Sound Fix Feels the Noise from City Agencies
In the four years Sound Fix has been in business, it’s become one of the city’s best-loved independent music stores and a Brooklyn alternative to Other Music. About a year ago the store took over the cafe in the rear of its building on North 11th and Bedford and began using the space as a…
In the four years Sound Fix has been in business, it’s become one of the city’s best-loved independent music stores and a Brooklyn alternative to Other Music. About a year ago the store took over the cafe in the rear of its building on North 11th and Bedford and began using the space as a bar and performance space. The Sound Fix Lounge has hosted acts like the Mountain Goats, Beirut, Kimya Dawson, and Camera Obscura. But the venue has been silent for three weeks now and may be imperiled, says owner James Bradley, because city agencies have been serving violation upon violation on the performance space and have also started targeting the record store itself. According to Bradley, the Dept. of Health, the Dept. of Buildings, and the Police Dept. have all issued violations on the business, many of them requiring court appearances. “It’s been really overwhelming,” says Bradley. The record store owner believes the violations are rooted in complaints from a couple of neighbors who live in an adjacent building, one of whom, Teresa Polonski, works for Assemblyman Joseph Lentol. “I’m sympathetic to noise complaints, and we’ve done a lot to try to mitigate the noise,” says Bradley. “All this seems to be really excessive to me.” The Dept. of Health shut down the Sound Fix Lounge after serving it with three violations for operating without a food license; the first violation was issued March 6th, the second on March 8th, and the third on March 28th. “On 3/28 the establishment was swarmed by inspectors and shut down. I was advised by DOH that this was actually a Mayor’s task force,” says Mikelle V. Komor of Wagner Davis P.C., one of the attorneys working for Sound Fix. “When we appeared for the hearing on the first two violations on 4/1, the hearing officer at the Administrative Tribunal called the issuance of the two violations in two days inequitable and unconscionable.” Although Bradley tried to renew the license, the DOH has’t let him because it has records of unpaid fines from the space’s previous owners. Bradley says the establishment’s liquor license has been in limbo for nine months, and “one official said the agency was under pressure ‘from Albany’ to put us through the ringer.” Assemblyman Lentol says he “vaguely remembers” Polonski complaining about Sound Fix but “I refute that I have put any pressure on the city to close the place down.” Lentol says “everything’s that’s happened has come out of the community board.”
Meanwhile, about a week ago, the DOB affixed a note to Sound Fix’s door saying the record store and lounge were both in violation of zoning laws. Although both businesses are in an area zoned for residential use, the space has an active Certificate of No Objection that allows Bradley to operate them. A call to the DOB for clarification was not returned. Police officers have served about five summonses on the lounge in the past few months “for very flimsy things,” says Bradley. “The officers are always very nice, and one of them said to me, ‘Our captain has a hard-on for you guys.'” Attorney Steven R. Wagner, who is also representing Bradley, says what’s happening to the business “seems like a campaign of harassment. We will defend Sound Fix so that this well-known store and indie venue stay open.” As the Times reported today, Sound Fix’s problems are not 100% unique; record stores all over the city are having a tough time making a go of it nowadays. Outstanding issues with the DOH notwithstanding, Regina Spektor is scheduled to perform at the lounge tomorrow afternoon in celebration of Record Store Day. GMAP
Top photo by pauldini; other by Leia Jospe.
Looks like the gentrifiers are getting re-re gentrified. Eat shit you bastards!
soundfix has food?
Sound Fix isn’t loud. Turkey’s Nest is loud. But it was there before I moved nearby so I wear ear plugs.
Now if someone would just silence the ice cream trucks…
I’m assuming that the 10:33 guest is a neighbor in the area. How do you think driving a vital arts space– a destination that people come to from all over the city to pump money into your neighborhood will effect your property values? The reason why people want to live in our neighborhood (I’m just a block away on N 10), is to have these places right outside their doors. That’s why you can sell your crappy 500 sq ft tenement apartment for 4 or 500K. I have never known Sound Fix to be overly loud. I frequent the live performances their. Like Triple Crown, this whole thing smacks of a politically connected misanthrope with intentions of making Bedford ave more attractive to the 40+ crowd– intentions that if made reality will be self-sabotaging in the end. Hopefully you bought your co-op in the 80’s and you don’t care whether your investment appreciates 500 or 600 percent. But when you get your wish and Sound Fix is replaced by a Starbucks, you will be sorry.
I’m assuming that the 10:33 guest is a neighbor in the area. How do you think driving a vital arts space– a destination that people come to from all over the city to pump money into your neighborhood will effect your property values? The reason why people want to live in our neighborhood (I’m just a block away on N 10), is to have these places right outside their doors. That’s why you can sell your crappy 500 sq ft tenement apartment for 4 or 500K. I have never known Sound Fix to be overly loud. I frequent the live performances their. Like Triple Crown, this whole thing smacks of a politically connected misanthrope with intentions of making Bedford ave more attractive to the 40+ crowd– intentions that if made reality will be self-sabotaging in the end. Hopefully you bought your co-op in the 80’s and you don’t care whether your investment appreciates 500 or 600 percent. But when you get your wish and Sound Fix is replaced by a Starbucks, you will be sorry.
let’s try and maintain some focus here. we’re not talking about dirty stinky hippies at woodstock or the velvet underground and their milieu in the late 60s. we’re talking about a cafe/music venue that was active until a few months and and an uptight neighbor with political connections.
Quit your crying, old timers. NYC is not some kind of Velvet Underground Warhol Factory any more. It’s starbucks, it’s Whole Foods, and it’s Sex in the City, and it’s a great place for bland, rich people to shop for Le Cruset crockpots.
The good old days are long, long gone. The war is over, and you lost. Welcome to New Cleveland. The only thing more annoying than what NYC has become are the people who can’t let go of what it was. It’s over. Go to Burning Man and talk about how great it was five years ago. Go to Woodstock(tm) and flood the porta potties. Just go.
Sound Fix isn’t a noisy place. In fact, it’s usually as quiet as a library. And it’s one of the very few places in the neighborhood where people can hang out and access free WiFi. The recorded music that’s played in the store is never any louder than what you’ll hear at, say, Starbucks. And yeah, the live acts are louder than that, but the once or twice weekly shows are almost always matinees. It’s not like this Polinski lady is living above a frat bar. She lives above a laid back, quiet cafe that has a history or programming amazing performers like Clem Snide (acoustic), and Beiruit, Regina Spektor. You can’t even compare it to Triple Crown. THAT place was noisy and I would have hated to live above or next to it and been subjected to the incessant pounding beat of the music played by their celebrity DJs.
Actually, the situation has nothing to do with the smokers standing outside. Please take a look at the article which outlines the cause of SF’s problems quite accurately. It is not the sound outside that rallies up complaints, but rather, it seems, from inside.
That said, thank you soooo much to everyone who has shown support for Sound Fix.
Please submit ideas for how to rally up the kind of community support that SF needs to survive to me via my myspace page. I intern at SF for nothing because it brings beautiful music to the people, up close and personal.
I sympathize somewhat with those who have to deal with the “noise,” but do you really want to be responsible for killing a one-of-a-kind venue that has brought the best indie musicians to Williamsburg for FREE? I believe that Sound Fix is a symbol of the cultural, musical mecca that Williamsburg is. Let’s keep these wonderful artists here, and continue to give them a wonderful place where they can bring their art to the people. Let’s make sure that this musical treasure doesn’t get shut down.