Tag Archives: Community Board 11

NY SLA Denies Outdoor Beer & Wine Permit To Earl’s Beer and Cheese!

#KeepResidentialBackyardsRESIDENTIAL, Board of Health, Department of Buildings, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

#KeepResidentialBackyardsRESIDENTIAL

May 6, 2015

Short update, more to follow.

Late yesterday afternoon, the NY State Liquor Authority denied the application of Earl’s Beer and Cheese to serve beer and wine in their backyards, yards faced in by hundreds of residents in eleven walk-up buildings on the Western half of East 97th and 98th Streets, between Park and Lexington. That’s in the southern end of East Harlem. Or the northern end of the Upper East Side… aka us, 97-98 Lexington and Park Ave. Neighbors…

(click to expand photo). Red arrows are all buildings with air-sound access to the proposed backyard beer joint.
(click to expand photo).
Red arrows are all buildings with air-sound access to the proposed backyard beer joint.

Towards the end of the NY SLA hearing, the attorney for Earl’s repeated previously-voiced threats that if they lost the hearing, the owner, Michael Cesari, will serve food-only in the backyards, 7 days a week.

In our humble opinion, given the overwhelming consensus of the SLA agreeing with the majority of the rear-window-facing neighbors who objected to Cesari (or anyone else!) doing any business in the residential backyards, Cesari will be doing this out of spite, and his customers should know about it.

Get ready… Continue reading NY SLA Denies Outdoor Beer & Wine Permit To Earl’s Beer and Cheese! →

Advertisement

Fire hazard behind Earls?

Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Bad enough the owner of Earl’s Beer and Cheese is using the backyard as a construction site, building up his interior reno in the backyard (so he doesn’t disturb his customers inside with the work… the hell with all of us neighbors with our windows facing the yard, listening to him hammering away outside, day and night…).

According to his landlord earlier this afternoon, he has been told to stop.

Now he’s got his flammable material piled up adjacent to, and up against the rear wall of the very residential building he rents his storefront in. 

*****************
Picture taken 1845 pm 05/01/15
EarlsDebris EarlsDebris2
(Click on photos to enlarge)
I’m no expert, but surely this is unsafe.

NEXT SLA HEARING 5/5/14 TO STOP BARS IN OUR BACKYARDS

Earl's Beer and Cheese, East Harlem, NYC, SLA, , , , , , , , ,

The last (and 3rd) hearing for Earl’s application (to invade 3 backyards with 60 beer drinking, fried-cheese-eating, noisemakers outside over a hundred of our neighbors’ bedroom windows) was postponed, and the next one is at 10 AM, Tue. May 5, 2015. Address and details below.

We hope you can make it, let us know if you are coming, and if you can’t come, you should be able to watch it live and/or after the hearing here:

http://www.sla.ny.gov/live-and-archived-media

backyard caption(Click on photo to enlarge)

If you haven’t signed our petitions PLEASE CONTACT US ASAP (see the Contact Us links on this website); either way, contact us for more information on how you can help 100’s of your neighbors preserve peace and quiet outside their walk-up apartments’ windows.

If you plan to attend this hearing, please let us know ahead of time. And please sign up for updates by email and via this web page.

The meeting is at:

Zone 1 Harlem Center Tower Office Building
317 Lenox Avenue
New York, NY 10027
Entrance to the Main Lobby is located on Lenox Avenue near 126th Street.

It is requested that any additional materials to be presented for the Members’ consideration for matters already scheduled, be submitted only to the Secretary’s Office by noon on the Friday prior to the Board meeting.

Send materials to:

New York State Liquor Authority
Secretary’s Office
80 South Swan Street, Suite 900
Albany, New York 12210

It is further requested that a copy of any additional materials pertaining to licensing matters, be simultaneously forwarded to the Deputy Commissioner of Licensing Kerri O’Brien at the Albany office location when the materials are submitted to the Secretary’s Office.

For more information, contact Secretary’s Office:
Phone: (518) 474-3114
Email: Secretarys.Office@sla.ny.gov

REVISED 05/06/15: Resident-Focused Policies For Backyard/Rooftop/Sidewalk Bars

Board of Health, Department of Buildings, Yaffa, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
REVISED 05/06/15 Resident-Focused Policies For Backyard/Rooftop/Sidewalk Bars

Attention CB11M, & CB11M Licenses & Permits Committee
re: revising the Application process for outdoor, sidewalk or rooftop bar & restaurant expansions.

This document is available as a PDF on request: contact 9798Lexpark@gmail.com

INTRODUCTION:
Community Board 11M’s Licensing & Permits Committee is in the midst of revising their application process for bars trying to open or expand into residential backyards & rooftops. They briefly discussed it at the last two meetings, & we are hoping to help them come up with new procedures ASAP, before any more blocks are disrupted by outdoor bars & restaurants that ruin the lives of those who live above & next to them.

Because the previous L&P Chairwoman recently moved to another Committee, last winters’ CB11M L&P meetings never had a chance to get started on

“a. Committee discussion on establishing a review procedures
ii. Liquor Licenses in rear yards & roof tops”

The new Chair has stated he is interested in the process but has not yet added the above to his agenda yet.

Our suggestions are at least partially due to the ongoing noise & friction raised during our community’s battle to stop Earl’s Beer & Cheese from expanding into 3 adjacent backyards. Visit WWW.9798LexPark.com for the details on that issue. We hope to avoid a repeat situation, similar to the contentious fights over Earls, where our block association had to attend 4 NY SA hearings before prevailing, & we pray that the Chair starts this review as soon a possible.

We are leaning very strongly to opposing all commercial & entertainment-type development in NYC residential backyards, with or without liquor, but in the interim, if these proposals are at least reviewed & taken into consideration and some are implemented, we are open to the CB’s serious revision of the process.

