Thursday, September 2, 2010

Why the president of the East Fifth Street Block Association carries a baseball bat

We've been writing about some of the issues stemming from Sin Sin/Leopard Lounge on Fifth Street and Second Avenue... In the aftermath of the deadly shooting on this corner on Aug. 22, neighbors reiterated the ongoing problems that they've had from the club.

Per Patrick Hedlund's article today at DNAinfo:

East Fifth Street resident Stuart Zamsky has gotten so fed up with the noise and violence stemming from the nearby nightclub Sin Sin/Leopard Lounge that he’s taken to patrolling the sidewalk with a baseball bat to keep the crowds from disturbing his family.

Visitors to the popular nightspot will often gather outside the window of his two young sons’ room, screaming obscenities and even fighting on busy weekend nights, he said.


Zamsky is the East Fifth Street Block Association.

And here's Sin Sin's take on the issues:

“There have been altercations on the street. It’s a very busy intersection,” said Sin Sin/Leopard Lounge owner Philip Quilter, who supplied the police with surveillance footage of the suspects from the night of the shooting.

It has been mentioned that we’re responsible entirely [for the noise and violence], and that’s not the case,” he added. “We are responsible for some noise, but we’re the only place to police the streets until 5 o’clock in the morning.”


He said that they will have four or five bouncers on duty during busy weekend nights.

One resident has also taken some videos of a few incidents.... (the altercation begins about the 2-minute mark on this one...)






Previously on EV Grieve:
NYPD hosting meeting between Sin Sin and neighbors tonight

East Village noise wars new battlefront: Sin Sin/Leopard Lounge

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

I absolutely relate to the guy who has resorted to wielding a baseball bat to protect his family. I share his frustration. Here on Avenue A we are also tormented by the drunken idiots who prowl our streets after a night of bar hopping. It is out of control. I don't even like to go see a movie on a Friday or Saturday night because I know I am going to have to pass through a drunken mob to get home, and you just don't know what you're going to run into. I was less afraid 20 years ago when the neighborhood was overrun by drug dealers, and that's saying a lot.

Anonymous said...

Have lived in the hood for almost 15 years, and it's definitely gotten worse due to the insane amount of bars/clubs with wasted patrons who barrel down the sidewalks. Recently I pulled a drunk kid out of the street so he wouldn't get run over. It's frustrating... we're mobbed by people coming to party who abuse the neighborhood and leave their destruction behind. It makes our community nuts, and makes me want to move. My husband and I actually weekend in Brooklyn now.

blue glass said...

SinSin says: "We are responsible for some noise, but we’re the only place to police the streets until 5 o’clock in the morning.” and He said "that they will have four or five bouncers on duty during busy weekend nights."
THIS IS A PROUD, POSITIVE STATEMENT from the owner? What planet does he live on. None of this would be necessary if SinSin was not there.
5th Street is a quiet residential block that has been plagued with bars in the center on the north side, and on the corners.
Bars and residents do not mix. Bars stay open till 4am, residents go to work in the morning. Perhaps the dorms and the bars and the clubs should all be in one area so that those underage trust-fund students could get drunk and puke on each other where they temporarily live.

WB said...

And this place is right down the block from the precinct.

nygrump said...

The unending noise in the East Village is unacceptable, and for some reason the City won't do anything about it. You know, a restaurant can idle a mac truck nextto your bedroom window 24/7 and the City won't do anything about it. Well, that is my experience in getting them to do somethgin about the noise from the exhaust fans in India Row on 6th St. Those buildings are currently having to rebuild the back walls because the motors are pulling the walls they are attached to from the building. There are a million people crowding our streets but there is no community because most of them are booze tourists or temporary residents - models, students and the ilk. This is just what Bloomberg and Ghouliani wanted because a broken, transient population won't resist their violence. And the 1000's of drunks Bloombergs' CBs import into our neighborhood nightly is an act of violence.

Chris said...

Anon @ 1:06pm: Give me a break. Look, I don't like the throngs of drunk people here any more than you do, but to suggest that some drunk meatheads wielding their fists should make you feel less safe than drug dealers wielding illegal weapons is just plain absurd. It's not an argument that I'm buying, and I doubt you'll win over any opponents by making that claim.

