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It's been a long time, guys (more than 2 years since we dropped this topic I think), but Bloomie's up to his old Giuliani anti-nightlife tricks. Appears to be all downtown, LES. Daddy, any troubles ever pop up at Crobar?

Party's Over
Bars and clubs get raided by MARCH; fun ends in NYC forever.
by Tricia Romano, Village Voice
November 29th, 2005

Faster than you can say "I'm on the list," the freewheeling fun granted to the city's bars for the past few years seems to be over. On November 12, a combination of police, fire, and health and buildings inspectors (the dreaded MARCH"”Multi-Agency Response to Community Hotspots) raided eight bars around the East Village, issuing 79 violations to six of them: Babel, Horus, Sutra, the Library, Rififi (Cinema Classics), and Rue B; Remote and Bar None escaped unticketed. Ninth Precinct police also visited No. 1 Chinese on Avenue B and Sophie's on East 5th Street on November 12, and Scenic on Avenue B on November 19. And, as predicted here, the dreaded cabaret law is back. Rififi was cited for operating as an unlicensed cabaret.

The MARCH squad arrived at the Library at 2 a.m., peak bar time, and stayed for an hour while turning on the lights, turning down the music, carding all the patrons, and issuing 16 tickets. The task force cited the venue for minor offenses such as lacking soap in the soap dispenser, as well as for a more serious problem"”overcrowding. Nick Bodor, one of the Library's business partners, says the task force was "very disruptive to business. They effectively shut us down at 2 a.m." Because as everyone knows, nothing says "crazy party" like 30 uniformed officers in a bar.

That the low-key Library was raided proves that having an owner ( Dave McWater) who's also president of Community Board 3 doesn't shield a drinking establishment from police scrutiny. Says one bar owner: "It's weird that they were targeted. Maybe they were sending a message to Dave McWater."

Bodor was just as perplexed, though he says he and McWater don't believe it's politically motivated. "We've been open eight years," he says. "We have never had problems with our neighbors. We don't have a lot of community complaints. It's a little alarming. We're not a touristy, noisy bar."

But Ninth Precinct community affairs officer Jaime Hernandez explains that the watering holes were chosen based on neighborhood grievances"”culled from community board meetings, 311 calls, and direct communication with the station. In former city councilwoman Eva Moskowitz's recently released list of the top 10 nightlife noisemakers based on 311 calls, the Library didn't make the cut; one spot visited, Sutra, was ranked first.

Down on Ludlow Street, home to Max Fish and the Dark Room, police cars parked on the corner of Stanton are a common sight. One witness told me that last weekend he saw cops filming the street, stopping bar- goers, and asking them questions.

Word of the police action that Saturday night spread fast among club owners. "Everyone who works in bars knows everyone, everyone was text messaging everyone, word was coming from every corner of the neighborhood," says one of my sources.

But why now? Many of the people I talked with suggested that new Ninth Precinct commanding officer Dennis DeQuatro is instigating the raids. But Hernandez denies this: "Every precinct does it [conducts MARCH raids]. It's not just done because we want to target bars." Because it was Thanksgiving week, Fly Life was not able to reach DeQuatro in time for print.

Still, the police are getting unusually aggressive. One East Village bar owner says, "We've been getting a strange rash of people coming and asking where to get drugs, and pestering the bartenders." I smell a narc. Everyone knows you don't ask the bartender for drugs. You ask the DJ.

Jokes aside, the East Village bar owner made an important point. It's a two-way street: "This knee-jerk reaction destroys nightlife in New York. We aren't police. We can't control people on the street. There needs to be some sort of partnership between police and bar owners."
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1. They're going after the low-end establishments that have less resources to combat raids and that are much more vulnerable to being shut in the face of heavy fines.

2. 40,000 cops in the city + historically low crime rate = a lot of cops with less to do, sooooo, why not start looking for something to do, like harrassing bars.

