Union Hall Meeting: The Video

Can anyone take this Sones guy seriously? He should have recused himself given his whopping conflict on interest. What a joke.

Posted by: guest at May 9, 2008 12:33 PM

I guess people are entitled to their own lay opinions of what constitutes a conflict of interest. However, Conflicts of Interest Board Opinion 2003-2 is pretty conclusive about what it considers a conflict in situations like this. Let me make it easy for you:

"Community board members will violate Chapter 68 if they simultaneously have an interest in a licensed liquor facility and chair a community board committee responsible for considering liquor license applications. Community board members will not violate Chapter 68 if they have an interest in a licensed liquor facility and vote on matters involving liquor license applications of others, but, consistent with Charter Section 2604(b)(1)(b), they may not vote on their own license applications or those of persons with whom they are associated."

Posted by: guest at May 9, 2008 12:55 PM

I can't believe people would oppose such a great bar. this is a business that employs people, people depend on Union Hall for their jobs. This is ridiculous that they could lose their liquor lic.

Posted by: guest at May 9, 2008 12:56 PM

This is infuriating. I do take some comfort in the knowledge that renewals do not require community board input. All these smug a-holes trying to shut down a reputable establishment...they should be ashamed of themselves. So annoying that they don't recognize Union St as mixed use all the way from the waterfront to GAP. The conflict of interest issue should also not be overlooked.

12:55 - Does that mean that Sones is or is not violating Chapter 68? Is he "chairing" or just voting? If he's chairing, he's got a serious backlash headed his way...

If anything, the board's vote, if it holds any sway in a non-renewal, could get thrown out on that alone...couldn't it?

Posted by: guest at May 9, 2008 1:06 PM

Sones is going to go down if he thinks he can pull BS like this

Posted by: guest at May 9, 2008 1:07 PM

Sones just pretty much ensured that anyone who frequents both his place and either Floyd, Last Exit, Magnetic Field, will lose his business. That's a pretty tight knit group of bargoers who know each other and who chatter and the chatter right now is, they'll never go back there under any circumstances.

Posted by: guest at May 9, 2008 1:17 PM

Sones is not the chair of the Landmarks/Land Use Committee, so he is not in violation of Chapter 68 ("Conflicts of Interest") of the New York City Charter.

I do believe that he is technically incorrect when he states that Union Street is not a commercial street. The first 100' back from Fifth Avenue are in the commercial overlay.

Posted by: guest at May 9, 2008 1:20 PM

I'm sending an email now to the promoters of Floyds letting them know about this. I plan to shut Lou down.

Any writers out there want to do a story on this??!!

RUN LOU OUT OF TOWN!!!!

Posted by: guest at May 9, 2008 1:21 PM

I was at the meeting last night, too. And something that really depressed me was that the committee seemed to ignore all the great things Union Hall has done for the community. It's not just the desperately needed infusion of culture--music, comedy, literary readings, science nights--that Union Hall gives this neighborhood. They also host all kinds of benefits and fundraisers. One supporter said his group, Neighbors Helping Neighbors (http://www.nhnhome.org/index.html), had raised $60,000 in one night with Union Hall's help. I hope when the full board votes on this next week they'll take all this into account.

Lou Sones--the committee member who made the motion to nuke Union Hall--made a comment saying something like a "bar is a bar." That is not true of Union Hall. This place is unique, and it's become an important cultural center. The members of the Community Board need to pay Union Hall and the street a visit to see what's really going on there, before they take sides.

Posted by: guest at May 9, 2008 1:46 PM

Yeah, if I were the neighbors right now, I'd be trying to play nice with Union Hall. It's a place that will exist there for a very long time. Even if they don't drink (and they act like they don't), they should recognize it for the culturally rich impact it's made on Park Slope. Arguably, more than any other venue/performance space in the history of Park Slope!

Otherwise, I'd bet you could find some budding yuppies from Manhattan who would LOVE to be neighbors with Union Hall, should they want to sell their cherished Brownstones and move to the country.

Posted by: guest at May 9, 2008 1:58 PM

"Sones just pretty much ensured that anyone who frequents both his place and either Floyd, Last Exit, Magnetic Field, will lose his business. That's a pretty tight knit group of bargoers who know each other and who chatter and the chatter right now is, they'll never go back there under any circumstances."

You are absolutely right about this, 1:17. As a patron of all those establishments, I can assure you that word will get out and it travels fast. The Brazen Head is going to be loud this summer, all right...loud with the sound of crickets chirping.

Posted by: guest at May 9, 2008 2:25 PM

Worked fine for me, and while I'm on the subject, I had a hard time getting what I saw with my own eyes to jibe with the earlier (other thread) descriptions of Sones' behavior.

Posted by: guest at May 9, 2008 4:03 PM

Could you elaborate, 4:03?

Posted by: guest at May 9, 2008 4:13 PM

The first speaker is wrong. Union Hall is in a commercially zoned area - it's not like they're running an illegal speakeasy out of their living room on a residential street. Watching this video, I feel like only one side of an argument was heard last night. And that side appears to be biased and if I'm not mistaken, also appears to have a HUGE conflict of interest.

