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- SERVING CHINATOWN, LITTLE ITALY, LOWER MANHATTAN AND TRIBECA -

Community Views
Your Forum for Ideas, Comments, Information, and General Gripes.

Wyndmoor
I was a visitor to Ground Zero and cried, not only for the tragedy, but just as much for the fact that there are so many, many vendors there,which I believe is a desacration. If there is a state law restricting vendor activities, why isn't it enforced? I will try to rally everyone I know to get rid of these people. It's not their "right" to be there. Vendors are banned from many locations all over the US. I am from the Philadelphia area and vendors are very restricted in certain areas of Center City. And this is enforced!
Posted by:
jean kirshenbaum
Vilification proved yet again.
Yes, Mr. Sweeney. You listed all the facts, particularly the ones that affect you. I had no idea that 290 Hudson Street with three surrounding parking lots, a Manhattan storage facility, and the entrance to the Holland tunnel, was overly saturated with restaurants, bars and nightclubs. Not to mention all the residents in the neighborhood...it's funny how Hudson Square was recently rezoned to accommodate residential living, so it is not a neighborhood with generations of families and tree lined streets.
Perhaps you should walk the neighborhood one of these days. I could have sworn that Hudson, Renwick, and Greenwich between Spring and Canal are under construction with aspirations of gentrification galore. I'm sure everyone is looking forward to that.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that when I was training for the Greek Olympic Soccer Team from 2002 to 2004, that I used the Pier 40 soccer fields in the evening (yes, I was avid competitive athlete who spent the last 5 years using most of lower Manhattan’s turf fields). It was typically pretty scary to walk around Hudson Square at night because of all the commercial buildings/establishments were closed. Lots of shady characters walking around. I didn't know families lived near the UPS building center.
I really enjoyed that when a late practice was over that my teammates and I had nowhere to go that was safe and open a little later.
You see, we specifically chose Hudson Square for a variety of reasons...knowing very well that it was not a tree-lined neighborhood with generations of families but a burgeoning one. It's NOT the lower eastside, soho, or tribeca. In fact, we only agreed to sign the lease when/if NV (the night club) was officially ousted, knowing very well what it had done to the neighborhood.
And perhaps Mr. Sweeney and all of those who have knee jerk reactions to every time they hear the word "DJ" learn that there are shades of gray. I guess if you had a DJ playing favorite jazz mixes while a saxophonist played along, then you are just like those thumping nightclubs that play loud music. The point I was trying to make, which you so aptly proved, is that no one can be truthful anymore without being vilified. You won't allow shades of gray.
(Big Sigh Here)You just don't get it. If the soho alliance and all the other community groups actually took the time to get to know the individuals/families opening up businesses instead of making hostile judgments towards anyone who wants a liquor license, they'd realize that there are some good people still around.
Maybe our tastes and lives are different. In the Greek culture, (at least my family) people eat fairly late. A typically dinner starts between 10pm to 11pm and we sit around and chat until 2am--kids included here.
All I'm saying, is that good people, who care about their communities and who want to work together as well as be welcomed, are still around and not trying to overtake the neighborhood.
Posted by:
Vivian Mougios
The facts, M'am, just the facts
Vivian Mougios writes of her failure to obtain a liquor license for a 'family' restaurant, in west SoHo, a 'family' restaurant opened past midnight, with a DJ and live jazz. Hmm, whose family?
However, Ms Mougios, fails to mention one important fact: the law.
The NYS Alcohol Beverage Control law has a 13-year old rule, the 500-Foot Law, which prohibits the issuance of a liquor license if three or more licensed premises already exist within 500 feet of the proposed location, unless the public interest is served. This is to prevent oversaturating a block or community with licensed premises, to preserve a balance between the needs of residents and businesses.
This is just as valid as the restriciton of liquor licenses near churches, synagogues, mosques or schools, or the 4 a.m. closing, or the prohibition of sales before noon on Sunday, or no take-outs from bars, or no public drinking. Like these restrictions or not, they are the law. Ms. Mougios can always try to change the law.
In fact, the law was upheld by the State Liquor Authority of Mario Cuomo. However, under Pataki's SLA, the law was ignored by the Authority. Needless to say, Attorney-General Eliot Spitzer is investigating the SLA for corruption and cronyism. As soon as the investigation began, two of the three longtime commissioners resigned. They have failed to enforce the 500-Foot Law for years. It is time that they were investigated.
As a neurophysiologist, she should know the tendency of humans to flock where other humans of like mind flock. That is why Diamond Districts, Printing Districts, Financial Districts, Fur Districts, and Restaurant Rows spontaneusly form.
Instead of blaming the community board for upholding the law, she should blame herself for making a bad business decision, namely, moving into an area already oversaturated with licensed premises. Fifteen years ago, there were about a dozen licensed premises in SoHo. Today there are close to a hundred. The neighborhood has become a mecca for late-night trolling.
The fact is that people cannot sleep in this community at night from the noise of people traipsing the community into the wee hours. Residents moved their because it was a quiet backwater. Now it is party central. They are moving out. Families' lives are disrupted, property values are impacted, and the tax base is lowered. The people who pioneered this neighborhood cannot live there any longer.
A restaurant does not need to sell liquor to survive. Witness the success of thousands of Chinese and other ethnic regional cusines that do not sell booze.
Perhaps Ms. Mougios and her husband should open up their late-night business on the block on which they live, not in some other person's neighborhood, and see what success they have with their neighbors.
It is called the Golden Rule.
Posted by:
Sean Sweeney
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Wyndmoor
(Sep 18, 2006)
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