Union Hall Yays Have It; Nays Speak Out

Bumpershine reports that last night Community Board 6 dismissed the motion brought forward last week by its landmarks/land-use committee saying Union Hall shouldn’t receive a liquor license renewal. Instead, the board introduced a new motion in favor of the bar/venue’s license renewal that was overwhelmingly approved. Nearby residents charged that noise from Union Hall was destroying their quality of life, while Union Hall supporters argued that the business was a boon to Park Slope. “CB6 has dealt a blow against the residents they’re meant to protect,” says Jon Crow, one of the organizers of the anti-Union Hall faction, in an email statement. “Just last week, after hearing from both sides, the CB6 Land Use Committee voted in FAVOR of residents, recommending the full Board send a strong message to State Liquor Authorities that Union Hall NOT be rewarded with a renewal until resident complaints are fully addressed.” Crow goes on to say that his group is “confident that CB6 is an educable Board, that admittedly is facing this issue armed with little of no information on how to base their decisions.” One of the most controversial aspects of last week’s motion was the allegation that the board member who introduced it, Lou Sones, had a conflict of interest in the matter. Sones owns the Atlantic Avenue bar The Brazen Head, which is a few blocks away from Floyd, a bar that’s owned by some of the same people who own Union Hall. What follows is a rundown of the tempest over Sones’ motion, which may have ultimately hurt those protesting Union Hall more than it helped them….

In an e-mail sent out by Sones’ fellow CB6 member James Bernard to everyone on the community board, Bernard charges, “There is a strong appearance of impropriety here if not an actual conflict of interest according to the law. It cannot be undone. The committee member who made the motion and spoke most aggressively in favor of it is a direct competitor to Union Hall’s sister bar. It looks like the Community Board is being used to further the narrow business interests of one of its members. We need to remedy this immediately, starting with a resounding rejection of the committee’s resolution. The integrity of the Community Board is at stake.” In a reply email to all of CB6, Sones, pictured right, wrote, “I take being on Community Board 6 very seriously and have only voted on every issue out of principle. As a board member my job is to hear the community and in this case the outcries of many who’s lives and quality of life have been very negatively altered.” In fact, Sones claims he decided to introduce the motion about Union Hall even though he knew it would probably hurt his business.

“It was a difficult decision to make, but we all have to live with our neighbors,” says Sones. “It’s a slippery slope not to speak out against the practice of putting bars on residential streets. It’s not appropriate” Sones notes that the Brazen Head and Floyd are both on Atlantic, a commercial strip. “I think we need to send a strong message to the State Liquor Authority,” he says. “Unless strong measures are taken, this is going to become the norm.” Sones says he’s already noticed a decline in business since he put the motion forward, and that people have called his bartenders and told them that they’d be patronizing Floyd rather than the Brazen Head. The bar owner says he also based his decision to make the motion because Union Hall never came before Community Board 6 before it opened, as is the norm for new bars. The bar’s opening was erroneously brought before Community Board 7 two years ago, which Union Hall’s owners say happened because they accidentally filed their papers to the wrong board based on a zip code mix-up. “I find it very troubling that they went before Community Board 7 because of the zip code,” he says. “I’m not calling them liars, but these are professional bar owners, and they had a lawyer who specializes in liquor licenses. The reason that people on Union Street could not speak up is because it never came before them.”
Union Hall Wins! [Bumpershine]
Community Board Moving to Nuke Union Hall [Brownstoner]
Photo by Bryan Bruchman.