But I have to say, the EV has become overpopulated with bars/clubs, and the vast majority of 'patrons' are not from the area. If you were looking to start up a club would you think of plopping it down between three other clubs on one short block of Avenue B? Not that smart of a move to begin with, really. I'm not excusing the on again off again now on again crackdown though.
Crobar plays it VERY "by the book".
They work with the cops. It's the only way to stay open.

At 4AM not only do they stop serving but they go around and pick up all the half full glasses and bottles. Even my DJ booth is wiped clean of all traces of booze. My booth is like Pat Robertson's house after 4AM.

New York is a joke in Europe now.

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Europeans have been hungering soooo long to laugh at the US and now the Idiocracy, and its followers, have provided many more reasons than are needed.

I kind of wonder about the bar/club explosion in the EV anyway. It is like half the establishments are sort of like mimicing what NYC nightlife is supposed to be. The EV nightlife scene, I mean just the physical environment with smaller streets, architecture still on a human scale, -is not really meant to be capable of existing as a kind of college and up-scale-comes-slumming it bar mall. And it all feeds into the old thing about gentrification, which is a word that hardly connotes the real violence being done to the community.

Two weeks ago I was walking home down Ave B to 2nd Street chatting with Miguel Algarin, the founder of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. I was making a joke about,"Hey Miguel what public program do you think the city stole money from to put this new tar on the Avenue from Houston to 14?" He just said, "Its only being done because there are so many more white people now."


'Gentrification' is an equivocation used to blandly cover for the outright racist tactic it really is. That racist tactic is to, in effect, dilute the current population of the area, destroy family unity, de-centralize the concentration of non-white residents and therefore impede the efforts by thier own neighborhood groups to practice protection and leadership through the many community cultural centers that used to exist. It is all replaced by a creeping commercialization and replacement of real culture with ersatz culture - it used to be art galleries and now its bars and clubs. In the EV terrain, if you think about it, a gallery or a bar (even more so now with the crackdown) is just a complicated method to hold down a piece of real estate.

So, in a kind of weirdly funny way, the current crackdown on the EV bar scene is actually, and I am completely sure not intentionally, acting to inhibit the cultural violence being done to the original majority group of residents in the area. The crackdown is impedeing the violence done to the culture through 'gentrification' which is the White Order's catchphrase for what is actually ethnic cleansing. To this aspect of the crackdown, I have to paradoxically say, "YAY NYC cops!" Even though it is absolutely not their intention.
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from wnbc.com. Goodbye, Charming Old New York:

NEW YORK -- Shall we dance? In New York it depends on where we hear the music.

A state judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit that sought to force the city to allow private, social dancing in restaurants, clubs and bars.

State Supreme Court Justice Michael Stallman found that the city's license requirements for cabarets -- places that have food and drink and allow personal recreational dancing -- are constitutional.

A group calling itself the Gotham West Coast Swing Club and several people said that because the city's cabaret law barred them from dancing with other people it unconstitutionally infringed on their right of free expression.

The plaintiffs also contended that the city's application of zoning laws was arbitrary and capricious and deprived them of due process. They said they should be allowed to dance in any bar or restaurant they wanted to.

The judge disagreed. He said dancing is not constitutionally protected expression and the city has the right to regulate circumstances under which eating and drinking places can let patrons dance.

But he suggested the city should consider amending the 80-year-old Prohibition-era cabaret law in light of current social norms.

"Surely the Big Apple is big enough to find a way to let people dance," he said.

City law department spokeswoman Kate Ahlers said the judge's ruling was "a confirmation of the city's efforts to protect residential communities from disruptions attributed to some cabarets."

Norman Siegel, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said he was disappointed by the decision and was considering an appeal.

"We continue to believe that social dancing is expressive activity and should have state constitutional protection," he said. "We continue to believe the cabaret law is unconstitutional."

Places that legally allowed couples to dance numbered around 1,000 in the 1960s, but fewer than 300 exist now, the plaintiffs said.
Marti Domination sent me this from the NY Times, illustrating NYC's continuing fascism in re the nightclub life.