Quality of life issues like noise and cleanliness... absolutely. But safety? The only danger these idiots pose is to themselves and each other.

prodigal son said...

I don't even live in the East Village, and I completely understand. Actually, I felt more safe in the old days too, maybe because I understood where to go and where not to go, and how to behave to avoid trouble. I never had problems in the old days and have been the victim of crime a couple of times under Bloomburg. I think the problem is I just don't understand the layout of the new city, its like I'm a stranger in town.

Media glut said...

Well, drug dealers still set the scene on the streets. The drug it just legal that's all.

Anonymous said...

To Chris: I wasn't a fan of the drug dealers by any means but they did their thing and left me alone. Not the same with the drunken mobs. I don't know if you are a guy or a girl but believe me if you are a girl you get harassed, poked, pinched, followed and heckled and worse. And I am afraid of fists.

Anonymous said...

A week ago, Sin Sin's owner was quoted as claiming there was no evidence any of the people involved in this MURDER had been inside his joint....There's a pattern of denial associated with his establishment.

EV Grieve said...

Good point anon 6:50... DNAinfo did quote him as saying that....

Anonymous said...

They've had their chance to clean up their act and they're simply not going to do it. As residents who live near this mess, LET'S CLOSE THIS HELLHOLE DOWN AND KICK THOSE ASSHOLES OUT OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD!

Anonymous said...

#2 video was too dark for me to see if the fighters went back into the bar so I'm assuming the patrons are the fighters - I live across from what used to be the Aztec (80's), notorious for street violence spilling from altercations that started in the bar. The neighborhood and block association persisted and it was closed. Doc Holidays was feared would be same thing and tho the corner is noisy Docs worked hard to keep their drunks inside or disperse - not perfect but never devolved to Aztec madness. SinSin is Aztec madness.
The person (@WB) who pointed out this place is down the block from 9th precinct is so right-on. I hope E.5th st - which is one of the most lovely stretches btwn 1st and 3rd - holds the bar owners and the precincts feet to the fire for this nonsense.

In general there are way too many bars and destination spots here for people looking to party with a capital p - leads to all kinds of crazy.

We are too many, too close together to risk ourselves and each other with allcrazy acting out. Our task is to be a good locust, prevent the swarm, appreciate the harvest.

good luck all,
Kim

Matt said...

Having lived for years across from the awful Shark Bar (well, awful after dark, anyway) in Nolita, I sympathize with Sin Sin's neighbors. But really, outside of real problem establishments like Sin Sin or maybe Superdive or Billy Hurricane's, the East Village -- at least my patch of it -- isn't so bad. I mean, kvetching is our civic duty as New Yorkers, so by all means do it, but c'mon, it's not the end of the world because we're deluged by frequently mildly annoying tourists.

EV Grieve said...

Thanks for the comment, Matt. I tend to hear about the same handful of places over and over.

Jill said...

I wonder if anybody is working to apply the new Squadron law where if an establishment gets a bunch of violations within a couple month period they get their license revoked. Sin Sin would be a perfect test case for this new law. Someone has to get the police committed to targeting this single establishment because it is a lot of reports for the police to make, and they rarely to never show up when you call 311, and even if they show up, filing a report would be a big deal for them.

Josef said...

So I've read all your comments. Each of you sucks. I would love to switch locations with you, but you all priced me out of the 'hood by bidding up rents, and then proceed to complain about its character. The Village is for partying. If you want to sleep and not see throngs of drunk people, there's tons, and I mean tons, of other, cheaper places you could live, even if you want to remain in NYC - try Staten Island or deep Queens, or better yet move upstate with the rest of the conservative early-to-bed crowd.

Meanwhile, there's plenty of us who would be delighted to deal with the "problems" that so vex you. I'm going to refrain from using caps (unlike many of you) but let me conclude by noting that your whining and bitching over the very nightlife that separates NYC from Podunk is so pathetic that I hope the self-important jerk with the baseball bat goes psycho and starts swinging at his allies at your next block meeting.