CB2 To Nip Liquor Licenses in the Bud (Light)
Park Slope’s Union Hall isn’t the only bar experiencing backlash from neighbors tired of overhearing peoples’ drunk conversations. Community Board 2 District Manager Robert Perris told us his board plans to stop issuing new liquor licenses in certain areas where residents feel over-saturated with noisy bars. As a compromise, the board would suggest either a…
Park Slope’s Union Hall isn’t the only bar experiencing backlash from neighbors tired of overhearing peoples’ drunk conversations. Community Board 2 District Manager Robert Perris told us his board plans to stop issuing new liquor licenses in certain areas where residents feel over-saturated with noisy bars. As a compromise, the board would suggest either a beer and wine license or an early closing time. The two “over-saturation” examples Perris gave were Atlantic Avenue near Henry Street in Brooklyn Heights (Brazen Head, Floyd, Last Exit, Magnetic Field, Montero’s, Waterfront Ale House) and the intersection of Fulton Street and Lafayette Avenue in Fort Greene (Frank’s Lounge, Moe’s, Stonehome Wine Bar). Perris said the focus right now would be on suggesting beer and wine licenses as an alternative. “The relationship is clearer that the alcohol is part of the dining experience and not sort of the focus by itself.” And if the applicant is absent at hearings, or otherwise “appears to us that they are intentionally or unintentially unwilling to have a conversation with us,” the community board may recommend that the state not approve the liquor license request as standard protocol. The board is expected to vote on the official protocol change tonight. Editor’s Note: To clarify, the above are measures that have been discussed, but nothing has been decided on. The issue will be discussed at the board meeting tonight.
Community Board Moving to Nuke Union Hall [Brownstoner]
Photo by Bryan Bruchman.
2:12 do you pay $3,500 a month for your apartment?
I’m with guest at 2:13..just further up the block next to the lately and totally unlamented Magnetic Field whose going away gift to my building was a pool of puke on the front steps. What a bunch of losers.
11:57, the law doesn’t distinguish between bars and other places that have licenses. There are 13 full liquor licenses between Montero’s and the Brazen Head — cask ales this weekend! — plus 1 “Restaurant Wine” and 1 “Restaurant Liquor” license.
Union Hall is one of the best things to happen to Park Slope in a long time. It would be a terrible shame if they lost their license. How utterly ridiculous.
My apartment in on the 2nd floor, with windows over Atlantic Ave bet Clinton & Henry. I’m directly across the street from Floyd and next to Last Exit. I’ve lived here for 11 years – years before either of those places existed. 90% of the time there is no problem. There is quite a bit of noise when the weather gets warm but as long as it quiets down by midnight I don’t mind and I don’t complain. The other 10% of the time is a nightmare. There are nights when at 3am there are still drunks outside one or both of those bars that won’t STFU and we are awakened by them even when the windows are closed. Now.. is it the bar’s fault that some of their patrons are a**holes? Not exactly. But… if the bar would stop serving the drunk idiots at midnight the problem would be solved. The fact is that any time I have called Last Exit or Floyd in the middle of the night to ask them if they could please ask their patrons to keep their voices down when they go outside to smoke (and I am a smoker, so I certainly understand where they are coming from), or to lower the music they are blasting themselves – with their doors wide open, I have been met with nothing but hostility and attitude. That leaves me no choice but to ignore the problem (not going to happen) or call 311 and/or the local precinct to file a noise complaint, which is what I end up doing. Do I call the cops every night or even every week? No – but every few weeks it happens and if the bar owners won’t take responsibility for the actions of their customers (or the volume of their own music) then I am going to keep calling the cops every time it happens and eventually the bar is going to find that their liquor license isn’t being renewed. I know I am not the only one complaining because on nights when it’s really bad I have been told by the cop answering the phone that they’ve received several calls already and already dispatched a car.
if you don’t live here you just don’t know what you are talking about, but if all this noise is really ok with you, please post your address and let me know which window is yours so I can stand underneath it a few times a month and demonstrate what it’s like for you. I promise you’ll start to mind.
More hilarity from Brooklyn’s community boards. First, the nutjobs in Park Slope that want to shut down Union Hall, now a CB member in Brooklyn Heights making an ass out of himself.
Does it ever occur to these cranks that people move to these neighborhoods because these bars exist. Far from devaluaing property, they help make the neighborhood more attractive.
That being said, of course everyone can be more considerate. But bars really can’t do much about patrons who choose to be loud when leaving late at night/early in the morning.
Sorry, but, if you choose to live above or next to a bar, then you have to put up with the noise. No one is forcing you to live there.
my apt faces onto atlantic (at court) and from the sixth floor the only noise thing that needs to be controlled are the friggin 18 wheelers that roll down atlantic at all hours. THAT is the noise problem, certainly not bar patrons. why don’t they think about limiting the damn trucks rather than places to relax and have a drink. typical wanna-be powerful CB a-holes.
The Atlantic Avenue “over saturation” is ludicrous. This is NOT a residential street (despite a few new developments) and AFAIK these places don’t have outdoor spaces that make noise for State and Pacific Streets. How can a few smokers talking loud outside of a bar compete with the huge numbers of 18 wheelers that come off the BQE on their trek into Inner Brooklyn? This end of Atlantic has always been a home for longshoremen’s bars (e.g. Montero’s). Seriously, there are any number of more important quality of life issues to deal with than appeasing the maybe 1 person who has loudly complained to CB2.
“The general problem is not bars or strollers, it’s the way people behave.”
completely agree. drinkers need to keep it down, and people living on atlantic avenue need to learn to accept some degree/occasion of noise. we’ve got to co-exist in this city.