Union Hall Meeting: The Video
Here’s a video we shot after CB6’s land-use/landmarks committee made a motion to recommend that the State Liquor Authority deny Union Hall’s liquor license renewal. The first speaker is Lou Sones, who introduced the motion. The second speaker, another committee member, talks about his misgivings over the motion. Community Board Moving to Nuke Union Hall…
Here’s a video we shot after CB6’s land-use/landmarks committee made a motion to recommend that the State Liquor Authority deny Union Hall’s liquor license renewal. The first speaker is Lou Sones, who introduced the motion. The second speaker, another committee member, talks about his misgivings over the motion.
Community Board Moving to Nuke Union Hall [Brownstoner]
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.
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!!!!
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.
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.
Sones is going to go down if he thinks he can pull BS like this
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?
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.
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.”
Can anyone take this Sones guy seriously? He should have recused himself given his whopping conflict on interest. What a joke.