I mean even if you have NOTHING to hide, who wants this?



August 14, 2006
Plan for Cameras at New York Clubs Raises Privacy Concerns
By WINNIE HU

City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn has become the city's most visible gay
official, leading the fight for same-sex marriages and even marching as a grand
marshal in the gay pride parade this summer.

Ms. Quinn's political career has thrived on her support of gays and lesbians, but
she surprised and angered some members of that core constituency when she proposed
last week that the city's 250 nightclubs be required to install security cameras at
their entrances and exits.

These critics said the cameras would invade their privacy and pose a particular
threat to those who are not open about their sexual orientation.

"It smacks of Big Brother," said William K. Dobbs, a longtime gay activist, adding
that it would even keep some people away from the clubs. "It will have an impact on
everybody who enjoys New York nightlife."

While the details of the proposal have yet to be worked out, it would apply to
nightclubs that operate with city-issued cabaret licenses that allow dancing. If the
nightclub owners refused to comply, their licenses could be suspended or revoked.


Ms. Quinn contends that the owners should install the security cameras to protect
their patrons and help deter crime in and around the clubs. In recent months, bars
and nightclubs have drawn increased scrutiny because of the separate murders of two
young women after nights of drinking and partying in Manhattan. A club bouncer has
been charged in one of those murders.

Ms. Quinn, who also wants to require nightclubs to install identification-checking
machines to curb under-age drinking, plans to convene a nightlife conference next
month for club owners and city agencies to discuss other ways to improve club
safety.


The backlash over security cameras illustrates the political pitfalls facing Ms.
Quinn, who was elected speaker in January, as she seeks to reshape her public
persona from longtime champion of liberal West Side causes -- her district includes
Greenwich Village, Chelsea and Hell's Kitchen -- to mainstream political leader. ...

Allen Roskoff, president of the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, a citywide
political organization formed by gay activists in 2004, said that Ms. Quinn was now
in the position of "having to please a more diverse constituency than the
progressive constituency that elected her."

Mr. Roskoff said many gays have told him that they are concerned about the proposed
security cameras because they do not want to be filmed whenever they walk into a club.

"When you go out at night, I think you have the right to be anonymous," he said.
"Not everybody's out of the closet, and therefore it's an invasion of privacy."

Many large Manhattan nightclubs already use security cameras, but the technology is
intended for the protection of the club owners, and not their patrons.

Robert S. Bookman, a lawyer for the New York Nightlife Association, said that these clubs, which include popular spots like Lotus, Crobar and Spirit, have found that the security cameras do not prevent crime because there
is no one on the other end monitoring what is going on. "Our experience is they
don't make the clubs safer," Mr. Bookman said.

In smaller nightclubs, some owners and workers have also complained that installing
the cameras would be an unnecessary expense. Council aides have estimated the costs
at $8,000 to $10,000 per establishment. The identification-checking machines, which
are more widely used in about half the nightclubs, cost just a fraction of that,
about $750 apiece.


"People know that when you go to an establishment where liquor is sold, you have to
prove you are of a certain age," Ms. Quinn said. "So I don't believe there is any
expectation of privacy as it relates to going to a club."
In referring specifically to the security cameras, Ms. Quinn added, "And you know,
cameras at places of public assembly are commonplace now, so I don't think there's
any rub there at all."


[wow!]

But several gay rights advocates and civil libertarians said that the consequences
would be much different for someone who was recorded by a security camera entering a
gay club versus someone who was filmed merely walking down a street.

"Many people might reasonably fear retaliation if a picture of them in a gay club
were splashed across the Internet or the pages of their local paper," said
Christopher Dunn, associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
"If the city intends to require videotaping, there must be strict privacy
protections."

