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MARK YOUR CALENDERS!: The next SLA hearing is currently scheduled for 10 AM, 12/30/14, has been RESCHEDULED for TUESDAY, JANUARY 27th @ 10 AM, at 317 Lenox Ave., off 126th Street. If you can attend, or help gather more petition signatures and/or letters to go to the NY State Liquor Authority, please click here to contact us.

(Click on image to expand)

On Wednesday morning on Dec. 10, we attended the NY State Liquor Authority Hearing (SLA) hearing for Earl’s expansion plans into the shared backyards (see photo above) between 97th and 98th St, behind Park Ave.

(For background on this issue, please go here or scroll below to our earlier posts or contact us for further detail).

Opponents of the expansion will be pleased to hear that the SLA Commissioners noted the many dozens of letters in opposition that  they received from neighbors surrounding the backyards, as well as the above and additional photos in our 27 page Opposition Document.

We were also allowed to orally present our main objections, as well give statements in response after Earls’ attorney spoke. At the end of the somewhat contentious hearing, the SLA Commissioners were not going to give Earl’s the approval for the backyard expansion as their plans currently stood.

The SLA Chair and other Commissioners were repeatedly noting (a) the backyard space is very small and will echo all noise right into the surrounding homes,, that (b) Earl’s had presented no real suggestions / attempts to even consider how to reduce the noise to the surrounding neighbors, (c) the SLA was  very conscious of the letters from many seniors citizens, some dealing with illness, but all who have lived there for decades whose quality of life would be severely affected even if the backyard was open only during the day on weekends; and as the SLA Chair pointed out,  he also received letters  from hard working people whose apartments face in to the backyards, who depend on the weekend for their 1-2 days of undisturbed quiet and rest.

When it became clear the SLA was not going to approve the expansion into the backyards, Earl’s attorney asked for the hearing to be “held over” so they could get an architect and /or acoustical engineer to to visit some surrounding homes (!), and measure the level of noise that would come from the backyards into the apartments surrounding the backyards.

PLEASE ADVISE US ASAP BY PHONE OR EMAIL IF YOU ARE CONTACTED BY EARLS or any of their representatives for this noise study, as we want to make sure it is done fairly and accurately.

MARK YOUR CALENDERS!: The next SLA hearing is currently scheduled for 10 AM, 12/30/14, has been RESCHEDULED for TUESDAY, JANUARY 27th @ 10 AM, at 317 Lenox Ave., off 126th Street. If you can attend, or help gather more petition signatures and/or letters to go to the NY State Liquor Authority, please click here to contact us.

Before the SLA hearing ended, we also noted there were discrepancies between what Earl’s had put on their application to the SLA vs what they were discussing/proposing  that morning i.e., their application mentions 60 seats, the CB11M resolution also says 60 seats outdoors, but Earl’s diagram shows only and Earl’s attorney only mention 20 seats. (But as the SLA chair noted, even 20 people drinking and eating in that narrow yard would echo insanely into the surrounding apartments).

We also noted  that the hearing for the SLA violation of “sales to minors” for the liquor store Vinyl (on Lexington between 96 & 97th, (co-owned by one of the owners of Earl’s) will not occur until January 8, 2015, and that the SLA should take that into account as to the co-owner’s fitness to operate and/or expand another bar.

We also pointed out that we discovered only that morning that Ed Santos (CB11M Treasurer and former Chair of the CB11M Licensing Committee who seemed to be doing much of the heavy lifting / shepherding of Earl’s through the CB11M hearings), received two interesting campaign contributions when he recently ran for City Council.

One campaign donation to Santos’ campaign was from Michael Cesari, co-owner of Earl’s Beer and Cheese, the other from Adam Clark, FORMER co-owner of Earl’s Beer and Cheese and current co-owner of Suds and Sports, AKA CrossTown Tavern , AKA Guthries, in the same building as Earl’s, at 1259 Park Ave., which, we also pointed out, Earl’s denied acknowledging on their expansion application to the SLA.

(Stay tuned on this issue as Suds and Sports, AKA CrossTown Tavern , AKA Guthries  is trying to expand THEIR interior space right next to Earls. If you are already bothered by their customers smoking, drinking and chattering under your windows on Park Avenue, wait till they triple or quadruple their capacity…)

The bottom line? We scored a small but important victory, their expansion has not been approved, but we still need to keep reaching out to neighbors for their signatures on petitions, letters to the SLA (see below for address/email / fax #s) and we need more email and/or phone contact info from interested neighbors.

IF YOU HAVE READ THIS FAR and haven’t yet signed up to follow this website, please scroll to the top or bottom of this page and please sign up to follow new posts on this website; we will NOT give out your email address to anyone, its only to save us printing postage to keep you informed of issues important to the block.

Likewise for social media: please follow us on twitter at @9798LexPark, (and if you are a Facebook wizard, we need your help ( : >))

If you can be a “point person” in your building and we have not yet spoken or met, PLEASE reach out to us so you can help us help you, help your neighbors, and help the block. For starters,

PLEASE PRINT AND DISTRIBUTE THIS POST
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******
RE OPPOSITION LETTERS TO THE STATE LIQUOR AUTHORITY:

PLEASE GO TO YOUR NEIGHBORS AND GET THEM TO WRITE OPPOSITION LETTERS AND EMAIL OR FAX THEM TO THE SLA ASAP.

If you need us to fax for you, call us and we will arrange to fax for you.

Mail to:

NY State Liquor Authority
ATTN: Ms. Cyndee O’Brien
Admin. Aide to the Secretary
80 South Swan Street, Suite 900
Albany, NY  12210

Telephone: 518-474-3114 option 4 – 1
Fascimilie: 518-402-2304
Email: Cynthia.O’Brien@sla.ny.gov

(If you have school-age children and/or seniors with health issues living in an apartment facing these backyards, please contact us before writing to the SLA).

Finally, if  you can, please please click here to donate anything at all, even a few dollars to help us pay for postage and paper and toner. So far, neighbors in two buildings have been kind enough to pay for initial costs to start this up, but to keep going, we need your and your neighbor’s support.

Happy Chanukah, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

– JF

If you want to maintain some semblance of residential peace and quiet in this neighborhood, please sign up bellow for email alerts on this and other issues relevant for those who live and/or work in or around 97th and 98th Street, Park to Lexington Avenues. (we will NEVER sell or give away your contact info).