Results tagged “communityboard”

The largely successful campaign to slow the proliferation of bars in downtown Manhattan has spread to gentrifying Williamsburg. Last week a small but insistent group of Brooklyn residents gathered at a Community Board 1 meeting to fight enemy #1: the owner of Custom American Wine Bar, who is seeking liquor license approval to open his establishment at Driggs and Metropolitan. Some locals have actually argued that the presence of a wine bar will increase gang activity. Also, those obstreperous oenophiles will keep them up at night with their cacophonous quaffing.

Just a heads up: Bay Ridge’s community board is now convinced that a 64th Street karaoke bar isn't trying to get you laid in a private booth as you savor the sweet, drunk, cackling crooning of some stranger serenading you with Journey's “Don’t Stop Believin'."

The business group spearheading what they hope to be the next era of the Limelight—retail—presented its plans to a local community board this week and were met with a great deal of skepticism and suspicion. The Limelight Marketplace group is hoping to put a mini-mall into the onetime church whose eye-catching building along Sixth Avenue in the Chelsea is only eclipsed by the stories of the drug-fueled and freak-filled nights that went on inside its walls during its era as one of clubland meccas of the '80s and early '90s. But instead of being eager to welcome in retail stores to replace the bad reputation of Peter Gatien's club, the Flatiron community board instead came off sounding like Reverend Moore in , expressing fears that the new plan was a ruse to return to days past. The Board Landmark Chairman recommended rejecting the proposal because he worried that the retail proposal is "one big dodge to get a club going there." He also pointed to a large empty space in the floor plan that would be "perfect for dancing." The development group denied they had any intention of shaking up their plans, only saying about the new space, "There's going to be nothing else like it."

Angry Tribeca residents gathered at a Community Board 1 meeting Wednesday to confront the owner of Sazon, a newish bi-level Latin Caribbean restaurant and lounge. The basement salsa parties have become quite popular, and that's upsetting some neighbors like Barbara Spitzer, who decried the "party atmosphere... Reade Street feels like I’m living on Seventh Avenue." Another resident complained, "People are coming here to have fun. Fun is good, but it’s not very good on a residential street." Then owner Genero Morales detected a whiff of racism against his largely Puerto Rican clientele, and that insinuation infuriated Spitzer: "You really shouldn’t go there. It’s really inappropriate, and it’s quite offensive." The protests come at a bad time for Sazon, which is still waiting for liquor license approval from the SLA and has been selling booze under temporary licenses. Tribeca Committee chairman Peter Braus agreed with the neighbors, and told Morales, "There’s a discrepancy, clearly, between how you represented yourself [in January] and how the community perceives you." Morales is taking steps to quiet down, but downtown community boards won't really be satisfied until all bars are relocated to a designated "fun barge" somewhere off the southeast tip of Staten Island.

Gang violence is an ongoing problem on the South Side of Williamsburg, so it's understandable that some local residents are up in arms about plans to open a fancy new wine bar in the neighborhood. Wait, what? On Tuesday a Community Board committee voted against approving a liquor license for Custom American Wine Bar at Driggs and Metropolitan Avenue. It seems Tempranillo and Trinitarios don't mix, as one neighbor explained at the meeting: "We are trying to prevent gang activity in the neighborhood. Opening this restaurant with beer and liquor, with teenagers already going crazy here, it’s going to be an even bigger issue." Another beef is that the owners want to serve wine until 2 a.m.! Do people even stay up that late? It looks like Brooklyn's Community Board 1 is now taking a cue from the stridently anti-night life Community Boards in downtown Manhattan. But it was bound to happen eventually, once enough hipsters transformed into yupsters with sleeping babies. As local Dennis Thompkins told the committee, "The neighborhood is nearly saturated with bars. The area is becoming unlivable. What we need are businesses that serve our community." Because there's no reason anyone should have to schlep to Manhattan just to buy a new bugaboo. [Brooklyn Paper via Eater]

Lounge 47, a restaurant and bar with a capacious back yard on Vernon Blvd in Long Island City, has had a tough time making peace with some neighbors who say the noise and smoke from the patio is unbearable. Next door neighbor Beth Garrett and her husband have installed large signs on their property begging Lounge 47 patrons to pipe down, and a growing group of locals want the State Liquor Authority to revoke the liquor license, which was recently renewed. (The Garretts have also been accused of spraying their hose over the fence onto diners.) The current owner is now trying to sell the place, but the potential buyer wants to make sure he'll be able to transfer the liquor license.