.... Fun City, I'm sorry.
Last edited by S'tan
If being gay is to be accepted as a normal part of our current social culture and trully intergrated into society, with equal rights and liberties as all other people, then we must not allow "outting" to have any further power over us. Cameras in or outside of a gay club were never allowed in earlier gay history because being outted could cause serious consequences to one's life and livelihood. Today and in the future we should not allow the truth to shame us
because of who we are. We need to live free to be free. And no one and no thing ( a camera at the entrance to a gay club) should be used to force us to reveal the truth of who we are until we ourselves make that decision.

And Christine Quinn does not speak for me or any of my gay family. She is a politician who has her own agenda and I doubt seriously if it represents me or my community accept in the most minute way.
When politicians just look at a certain cultural sector as just another part of their military/administrative/supervisory functions then the American Government's war against its own citizens is thrown in to high relief. It is a ripoff against this politician's own constituency, a kind of bureaucratic drunkenness and lack of foresight. It has long since been proven that surveillance cameras are an after-the-fact aid to combatting crime -they do nothing to deter crime just make it a little easier to track what happened. It really is an attack on every plain citizen and turns us all in to pawns and policy targets for the sake of nothing but the publicity profile of someone who has forgotten who backed her to get where she is. Dehumanizing citizens by turning them in to cine-graphically re-located pieces of information and reducing each individual to a bit of in-formation highlights how radically trivialized and inhumane an urban environment converted to a suburban antiseptic surface erases any notion or intention of creating pleasure and how liberty has been demolished. This is simply another sick technique for coping with the world built on fear-based thoughts, ideas and proceedures, a progressively death-oriented outlook that shows out how current politics is the sadistic forefront of eradicating any attempt at joy. Let's just stick a camera up this politician's anal orafice and claim it will protect us from the usual shit.
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Anal probe cameras, how apt! You get the job seven of viewing the hours and hours of tape/ heh!

Bobby the fact remains that much of nightlife and bars are populated by people who are not coming out. Or who aren't even supposed to be drinking, gay or straight, for that matter!!
You can't put these people down.

Consider e.g. the S&M scene. Probably about 5% of people going to those clubs or parties could deal with being outed.

The nightclub world is a twilight zone where we are supposed to be able to get loose and free from the 9-to-5 restrictions. It's not a place where the politcally correct sit around nodding at one another in approbation.

But the assumption being made is that anyone (or everyone) going to nightclubs is a potential criminal.
The last time I went to Crobar the female security guard at the door WIPED HER FINGER ACROSS the surface of my new Lancome compact... to see if there was anything non-cosmetic on its surface! That was totally disgusting. I felt raped.

The real point is not whether you would be outed, or not... but whether the cameras "prevent" crime. That bouncer who killed the girl was never caught on camera. Anyone can figure out how to avoid a security camera.
(otherwise, what are they going to do, post people by the cameras, yelling at folks to "SMILE" as they come in or out?)

If predatory criminals lurk around for drunken victims, what is to blame for that? If cocaine dealers are HIRED by nightclubs to provide safe sales to its customers... what is going to stop that?

Just be thankful nightclubs aren't being eradicated completely as dens of iniquity. That will happen when the next group of terrorists are discovered on video, partying in Chelsea (London, or New York) ... just before "the next attack."
Last edited by S'tan
Queen Josh, you will need a city Happyness License then. You will be able to get one at any MTA metrocard machine. After your blood test. Oh, and after proof that your annual income is over $250,000 or under $18,000. Of course I have a close friend at the City Bureau for Happyness so for a little gratuity I can have some corners cut for you. My friend's name is Bobby. You might want to e-stroke him a little here on the boards.
Okay, just read this in this week's VOICE -

Roxy is indeed closed for non-payment of taxes(!)

Avalon was shut down on Halloween at 1 AM due to expired cabaret license.

Plus Happy Valley, really not great news, three in one week, though Avalon has been sputtering ever since its opening and re-opening...

quote:
The next day, celebrated nightspot the Roxy was seized by the state due to nonpayment of taxes. And just when you thought it was over, Happy Valley's smile turned upside down when the East 27th Street spot was shuttered as part of a court battle with its landlord.



