noise is up and folks not taking it anymore
smart bar guys with two or more stores seeking to grow get it and try to behave
assholes don’t care, so they’ll get
f-ed up by the victims, just you watch!
I advise folks with this problem to: call in police reports over and over again, directly to precinct, make the cops nuts; confront bar owners directly and tell them to stop the noise or else; pour throw toss shit on diners; picket and tell patrons; call elected over and over again; go to fire department local houses and complain; send photos of action and code violations to everyone; put stickers on bar when closed saying how they such as neighbors.
In war you don’t use just tanks or planes, you use it ALL.
This is a big problem and the anti-noise folks aren’t going away. They have so many weapons at their disposal…. children sleeping trumps children drinking sorry
Sometimes you buy a place and the bar comes later.
I don’t subscribe to the view that because you live in NYC you should have to put up with everything that comes your way.
It’s the right of neighbors to try to make their neighborhood/block be what they want it to be. Lots of people on Brownstoner seem to have their own opinions of what their part of the city should be.
Pete is right, this is a relatively new phenomenon – at least on the scale that we see it now. One reason is the smoking ban – bars are able to get around it by making backyard seating, a portion of which can have smoking. That means people drinking, smoking and talking in enclosed areas usually yards away from someone’s window, often year round.
Even with waiter service, I’d imagine that restaurants are noisy places to have right under your window. As much as I love dining al fresco, I always pity the people who live right over these places.
And no, there are no regulations regarding how late rear yards can stay open. Places that close early (before 4:00 am) do so by agreement with the neighbors or CB, or because they are good neighbors.
Still – lots of questions on this legislation. Does it apply within 500′ of residential zones or residential use? What about loft tenants (big issue in WB), who may not live there legally but have lived there for years if not decades?
Amen, “i disagree” !
You covered all the arguments I was about to make. Sorry if the hipster boozers will be inhibited a bit by these regulations.