Posted by: guest at May 9, 2008 4:28 PM

4:03 = lou sones.

Posted by: guest at May 9, 2008 4:33 PM

Are you guys saying Sones owns Floyd as well as Brazen Head or that Floyd is his competitior.

Posted by: guest at May 9, 2008 5:21 PM

I'm saying the people who own Union Hall Own Floyd and Floyd is in direct competition with Brazen Head which Lou owns.

Posted by: guest at May 9, 2008 5:24 PM

Floyd is owned by the people who own Union Hall. Sones owns the Brazen Head, which is one of Floyd's competitors. So Sones is trying to get his direct competition's sister bar shut down.

Hm.

Posted by: guest at May 9, 2008 5:26 PM

FOR YOUR INFORMATION:

CB6 MEMBERS

Write CB6

Posted by: guest at May 9, 2008 5:29 PM

FOR YOUR INFORMATION:

CB6 MEMBERS
http://www.brooklyncb6.org/committees/?a=detail&content_id=609

Write CB6
http://www.brooklyncb6.org/committees/?a=detail&content_id=609

Posted by: guest at May 9, 2008 5:32 PM

sorry,

here's the links
http://www.brooklyncb6.org/_attachments/2008-01-14%20BBPO%20Board%20Member%20List.pdf

http://www.brooklyncb6.org/committees/?a=detail&content_id=609

Posted by: guest at May 9, 2008 5:34 PM

it's a bar people
some people don't like the noise
whatever

Posted by: guest at May 9, 2008 6:00 PM

It's worth pointing out that the Landmarks/Land Use Committee barely had a quorum at this public hearing--only 10 of 20 members were in attendance. Also, the vote wasn't exactly unananimous: Only 6 committee members actually voted against Union Hall.

Looking at minutes of previous meetings, it appears unusual for this committee to be so divided.

Hopefully, when the vote goes to the full board, the debate will be less one-sided and cooler heads will prevail. Mediation is the way to go.

Meanwhile, check out the "Insider Report" on this blog for a different view of the noise level: http://edlevineeats.seriouseats.com/2008/05/union-hall-bar-park-slope-brooklyn-noise-bloody-marys.html

Posted by: guest at May 9, 2008 6:04 PM

Utterly ridiculous. Clearly this bar exists in a commercial zone, otherwise it wouldn't have been approved to open. Lou Sones' comments at the beginning are either ignorant or just plain stupid. You can't just tell a bar to shut down and move because it exists 200 feet from what he and some local cranks arbitrarily consider to be the commercial zone.

And as someone who does occasionally drink at Sones' bar, he can be assured that he has lost my patronage as well as many others' in the area.

Posted by: guest at May 10, 2008 11:19 AM

"some people don't like the noise"

Well then some people should not move onto one of the largest, longest mixed use streets in Brooklyn.

Union Hall is an amazing place that treats artists very well who play there, and that is a huge contribution to the culture, economy, hipness and flat out relevance of Park Slope. Any Slopers trying to shut it down are idiots. Park Slope is over if they succeed. It will have officially become the most uncool neighborhood in NYC. The neighborhood will have jumped the shark. If it hasn't already. There are great new bars and growing communities of young hip residents in other neighborhoods. The shift has begun.

Posted by: guest at May 11, 2008 11:46 AM

Union Hall is a *huge* contributor the economy of Park Slope?!

Posted by: guest at May 11, 2008 3:00 PM

Fortunately CBs have little influence over the Liquor Board, especially in cases of license renewals for establishments with few or no serious violations such as Union Hall. I've been involved in bar-related buseness in NYC for over 20 years and I have seen all this unnecessary hot air stirred up by some bored and lonely CB members many times and each time the licenses were renewed. Can't these people devote their time to something useful, such as taking care of trees, street garbage, playgrounds, etc.? What a huge misdirection of time and energy!

Posted by: guest at May 12, 2008 9:43 AM

As word spread this past weekend of what went down at the meeting, it's been made clear that Brazen Head will lose a LOT of customers due to Lou's behavior (customers that frequented his bar as well as all of the others on Atlantic Avenue). It's really a shame as the Brazen Head has a delicious beer selection and a lovely bar staff. Regardless, I will never step foot in there again... Incidentally, is it true that Lou doesn't even live in Park Slope, but in Red Hook?

Posted by: guest at May 12, 2008 1:58 PM

Does anyone have Lou Sone's e-mail address so we can e-mail him and let him know how outraged we are at his clear conflict of interest and pushing for something that will clearly benefit his own business. Shame on you Lou!

Posted by: guest at May 12, 2008 2:30 PM

Union street between 4th and 7th Avenues are not residential blocks. They are mixed use blocks. They are two way thorough fairs on which commerical truck traffic is directed to and a bus route runs along. As such, people living on those three blocks must assume they are going to have to live with higher noise decibel levels than if they were living on a true residential block.

Lou Sones clearly has a serious conflict of interest. He is opening himself up to litigation by not recusing himself from this issue. It's no different than if he were a restaurant owner denying another restaurant owner int he same community a license to operate.

Posted by: guest at May 12, 2008 2:31 PM