Tricia Romano column here
Avalon shut down last night ... again. And has anyone heard any news on Roxy?

quote:
November 23, 2006
Patrons Testy As NYC Nightclub Shut Down
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 7:46 a.m. ET

NEW YORK (AP) -- Authorities closed a big Manhattan nightclub a half-hour before it was to host a party with hundreds of people celebrating hip hop titan Jay-Z's new album Wednesday night, a club manager and a witness said.

Police and fire department spokespeople had no immediate comment on the shutdown of Avalon in the city's Chelsea neighborhood, which prompted testy exchanges as angry patrons were told to leave.

The club, a converted church, hosts a variety of parties, concerts and other events. It has a dance floor that holds about 700 people and other spaces that hold several hundred more, according to a director, Carmelo Citron.

Wednesday's shutdown came as patrons were lined up outside, waiting for the 10 p.m. start of a party to celebrate the recent release of the new album, ''Kingdom Come,'' Citron said. He said the artist was not expected at the event.

Citron said the club was ordered to close because of ongoing problems with its certificate of occupancy. He said the trouble centered on a ''clerical issue,'' and managers had tried to resolve it for the past several weeks.

The scene became heated as police dispersed the patrons, many of whom had prepaid for admission, Citron said.

Bystander Carmen Lopez of New Jersey was watching from a nearby store. She said a large number of people were outside the club around 10:15 p.m., cursing and exchanging words with police. ''It's kind of crazy out there,'' she said.

Managers expected Avalon to be closed throughout the holiday weekend, costing the club an estimated $500,000, Citron said.
things like this seem to fluctuate every now and then, im sure that in a few decades things will gradually have gone back to the way you are used to them--does every one know what i am trying to say? there are periods when the higher ups have nothing better to do so they harass the night club crowd, perhaps other issues will gradually hold there attention and they will forget to circle over you like excessively moral hawks
Interesting article about Heathers, a bar on 13th Street, and the residents living above it battling noise. This piece spells out both sides pretty well. Funny enough I used to go to the space in question when it was still Brownies, the after-hours bar. You had to know the password to be admitted and once inside you found laid-back patrons smoking blunts, snorting lines and playing pool. Perhaps the illegality of it made the place quieter.

quote:
Night life and noise are always a fraught topic in the city, but they are particularly so now. An overhaul of the city's noise code, the first in more than 30 years, will take effect on July 1. Moreover, in light of the growth of bars in gentrifying areas and the spillover of smoking patrons onto sidewalks because of the no-smoking laws, officials are taking a close look at night-life regulation.


The Sound and the Fury
Read that whole article, Lexxy ... such a sad reflection not only on NY and the club scene, but the inability of the little guy to prosper, without being buried in paperwork and bullshit. The lawyers rule the world.

Ms. Falon used to live over COYOTE UGLY and 1,001 complaints never did jack shit for her... Heathers is probably not greasing enough palms.

Once the non-smoking thing went through the mayhem was ten times worse, those people all over the sidewalk. Bloomberg created this monster.

Especially touching was Ms. Heather's desire to bring back the 80s and do something for artists. What artists? Rots of ruck in 2007 NYC Amerika.
The article is full of confusion caused by the fact that individual tennants and small capitalists are pitted against eachother. The rich tennants and big capitalists aren't forced in to these problems. The city authoritarians want to regulate the messy little people. How else could a whole gang of enforcement goons decend on a small bar and walk out having issued a summons for gnats LOL ! And of course in the end all the statutes favor the business owner over the apartment tennant because the tennant's protections have no teeth, and then the city authoritarians get to milk the business owner out of her life savings too! In the end the lesson is the business owner can do whatever they please as long as they pay over the counter or under the table. The tennant has the right to complain, and that is about it.

I want nightlife, and I want my peace and quiet in my hovel too. The city wants to make everyone pay while it pretends to be judicious in treating each side with a dollop of attention and a load of regulations and fees. So the city is in the profitable conflict racket, and that is why nothing is going to change real soon.

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