Greenpoint
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Notes From The Community Council Meeting
Although not as well attended as February’s meeting last night’s 94th Precinct Community Council Q & A session once again proved to be full house. As was the case last month the Production Lounge (and the numerous quality of life issues it has posed for its neighbors) was the primary— but not necessarily exclusive— topic of the evening. Follows are a few other points/factoids I found of interest:
- Burglaries and grand larceny are up from last year.
- There is one burglar at large whose activity has increased in the last two weeks. His M.O. is to strike during business hours. He is particularly interested in lap top computers.
- Robbery and felony assaults are down.
- There are 68 bars in the 94th Precinct.
Something I observed at this meeting which I found interesting was the very visible presence of local business owners. Establishments such as the Shayz Lounge( whose owner, an incredibly cute man named Seamus— who some might remember had the front window of his bar punched in last month— brought up the subject of local bar owners putting their heads together regarding some of the problems eating and drinking establishments have recently posed for the community of late), the Black Rabbit, Dalaga and Papasitos, were among those presence. Conversely, it should be noted that no one from the Production Lounge was present at this meeting.
On that note and without further ado follow are some selections from the evening’s meeting. For the sake of brevity (there was much redundancy with both the questions posed by the attendees and answers tendered by Deputy Inspector Fulton) and my own sanity I have done a great deal of editing so please consider these movies as highlights or “Cliff Notes” of what came to pass. On with the show!
SEGMENT 1: This primarily deals with minutes from the previous meeting and Deputy Inspector Fulton giving us a rundown of current crime trends.
SEGMENT 2: In this segment D.I. Fulton gives us more information regarding the two recent homicides in Greenpoint as well as a drunk driving fatality. He begins to take questions. Not surprisingly it kicks off with neighbors of the Production Lounge airing their frustration.
SEGMENT 3: The owner of Shayz Lounge speaks & much ado about the Production Lounge.
SEGMENT 4: Mixed bag: more ado about the Production Lounge, car break-ins and a bartendress raises her concern about a uptick in muggings at the Bedford Avenue stop of the L.
In conclusion I suppose what I found most compelling was that a woman present finally mustered the nerve to say what was undoubtedly on the minds of a great many people in the room.
Miss Heather
From The New York Shitty Inbox: A Message From Lentol’s Office
Filed under: Greenpoint Magic
Those of you who have contacted Joseph Lentol’s office regarding the recent shooting at the Production Lounge should find the following of interest. It is an email a I received from his office apprising me of what actions he is taking to ensure this does not happen again. Happy reading.
Dear Miss Heather,
My name is Amy Cleary and I work for Assemblyman Joe Lentol. I just wanted to give you and your readers an update that is being done with regard to the recent shooting at Production Lounge. We have spoken with many of our constituents who live near this location and listened to their accounts of that eventing. Any time you hear about people waking up to bullet holes six feet from where they sleep it is absolutely horrifying. We have written to the state liquor authority to ensure that there is a full investigation of this matter. We have also met with the police. The 94th precinct assures us that they are meeting with the owner and taking every step possible to prevent this from happening again, guns have no place near people’s homes. We intend to follow this matter closely and support the police in any way that we can. Thank you for your attention to this issue.
Sincerely,
Amy Cleary
So there have you. I have said it before and I’ll say it again: when it comes to constituent services Joe Lentol is tops!
Miss Heather
P.S.: On a related note some of you might have noticed that Yelp has scrubbed a number of the reviews for the Production Lounge. Hmm. In any case if anyone out there has screencaps of the now-excised entries let me know via comments. I would very much like to have them. Thanks!
Notes From The 94th Precinct Community Council Meeting
Filed under: Greenpoint Magic
It was packed at last night’s Community Council meeting. If I had to guesstimate I’d say there were at least 100 people present. Many of whom were residents and/or business owners from Franklin Street, along with a camera woman from Channel 12, a community liaison from Joseph Lentol’s office and a “representative” from the Production Lounge.
Although a cake congratulating Officer Fulton for his promotion to Deputy Inspector was in the offering, all eyes, ears, minds and most importantly mouths were intent on discussing last weekend’s incident at the Production Lounge And I’ll tell you: all the people present (save perhaps two) be they old timers, newbies, 30-somethings with children or simply concerned citizens were very, very angry. What I found most interesting was that although the gun play at the Production Lounge (and how the police handled it) was the subject of the entire meeting, it was in reality a proxy for a number of quality of life issues which have been festering in Greenpoint for some time. These included but were not limited to:
- The proliferation of bars on Franklin Street.
- The increase in noise and disorderly activity which has come as a result of the previous.
- Dissatisfaction with the 94th Precinct’s response to complaints.
- Club Exit.
- Allegations that 311 is fudging the number of complaints being called in.
Disturbing allegations that the ownership of The Production Lounge did not care about the nuisance it was posing to its neighbors (and in fact encouraged it) also arose. As did some incidences which would be best described as harassment or outright intimidation. But enough preliminaries. Follows is my footage from the meeting. Draw your own conclusions.
Part I
Part II
Part III
I’ll be adding more footage from this meeting as YouTube (and my sheer will power) sees fit.* In the meantime those of you who have been affected negatively by The Production Lounge (or any other watering hole in Greenpoint or north Brooklyn in general) can and should contact the following:
State Assemblyman Joseph Lentol
619 Lorimer Street
Brooklyn, NY 11211
(718) 383 – 7474
lentolj (at) assembly (dot) state (dot) ny (dot) ny (dot) us
Councilman David Yassky (When this was suggested at the meeting a number of people shouted in unison “He’s useless!” But who knows?)
114 Court Street
Brooklyn, New York 11201
(718) 875 – 5200
yassky (at) council (dot) nyc (dot) ny (dot) us
My good friend over at Neighborhood Threat has already pointed that out all noise complaints should be tendered to 311. Take down the complaint number(s) and hand them over to our local Community Board via email…
Community Board 1
435 Graham Avenue
Brooklyn , New York, 11211
(718) 389 – 0009
Fax: (718) 389 – 0098
Email: bk01 (at) cb (dot) nyc (dot) gov
And last, but hardly least, you can also file a complaint to the New York State Liquor Authority. Here’s a snippet of their online complaint form.
Given what I heard from last night’s meeting I suspect complaint boxes two and six will be very useful. It might also strike some as interesting that The Production Lounge has neither a Place of Assembly permit nor Certificate of Occupancy. In other words, they have no right to have people (much less those brandishing firearms) in 113 Franklin Street in the first place. Don’t believe me? Go to the Department of Buildings web site and see for yourself.**
Miss Heather
*You can watch the final two installments by clicking here.
**Oh yeah: it should come as no surprise to my fellow Greenpointers that the Production Lounges has no cabaret license either. Sound familiar, anyone?
P.S.: There’s much more piquant commentary about last night’s proceedings to be found on Yelp.
NYS Flickr Pool
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