Over a dozen local residents who live (if you can call it that!) near the Thompson LES Hotel on Allen Street showed up at a Community Board 3 meeting last night to complain about traffic congestion, rowdy tools crowding their sidewalks, and noise noise NOISE echoing up into their windows from the newly-opened third floor rooftop pool bar. (Which, it should be noted, is open only to hotel guests—or anyone who gets a bite to eat at the hotel restaurant Shang!) How obstreperous are those bastards drinking and swimming and digesting Susur Lee's lamb chops? Well, one neighbor says their opening parties were so loud she couldn't hear her TV. Clearly, this monstrosity must be razed or urinated on at once.

Last week Brooklyn's Community Board 6, which includes Park Slope, voted again to approve a proposed two-way bike lane along Prospect Park West, but they want the project revised to separate the lane from traffic by a raised median. The 16-4 vote decided that the painted buffer zone the DOT would use to separate the bike lane is insufficient; board members think the median is necessary to protect cyclists from cars and to protect children who may dash heedlessly from parked cars into the bike lane. Speaking to the Brooklyn Paper, board member and bike lane opponent James Bernard said, "This is a crazy idea that doesn’t make any sense. People want to do something good for bikes, but you are robbing Peter to pay Paul — and Peter in this case is safety of the children." 58 accidents involving motorists, cyclists and pedestrians were reported between 2005 and 2007 on Prospect Park West, where speeding is a constant problem. A DOT spokesperson promised that the agency would review the board's recommendations, and noted any revisions wouldn't delay the bike lane because the DOT isn't planning to install it until September anyway.

The Community Board that oversees Coney Island voted last week to approve 20 amendments to the city's development plans for the area, and the changes are seen by some as suspiciously friendly to controversial developer Joe Sitt. The recommended changes include allowing big box retailers of up to 10,000 square feet in the amusement zone on Surf Avenue, dropping plans to turn the amusement zone over to the parks department, eliminating the threat of eminent domain against Sitt, and removing from consideration the construction of a "Wonder Wheel Way," a proposed central promenade through the amusement district.

Much chatter followed Two Trees (David and Jed Walentas's) proposal for an 18-story residential building near the Brooklyn Bridge in DUMBO. The building would include a public middle school and "dozens of units of below-market-rate housing," but the Brooklyn Paper reports that neighborhood folk don't want to "block some views of the historic span."

Brooklyn's Community Board 2 unanimously disapproved of the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory's application for a liquor license last week. Located by the pier at Fulton Ferry Landing in Dumbo, the ice cream parlor draws crowds of tourists and local families during the summer months. Mark Thompson, one of the co-owners, tells the Brooklyn Paper he's not looking to open a bar, but "it upsets me because here I have all these people on the pier looking for something to do, and I can’t give them anything else. I just want to make the pier a positive experience instead of standing there and looking at the view." Because views are boring sober! In withholding support for the license application, which could still be approved by the SLA, members of CB2 expressed concern about serving alcohol in a place where “two disparate age groups” gather. Others felt there isn't enough space on the pier to accommodate crowds on a sugar high and booze buzz.

A proposal to increase a Greenpoint waterfront building from 30 stories to 40 stories was approved by Community Board 1 last night. Curbed is a little stunned, noting that "the vote was practically unanimous" and "that no one from the community showed up to object." The developer argued for the extra 10 stories because the lot (which he paid $84 million for) has limitations, due to a sewage line; the city's upzoning law had previously only increased the maximum height to 30 stories. Though there are more approvals needed, Curbed just adds, "the real issue is who is going to finance a 620-unit rental building in this part of Greenpoint right now."

