When a Candy Store Isn't a Candy Store
The Times’ new blog The Local tries to go where few, if any, bloggers have gone before—inside the Putnam Candy Store. Contrary to what the store’s web site says, there is no candy to be found. Here’s the play-by-play: So the other day, at 12:30 on a brilliant afternoon, I tried the doorknob. Notwithstanding the…
The Times’ new blog The Local tries to go where few, if any, bloggers have gone before—inside the Putnam Candy Store. Contrary to what the store’s web site says, there is no candy to be found. Here’s the play-by-play:
So the other day, at 12:30 on a brilliant afternoon, I tried the doorknob. Notwithstanding the 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. hours listed on the Web site, the door was locked. After a bit, though, it opened slowly from the inside. A 50ish man in a work uniform of some sort, holding an open tallboy of Bud, peered quizzically out from behind the door.
Um, is this the store? I asked, trying to peer past him. In the shadows I could make out the figures of two or three other men sitting and talking. The beer in the greeter’s hand was the only visible merchandise.
No, he said. Across the street. He lifted his chin in the direction of an open bodega cater-corner across Putnam and Grand and gently closed the door in my face.
The blog also gets City Councilwoman Letitia James to go on record about the store. There’s a lot of traffic, people going in and out, she told The Local. I don’t know what you’d attribute that to — a lot of people buying milk, or people buying something stronger. Grand and Putnam has been a challenge since I first got elected. It’s improved greatly but we still have our challenges, and the candy store may be one of them.
Have any readers ever been inside?
At a Local Candy Store, But Where Are the Mars Bars? [NYT/The Local] GMAP
A group of exhausted neighbors living on Grand Avenue and Cambridge Place near Putnam Avenue in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, are fighting to control noise coming from Lox Lounge at 15 Putnam Avenue between Grand Avenue and Cambridge Place, a property zoned as a C2-4.
Over the last 12 months, many neighbors have tried individually to solve the problem by calling 311 and the 88th precinct, and by meeting with the club’s owner, Roy. Additionally, some of the frustrated residents (a combination of home owners, landlords and tenants), have met with Lox’s landlord, Waquim Waddi, owner of the entire block of buildings between Grand Avenue and Cambridge Place, as well as owner of Met Grocer on Fulton, nearby.
The neighbors have experienced very loud music, voices and vibrations coming from Lox, weeknights and weekends, especially from 11:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. The Lox owner claims to have little control over the people he rents out the space to, primarily party promoters.
Additionally, Lox appears to be operating illegally as a nightclub and creating a fire hazard by using the basement as a party space without proper means of egress required by the Fire Department. There have been further records of violations of plumbing and electrical codes.
A group of concerned residents is circulating a petition to be sent to Letitia James (NYC Council Member), John Dew (Chairman, Community Board 2), Daniel Boyle (Chairman, NYS Liquor Authority), Captain Anthony Taso (88th precinct), and Delia Hunley-Adossa (President, Community Council, 88th precinct).
The group is also asking neighbors to take immediate action if they hear unreasonable noise. Important steps are:
* To get immediate action, call:
Community Affairs Officer Braithwaite.
88th Precinct
298 Classon Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11205
Direct PHONE: (718) 636-6526
* Call “311â€, the City’s help line for non-emergencies. This is important because the City tracks complaints for specific businesses. Having these calls on record is vital for any future actions. You can make an anonymous call and also receive a complaint # for your records. Please keep a record of your calls; the City will even email it to you.
* Register a complaint at the NYS Liquor Authority website: http://www.abc.state.ny.us/ or call them: 212/961-8378
Click on “Register a Complaint†on the left side.
The liquor license # for LOX Lounge is 1198812.
Their address is 15 Putnam Ave.
Or call them: 212/961-8378
At least the “club” next door was closed when a new owner purchased 14 Putnam, the newly installed store-front is one step forward in changing this corner. let’s hope the down economy won’t stop progress
Unfortunately the real story is across the street in the T-shirt shops.
And yes, there was a shooting in front of the Candy Store a few months back.
Coincidence or not, that corner has long been a drug dealing corner. And too many people have been complacent for too long. It may be a few people just trying “to make a buck”, or the way “its always been” but it has generated a number of shootings in the last few years, and ultimately the neighborhood is changing to people who won’t let a small group of people control the neighborhood for their petty gain. I don’t want drug dealers and I don’t want Starbucks either.
Also remember, this neighborhood wasn’t always black, or a drug dealers haven. So people should let their history extend further back then the mid 80’s.
And like all things, change happens…deal with it.
outsiders are always moving into neighborhoods.
west side story was already made into a movie 50 years ago.
This is the problem when “outsiders” move into another neighborhood. How about the Times, L. James, and everyone else MYOFB. Sound like a plan? If the OP wanted candy then go to the new duane reade on nostrand and myrtel or the corner bodega. Just sounds like some nosey MF minding someone else’s business.
If they actually sold drugs, they’d also have more candy. I would think.
Hey kids Andy from The Local here. At least one piece of the Candy Store puzzle is now solved. See: http://fort-greene.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/13/two-small-mysteries-solved-two-zillion-to-go/
Also, @ the commenters on Tish James’s speculation about the store, I should mention in fairness that she did say to me that it might be merely a social club, too, and that I inadvisedly left that quote out of the piece. In fact, the social-club explanation now seems like the most plausible one to me.
there’s a pigeon coop supply store near me, the first time i walked into to find a circle of old italian guys hanging out. one saw me and started saying (facetiously i assume), “hey, hey check it out, FBI guy. FBI!” chuckles all around. no one is trying to shut them down (though maybe they should, I think they’ve been trapping pigeons and selling them to fancy restaurants!)
That rates up there with the “high technology news stand” on Classon and Greene. Now closed, it was open for years and seemed to have a few men sitting around but nothing in the way of technology or news.
It is equally plausible that they’re doing a brisk business in “candy” or that they partner with the business chops moved to an assisted living facility ten years ago and now dude hangs out there with his old buddies from the neighborhood. Someone’s goddaughter set up the http://putnamcandystore.lbu.com/ site back when the shop was still in business, and since it is free, no one has had to decide whether to take it down or keep paying.