Noise in the East Village: The Neighborhood that Never Sleeps
Sunday, October 10th, 2010
A new law signed by Governor Paterson, enacted this summer, enables the State Liquor Authority to revoke a bar’s liquor license if the police receive at least six complaints within 60 days about excessive noise or disorderly conduct.
Senator Squadron’s statement speaks strictly on behalf of the people bothered by the noise while failing to represent the neighborhood bars, restaurants and rowdy drunkards that the bill is attacking. A regional survey conducted by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene found that 28 percent of residents in the East Village admitted to binge drinking, the highest percentage in all of New York. Forty percent of all the residents in the neighborhood are under the age of 30. Most of those who pay rent in the East Village are the ones adding to the immense amount of noise or disorderly conduct. We are left with a polar debate, between those who live in the neighborhood adding to the noise and those who live in the neighborhood complaining about it.
Josef, an East Village local, argues in *The Villager*, “There are thousands and thousands of people who would love to move to the East Village and revel in its bars, restaurants, noise, traffic and graffiti. Instead, the best hood for partying in the city winds up populated by shrinking violets with sensitive eardrums and early bedtimes.” Having lived on Second Avenue above Lit Lounge, I have endured many noisy nights, and I can say it is nothing more than I would expect living downtown. I would never blame it solely on the bars. Homeless people have kept me up later than Lit Lounge, and garbage trucks at 5 a.m. have woken me up many times. Because there has been such a large influx of young professionals and students in the East Village, I believe we need to be represented and to take the initiative ourselves, by attending the Community Board No. 3 meetings and voicing our opinion.
For years, the residents have been willing to put up with the noise, because they live in one of the most culturally stimulating neighborhoods in the country. Advocates of the bill claim that the East Village has gotten noisier. This might be true, but we shouldn’t sit back and allow the senate to use bar and restaurant owners as their scapegoat.
As for those who blame the disruption of peace on the characters who frequent the bars (frat boys, social miscreants, bridge and tunnel crowds), closing down the bars will not remedy the noise problem. It will not stop the flow of people that migrate to the East Village on a weekend night. It will push them into other bars, or even on the street but it will not push them out.
What the bill would do is allow irritable neighbors to complain while forcing staples of the neighborhood to close down. Less noise might seem promising until we see the neighborhood change completely. What do they think will open up instead? Isn’t it likely that the East Village will be bombarded by the Gap, Wendy’s or yet another Starbucks? I would prefer enduring said noisy nights rather than facing one more corporate chain establishment.
These people need to realize this could potentially ruin a great neighborhood, not save the neighborhood from gentrification or make it quieter on a Saturday night.
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