A compromise may be in sight between those who would rid Prospect Park of cars and community groups who say such a change would clog their streets. The Brooklyn Paper reports that at a Community Board 7 meeting in Brooklyn last night, Transportation Alternatives revised its call for an immediate ban, instead proposing narrowing the park to one car lane. About 600 motorists pass through every hour, and the thought of a full ban had board member Cynthia Gonzalez asking, "They want us to redirect 1,200 cars [each morning and evening] onto our streets, for how many bike riders?" Wiley Norvell at Transportation Alternatives tells us, "Our single-biggest issue with cars in Prospect Park is the danger they pose to park users. Speeding and reckless driving are rampant, and a 'road diet' would go a long way to improving the situation, without bumping up against the traffic concerns that have been raised south of the park."

The incident that took place on Bedford Avenue on Election Night (you know...riot gear, arrests, etc) lived on last night at the 94th Precinct Community Meeting. NewYorkShitty has a rundown (with video), reporting back that Captain Fulton was on hand to field questions and concerns, as well as locals (both young and old). "Overall it was a pretty ugly meeting. The reason for this had little to do with Captain Fulton. Rather, it had to do with how the 'old guard' treated the younger people present. For example: When Aaron Short (of the Greenpoint Courier and BushwickBK) asked if this was 'a generational issue'," crowd responses allegedly included: "The issue is order over anarchy!" and "Too lenient!" In the end, a sit-down "with people present on Bedford Avenue that evening who felt the police acted inappropriately" has been promised.

Though most of the neighborhood around the Gowanus Canal has not yet been rezoned for residential construction, one development company has just won approval for a big condo project with buildings up to 12 stories high and a public park along the canal. Blogger Pardon Me For Asking sat through a "long and drawn out" Landmark/Land Use committee meeting last night (so we didn't have to). She calls the near-unanimous vote "a sad outcome for the community":

Let me just say that no amount of testimony from concerned residents at last month's meeting, no concerns about pathogens in the waters of the canal, nor warnings that the land is in a flood zone were able to sway a majority of our board members from voting yes for Toll's spot rezoning.

It was rough sledding last night for restaurant and bar owners seeking liquor license approval from Community Board 3, which covers the Lower East Side and the East Village, among other 'hoods. Perhaps the biggest loser was fastidious cocktail impresario Sasha Petraske (Milk and Honey), whose humble request to serve wine at his would-be wine bar Mercury Dime (pictured) on East 5th Street was mercilessly shot down, despite the fact that he's operated Milk and Honey on Eldridge since 2000 without a single noise complaint.

Ever wonder what happened to Sting and David Bowie's Burlesque club, 40 Deuce? Well, it ain't happenin' friends.

A controversial 7-floor condo going up at 360 Smith Street – which some see as emblematic of Carroll Gardens's "rampant out-of-scale development." The local community board's Public Land Use committee voted to deny developer Billy Stein an extension allowing him to finish the building's foundation. Lost City was at the meeting, which featured an MTA worker's assertion the Carroll Street subway station couldn't support the bulk of 360 as proposed: "Stein, meanwhile, leaned against the lip of the auditorium's stage, a study in negative body language. To my eye, he was a picture of ingrained smugness. If there had been a button in the room that triggered a trap door to make the crowd disappear, he would have hit it, then breathed on his fingernails and polished them against his lapel."

The Brooklyn community board that covers Bay Ridge is fed up with the food vendors who clog 86th Street – all three of them. “The issue is cleanliness,” asserts the board’s District Manager Josephine Beckmann, whose husband is a police lieutenant. “It would be best to have no vending at all. It just causes problems.” So the board has unanimously urged the city’s Department of Small Business Services to banish them from the block.

For quite some time now, a group of East Village residents have been pressuring the local Community Board to snuff out Death & Co., the dark and sophisticated bar on East Sixth street, just down the block from that old timer who sells and repairs bicycles. Like other turbo-gentrifying neighborhoods, the local scolds are fed up with the all the noisy drunkards staggering around their neighborhood at all hours, and they’ve focused their energy on less-established newcomers like Death & Co.

At last night's full Community Board Six Meeting in Borough Hall, passionate outcries were heard once again arguing over the motion to recommend against the renewal of Union Hall's liquor license. However, this time the loud voices were not coming from angry neighbors, but rather Board members themselves, speaking one after the next in favor of the Union Hall's continued presence in Park Slope. The CB6 not only rejected the motion put forth last week by Board member (and Brazen Head bar owner) Lou Sones, but overwhelmingly passed a new motion to take an official stance supporting Union Hall's liquor license renewal when it comes up before the SLA on May 31st.

