Ryan Davis and I threw this together the other night
Please come and show your support!
Meeting Info: Community Board 4's Business Licenses & Permits Committee, 6:30 PM, Tuesday, Aug. 12th, in The Minetta Room of The Westin Hotel, at 270 W. 43rd St between 7th and 8th Avenue.
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Friday, August 8, 2008
Save The Roxy
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5 comments:
2 a.m. closing. IN NYC! Please don't let it happen. That would make NY as lame as Boston.
Can't these people just move back to their crappy suburbs?
Hi Ryan -
I always enjoy following what you're up to and have always supported the same causes, but I urge you to draw a distinction between saving the Roxy and supporting the widespread issuance of liquor licenses. There are many reasons to support the Roxy, with its long history in the neighborhood and the fact that they previously had a liquor license for decades. But when you align yourself with a broader effort to give away liquor licenses, you reveal your ignorance of the political history and undermine your own cause.
Given it's long history of bad judgement, the SLA has been widely accused of corruption and favoritism, so I would tread lightly in that department. But more importantly, aligning yourself with all the nouveau riche bar owners and developers will undermine your cause to save the Roxy because many who would support you loathe the majority of liquor license applicants. Public opinion will not be on your side when you align yourself with people like the widely despised owners of Cipriani's (large scale tax evaders and con artists who have lied on their license applications to keep known felons on staff).
I like the video you shot in which you focus on the 2am closing time for a block which is clearly not residential, and a neighborhood which has not been a stranger to the club scene. The more you focus on the particulars of the Roxy, the better your argument will be. But when you and Allen Roskoff call local residents "wanna-be suburbanites" and suggest that the SLA should generally be more lenient with liquor licenses, then you undermine your cause by attaching the Roxy brand to wider issues and insulting the residents you need to persuade.
The backlash in Chelsea, Soho and elsewhere comes not from "wanna-be suburbanites" but from the people who built the neighborhoods to begin with. The people most likely to oppose new liquor licenses for irresponsible owners are the people who originally made clubs like Roxy and bars like Lucky Strike famous in the first place. This is not about a bunch of stuffy elders who don't like loud music. This is about transient 20-somethings and European tourists vomiting on stoops and pissing in doorways at 3am. This is about bouncers beating the crap out of people with no repercussion. This is about rape and murder that bar owners have tried to cover up. This is even about the overflowing sewer drains where the SLA gave out too many liquor licenses in one area — after the bridge and tunnel crowd has gone home, residents wake up to sewage.
I've partied in every corner of Manhattan and I love that drinks are poured until 4am, but I also know the difference between good locations and bad, a well-run club and a nightmare waiting to happen. Rally for your cause, but give the Community Boards a little credit for keeping this island livable.
Best,
Rob
The so called "backlash" is the small usual group of residents that don't know the real issues. Most of us in Chelsea know that we live in a great city, the nightclub capital of the world. The ROXY has been a classic NYC nightclub, well run most of the time. The skating nights and "gay" Saturday nights were the best! The problems that did arise came from events that focused on YOUNG, straight events. I have seen youths FROM THE NEIGHBORHOOD prey on the "bridge & tunnel crowd who attended events - breaking into cars, etc. The ROXY is easily controlled - outside patrols to see that patrons do not hang around, and and ordinence to STOP OUTSIDE PROMOTORS FROM HANDING OUT HANDBILLS AND INVITES to patrons leaving the Roxy (these usually litter the enite area) And lastly - a 2AM closing is ridiculous - this IS NEW YORK CITY!
do not issue a law that will produce a bar, or club to fail!
CHELSEA SUPPORTS THE RE-OPENING OF THE ROXY - OUR LAW MAKERS (OUR VOICE IN GOVERNMENT) MUST CARRY OUR OUR WISHES!
Beside the point, but...Actually, the suburbs seem to be much more interesting than Manhattan these days (and the guys are way hotter). Things change.
i think 2am is plenty enough time to do ones thing and then take it home. Grip reality twenty somethings. Not all of us give a shit about your pathetic party life. Things change and you people missed the boat. Would you please make your own reality elsewhere and stop trying 2 revive the 80s. Its annoying as hell. It's over guys. Hang in a cafe. Go to the Glounge. Better yet, go to bed and get up early. Buy a coop and stop renting.
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