CG'ers Don't Want No Stinkin' Bars
Rumors are swirling that Al’s Grocery, a longtime fixture a the corner of 3rd Street and Hoyt, is about to be replaced by a jazz bar. “Ours is a quiet residential block with a lot of young families recently moved in and far removed from the commercial bustle of Smith Street,” writes one concerned neighbor….
Rumors are swirling that Al’s Grocery, a longtime fixture a the corner of 3rd Street and Hoyt, is about to be replaced by a jazz bar. “Ours is a quiet residential block with a lot of young families recently moved in and far removed from the commercial bustle of Smith Street,” writes one concerned neighbor. “We’re not looking forward drunks sitting on our stoops or pissing in our already-truncated front yards.” Word is that the beer and wine license is a non-issue because it transfers with the lease. Anyone have more deets? GMAP
I live near the Brooklyn Inn. For the most part it is fine. Occasionally some noisy jerks stumble in the street but they are usually leaving and aren’t noisy for long. The smokers tend to talk quietly.
Bars have become a nuisance to many more peopel these days because
1) smoking banned from indoors so now customers are outdoors at 3am yakking, etc
2) opened backyards/gardens ,(which abut homes on purely residential sidestreets), to their customers and the noise is very intrusive – echoes more than on street side ,etc. (if someone were outside under your front window making that kinda noise you’d be unhappy)
3) more amplified music (sound systems) from the establishments these days (with bass on stereos that can be felt pretty far away).
3:41 is a good example of what someone said a few entries back about that first wave of home buyers–I’m curious though 3:41–why do you assume that all of us are complaining in the first place? And protect our investments from what? If it’s a really nice place (like most others–it will only increase the value of our investment–many people still perceive that stretch as dangerous & the fringe of CG–I mean if it was a sleazy strip club or something sure but why get so hysterical before you even know??
jeez, what I meant about the wigs,nail, etc was that IF they were moving in – the folks that tell others not to complain about bars and should move away would be kvetching loudly about it.
And also they feel its okay to protest about new buildings you don’t like (too tall, too ugly , whatever)
but if someone complains about bars they are intolerant, etc, etc,etc.
the “go live in vermont” tip is great advice! It’s beautiful there. But a lot of people in New York move to neighborhoods like, say, Carroll Gardens — for 125 years a stable residential neighborhood — instead of Vermont to live in relative peace. They were wrong. Vermont it is!
Which is to say, wanting to preserve a block or neighborhood where you can go to sleep at 11 pm is not reactionary, it’s just a belief in good urban manners.
That’s where you are wrong, 03:32- a bar hasn’t been on that corner in 40 years, a freaking eternity by NYC standards. The surrounding area has changed a ton in those forty years, most of it happening in the last ten. You knock those people who paid a million bucks for houses nearby as complainers, but in this case they were there first. Shouldn’t they have a right to protect their investments, or at least have a say in how their block gets commercialized, especially when it wasn’t really commercialized in the first place? I can understand questioning the complaints of people who choose to buy on a commercial strip, say Smith Street or Court Street but this is a different case altogether.
I’m curious what the original “concerned neighbor” meant by “already-truncated front-yards”??? If you’re looking for a huge front lawn that seems like another reason to move to the suburbs…
And since when is Hoyt “far removed from the commercial bustle of Smith Street”? It’s one block away!
Actually, the nabe could use a good wig shop.
Anonymous 2:53–the fact that the Magic Touch was there in the 50s & 60s is my point exactly…that corner has a history of on-premises liquor sales (bar or restaurant or restaurant with a bar or WHATEVER) that stretches back farther than the residency of most of these complainers, I’d bet. All I’m saying is a bar is nothing new on 3rd and Hoyt.