In response to our post on the Squadron Bill, an East Village resident recently left the following comment:
Three new bars in three blocks on Second Ave between 10th and 12th Streets in the past year. They get drunk/clog the streets/scream/yell/throw litter all over the place. I have NEVER seen anything like this. The entire character of the neighorhood is completely changed. Once a place known for good restaurants and "quaint" shops — it's now THE place to come and get drunk and act up. How does the right of a few bar owners trump the rights of all the rest of us to live in peace in a very lively but nice neighborhood? How did this happen and what can we do about this. The new law will do nothing to help unless we all work together. Help! — contact me directly at abonus2001@yahoo.com — and let's see if we can do something constructive about it.
I followed up with the reader and asked for her permission to make her comment a separate post. ... An East Village resident since the late 1960s, the reader is looking to take action with some like-minded people who are also tired of what has become of the nightlife scene.
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The explanation for it all came from a small businessman and it was kindly posted right here on EV Grieve by our proprietor. The guy planning to open the new EV bagel place put it very well: Only businesses featuring high markup stuff (ie: alcohol) can afford the too-high commercial rents being asked by EV landlords.
ReplyDeleteUnless the state considers proposing measures that would require commercial landlords to enter into arbitration with small business owners when they can't agree on a fair rent increase, mom and pops are gone and the EV will only get more overrun with bars catering to looking-to-get-drunk-and-hook-up yunnies.
Likewise with residential RE. One of the main reasons that middle class people own homes/apts is to spare themselves from being at a landlord's mercy. Will the state/city bother to continue, let alone extend, the renter's rights that they've let practically die on the vine? Here's a news flash. Without rent regulation, middle class families are outta here.
Let us know what action is decided on: as a resident since '68, I'm in. And hoping that the stocks (not the ones the yuppoids ruin the rest of us with, the kind your feet and hands are put in and people thrown rotten veggies at you) figure into it. I know we REALLY can't use rocket launchers, but it's a pleasant thought to contemplate...
ReplyDeleteI can't add much to what KKK said. The landlords are slowly strangling this city to death.
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