CURRENT SITUATION:
Currently the CB11M L&P committee requires a semi-detailed application, as well as posting on the door of the bar & “200 feet” from the establishment only SEVEN DAYS ahead of the hearing, & require “circulated petitions of support”; these latter vague & short-date requirements giving neighbors virtually no notice to find out the hours, details of operation (i.e., HOW LOUD, HOW LARGE ARE THE NEW CROWDS), to show their support or opposition, etc. And in the past, even that minimum posting requirement has been ignored.

Being grateful that the CB11M Licensing Committee has, on their own, suggested requiring more affected residents’ approval for future bar expansions, we have created a set of modest suggestions for how CB11M can revise their application process.

We hope this could become a city-wide issue to help both renters & residential property owners stop the noise & the lessening of the quality of life outside their rear windows, & on their street-side of their blocks as well.
Continue reading REVISED 05/06/15: Resident-Focused Policies For Backyard/Rooftop/Sidewalk Bars →

URGENT – CB meeting Wed. 12/3! + SLA letters details

Earl's Beer and Cheese, State Liquor Authority, , , ,

Very Urgent re Earls Beer & Cheese in the backyards:

Dear Neighbor:

The Community Board 11 Licensing Committee meeting is tomorrow night at 6 PM, Wed. Dec. 3, and they have 2 very important items on their agenda, and we need as many neighbors there as possible.

*****************

Date: 6 PM, Wed. Dec. 3

Location: Board Office, 1664 Park Avenue, (117th -118th St.)

Agenda:

1. Liquor Licenses

d. Suds & Spirits d/b/a Crosstown Tavern. Application for Alteration of existing OP Full Liquor License at 1259 Park Avenue, North Store, to expand inside premises for more seating.

4. New Business

a. Committee discussion on establishing a review procedures

ii. Liquor Licenses in rear yards and roof tops 

http://cb11m.org/node/1856

Please talk with your neighbors about this and please get to the Community Board tomorrow at 6 PM.

We must attend the above CB meeting tomorrow to oppose the expansion of “Suds” aka The Guthrie Inn, as they will (a) bring crowds of more drunks and smokers outside our front windows on the sidewalks in front of the bar and around the surrounding corners, and (b) they will eventually try to go into the backyards with Earls.

(Hat tip, JS).

We also must demand:

that the Community Board requires and accepts more input from neighbors on applications for backyards.

that the Community Board visit not just the applicants location but visit apartments in every building that face the applicants proposed yards and test for themselves how much can be heard from the yards in the apartments.

that applicants must hire acoustic engineers, and that unless the applications for the expansions show that they are fully sound proofed and fully enclosed, THE APPLICATIONS MUST BE DENIED.

that no Community Board Members may speak on or vote on bar applications if they are customers of that establishment.

*****************

Regarding the letters to the (State Liquor Authority) SLA against Earls expansion into the backyards:

If you sent yours already, thank you for the good work. If you haven’t, the deadline is noon Thursday, Dec. 4th.  The contact info is below.

PLEASE GO TO YOUR NEIGHBORS AND GET THEM TO WRITE OPPOSITION LETTERS AND EMAIL OR FAX THEM ASAP (contact info below). 

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

Notice also below, there WILL be a full SLA hearing for Earls “in front of the Members of the Authority” on Wed., Dec 10, in Harlem.

See next article for more details.

*****************,

If you have an email address, please write to us so you can be added to our email list. We will not give out your email address to anyone.

WED OCT. 1, VIP, STOP SIXTY DRINKERS IN OUR BACKYARDS….We Need You To Do Just a Few Minutes More…

News, Uncategorized, , , ,

It’s confirmed that Earl’s is going for a capacity of SIXTY OUTDOOR CUSTOMERS stretched across THREE BACKYARDS, 1257, 1259 and 1261 Park Ave. (those neighbors who you spoke with who said “only a few people, no big deal”, get back to them now!)

See below after the pic for what else YOU can do today to help stop SIXTY hard drinking, chattering Earl’s customers from hanging outside THREE BUILDINGS’ WORTH OF BACKYARDS / outside your rear windows (and smoking outside your front windows) all hours of the day and night.

ArticleBlock5_web

Click on image above to enlarge: see which buildings will be affected by noisy drunks,kitchen odors, and cigarettes from Earl’s Beer and Cheese expanding in the backyard at 1259 Park Ave. (97th & 98th).

A/ If you are holding signed, hard copy petition pages with 1 or more signatures,  PLEASE either scan and email them to us, or fax them to us,  or reach out to us TODAY ASAP to meet so we can pick them up and make copies.

You can fax them to (877) 900-2360, email them to 9798lexpark@gmail.com or arrange pickup by phone at 929-286-1913.

B/ If you can and have not yet done so, please also SIGN ONLINE.

C/ If you are home today, please print our revised flyer and give it to your neighbors who haven’t signed, and hand it to people in the street.

D/ Before you come to the Community Board 11 Meeting tonight, WEDNESDAY, October 1, at 6 PM, please take a few moments and…

E/ Call or go online to 311 today (you can do it anonymously) and file, crowds, noise and/or cigarette nuisance complaints, and add to the complaints already filed over non-permitted renovations in the backyard.

F/ Email our local elected officials, including the Community Board, and politely clue them in on why Earl’s expansion should be opposed.

G/ Try and come early to the Community Board 11 Meeting, tonight at 6 PM. It’s a small space…. Some neighbors may be meeting at the NE corner of  98th and Park at 5:30 PM to share car service or a taxi.

And finally, check this for some inspiration….

See you tonight!