Where is this lack of manners coming from?

I’ve been in Seattle visiting friends for the past few days. I lived here for close to 10 years, starting in 1995. I came in at a turning point in the city’s history, when things were still quirky and the city still had a ton of character. Gradually, like any city, I watched the culture become less unique and more smoothed out and cleaned up and, by design, less Seattle.

I mention this because Robert was an unique voice, a voice truly Brooklynian, stubborn, opinionated, passionate, committed. Even if I didn’t agree with him often I was glad that he was there. I was glad that he was writing. I was glad, always, that his blog existed. It was a very New York voice in a city that is losing the things that make it great every single minute of every single day.

And now another voice in this wilderness is gone. My heartfelt, deepest condolences to his friends and family and colleagues.

To appease neighbors, the club has installed double doors to prevent noise from reaching the street. They have also tapped employees to sweep the sidewalk in front of the venue and answer the phone during the day to take complaints from neighbors.

…say the new owners of Studio B to the Brooklyn Paper.

I’ll be giving this a try soon.

Why can’t he just say that? Just say that. That isn’t admitting to anything. It’s just saying what needs to be said.

Studio B pulled the same crap on us when we were fighting them. A neighbor came up with a list of demands, all of which were standard items that any club should be doing (double doors, smoking pen, etc.) and they acted like the neighbor had invented these things on the spot and that they would certainly do them and oh thank you for telling us. Why didn’t they just DO THEM, say they were done, and then get on with it?

Now he has assured that he will have no sympathy from the neighborhood, and the goodwill of some Park Slope hipsters who believe everything they read on Gothamist is not going to help him stay open.

And yes, apparently Studio B has been able to rise from the dead. They will be good neighbors, they will follow rules and policies, or we will call 311 and the 94th six times a night with every complaint we see.

I felt sorry for the Detective Inspector, as he patiently attempted to give calm answers to what was, essentially, the same question asked in 60 different ways. I don’t blame anyone - I know what it was like when we were fighting Studio B and no one cared except the handful of us right in the area - but at some point you have to realize that the police are not going to tell you exactly what they are going to do to deal with the bar because then the troublemakers are just going to do the opposite.

I do urge everyone to do the following:

1. If there are problems, call 311 and report them.
2. If there are fights, broken bottles, or other serious disturbances, call 911.
3. Take the complaint number from 311 and email it to CB1. They *DO* keep track of these things.
4. Call the 94th Precinct directly: (718) 383-3879
5. Keep track of everything and come back to the next Community Council meeting, which happens at 7:30 PM on the third Monday of the month, at the Capital One Bank on Manhattan and Calyer. (You have to go down Calyer Street and the entrance is next to the cash machine entrance.)
   

I know. It’s 2 in the morning and you have to get up at 7, or your kid is crying, or you’re exhausted. But you need to write down complaint numbers and names of people that you talked to and you have to be relentless.

This applies to neighbors of Club Exit as well.

My question at the meeting was this: there are 7 bars within spitting distance of what’s becoming the entertainment zone epicenter of Franklin and Greenpoint. There are others allegedly opening up soon. How many more bars does the area actually need? How did the residents of the East Village fight back so that they have veto power and can prevent new bars from getting liquor licenses and opening up? The Inspector said he would look into that and report back at the next meeting.

Miss Heather was there filming and should have a report up soon.

Final word: folks, commenting on blogs is not enough. You have to pick up the phone and file complaints, you have to document things, and you have to let people who can actually do something to ameliorate the problem know about the problem. You have to be a pain in the ass.

Construction companies.

No, Hunter Roberts Construction Group, you don’t get to stop filming in Greenpoint because it gets in the way of whatever crappy building you are working on.

Now, that reminds me, I need to go look up some DOB permits.

Monday-Thursday: 11am-8pm
Friday-Saturday: 11am-9pm
Sunday: 12noon-8pm

I’m going to take the decision to extend hours (and operate 7 days a week) as a sign that the store is doing a healthy business, another great thing.

There’s nothing cooler than emailing the store and having them hold books for you (which they love doing) - support your local bookseller!

They did not start filming in the residential area until 11am, but they were filming down in the building supply place near the MTA mobile wash unit on Calyer & West St. NO ONE LIVES THERE. Why on earth did they not film in the residential area early in the evening, and THEN go film from midnight onward in the location where NO ONE LIVES (Sorry, folks on Oak St., I know you’re there, but you would have been far enough away to not have been impacted).

Calls are being made, letters are being written.

It’s 2am. This is a view out my window.

For the first couple of hours it was kinda neat. Now it’s like going to sleep in the middle of the day.

To their credit, they posted the NO PARKING signs a week in advance. However, they took a tremendous amount of parking for THE ENTIRE DAY but didn’t start filming until well after dark. Ann Kansfield at the Greenpoint Memorial Church had a similar problem on Milton St., where they were yesterday.

I hope someone in the neighborhood profited from this production.

Smiths Speed Dating at our own Black Rabbit Bar. Friends in SEATTLE are enviously emailing me about this.

(That’s Smiths as in Johnny Marr and Morrissey.)