When Hog Pit co-owner Felisa Dell sent an email to Eater on April 7th confirming the closure of her Meatpacking District BBQ joint, she insinuated that “the mayor and the State Liquor Authority are now only issuing Liquor Licenses until 2 a.m. It's very sneaky, but in 5 years the 4 a.m. liquor license will be a thing of the past, without any community input.” Today the NY Sun backs Dell up, reporting that many Manhattan bar owners are finding it “nearly impossible to open new nightlife establishments that are permitted to serve alcohol until 4 a.m.”

Restaurateur David Bouley has emerged victorious (for now) after what he described as a “witch hunt” by some Tribeca Community Board members trying to stymie his liquor license application for Brush Stroke, a planned three floor Japanese restaurant on West Broadway. The dissenting board members have fiercely opposed what would be the fourth Bouley establishment on their turf because limos double-park out front and sometimes his restaurant waste leaves stains on the sidewalk.

Last night the committee that represents Tribeca for Community Board 1 voted against recommending full board approval for a liquor license for Brushstrokes, David Bouley’s planned Japanese restaurant and cooking school, which would be his fourth eatery in the neighborhood. In withholding approval for the license, the committee cited prior health code violations, a carbon monoxide leak, the glut of limos crowding the street outside his restaurants, and controversy surrounding Bouley’s attempt to claim $2.2 million for lost business income after 9/11 despite winning a $5.8 million contract with the Red Cross to feed Ground Zero recovery workers.

In a few days the city will begin its promised crackdown on the glut of parking placards issued to civil servants. But according to Uncivil Servants, a website that documents illegally parked cars displaying city permits, employees of Park East, an Upper East Side synagogue, have been using bogus DIY parking placards for years. And since they don’t even work for the city, their privileges won’t be affected by the new rules.

Sure, the 2008 election is exciting, but hundreds of candidates are expected to run for city office next year.

A $114 million plan to put a waterfront park on the East River, just south of the United Nations, came into focus yesterday; the four-acre site is where a parking lot for a Con Edison power plant used to reside. City Councilman Daniel Gardonick said, "The opportunity to create this riverfront park is an opportunity we cannot afford to let slip away." The Municipal Arts Society renderings for the park envision a floating pylon in the river, featuring a restaurant, viewing platform, exhibition space and ferry landing.

Today the Times’s Frank Bruni marvels at Manhattan’s new wave of high tone restaurant openings during a recession, and pins the trend not on entrepreneurial bravado but on the fact that it takes years to get a fancy eatery open, and most of these new places were envisioned in flusher economic times. It is true that in 2005, the top fifth of earners in Manhattan made 52 times what the lowest fifth make – $365,826 compared with $7,047 – comparable to the income disparity in Namibia. Yet thanks to tax cuts and stagflation, the income gap has only widened in the past three years. Dinner at Per Se is as unattainable as ever for New York’s lower orders, but even with Wall Street turbulence it’s unlikely the ranks of the well-heeled will thin to the point where a fashionable restaurant can’t manage. Of course, chefs like Ken Friedman (The Spotted Pig) are artists and don’t chain their muse to the vagaries of the economy: “I’m certainly not the kind who would look at the Dow. Does a writer write or not write a book based on the economic climate? Does a songwriter write songs that way?”

The fate of McCarren Park Pool turned around after being landmarked and given a $50 million gift from Bloomberg, yet its future look is still up in the air. Following the February 4th meeting, last night another Community Board meeting was held to discuss The Pool. This time architects Rogers Marvel and The Parks Department were on hand to present conceptual plans. Curbed has the reveal, but they note the renderings are merely "draft images and, of course, the redesign has to be approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission."

There may be satisfaction on the horizon for fans of the southern comfort food dished out at Pies 'n' Thighs, the beloved South Williamsburg hole in the wall that shut down last month. Upon closing, the owners vowed to reopen a “bigger, better, more miraculous hole in the wall!” Eater caught wind of a local Community Board hearing last night, during which the owners' plans to obtain a license for beer and wine was scheduled for review.