An open letter to Governor Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Bill de Blasio, all local politicians and Police Commissioner Dermot Shea, cc’d to S.L.A. Chairperson Vincent Bradley, Seventh Precinct Captain Luis Barcia, C.B. 3 District Manager Susan Stetzer and C.B. 3 S.L.A. Committee Chairperson Michelle Kuppersmith:
BY DIEM BOYD | It is not hyperbolic when we tell you that the residents in the three-block-by-three-block area bounded by Essex, Allen, Houston and Delancey Sts. on the Lower East Side live in a kind of perpetual hell. You have seen the videos, photos and read the press coverage over the years. But, what is happening now is unconscionable.
The pre-COVID reality was already unbearable with more than 100 beer, wine and liquor licenses, mostly with 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. closing times, and mostly bars, lounges, clubs and “clubstaurants” contained within this tiny boundary.
The hordes of drunks habitually puked, screamed and urinated on our homes and places of business. Cars with souped-up sound systems cruised by over and over again, shaking our windows and waking our children. There were street brawls with fists and knives.
There were heaps of 311 calls with response times that took hours, often into the next day, when beleaguered residents received the now-ubiquitous pro forma response, “The Police Department responded to the complaint and with the information available observed no evidence of the violation at that time.”
The post-COVID world has produced a new variation of hell. Hundreds of transients and transplants without a scintilla of decency pour out of the bars, clubs and outdoor party sheds — lured by a roving street deejay — and mob our streets, in what is akin to an illegal occupation (and this is not any less hyperbolic).
The activity on our nighttime streets, which were already overwhelmed by late-night liquor licenses before, has now doubled in size and capacity, with outdoor sports bars, lounges, nightclubs and after-hours clubs. The outdoor party sheds are the proverbial nail in the coffin, inviting open chaos. A few weeks ago, a car did a burnout for so long that acrid smoke from its spinning wheels filled the air, setting off fire alarms in nearby businesses and causing utter mayhem in the streets.
Our tiny streets are flooded with more shrieking Barbies, grunting bros prowling and fist-pumping the air, bass-boosted cars, urine and vomit. Booze and drugs sniffed, shot up and smoked are used openly on the street and from parked cars.
Why are the police not policing? Why is the New York State Liquor Authority not enforcing? Why are these outdoor party sheds still here?
While we can’t answer any of these questions with authority, we can answer that Community Board 3 continues to give out liquor licenses — with 4 a.m. closings and deejays — like candy.
We can answer that Community Board 3 ignores the 500-Foot Law and the basic right of residents to live peacefully in their homes and on safe streets.
According to C.B. 3, it has no choice but to approve all liquor licenses, albeit with “stipulations” (often toothless and ineffective), and ignore the 500-Foot Law in Hell Square because of an unspoken understanding that the State Liquor Authority, with very few exceptions, will license our neighborhood anyway.
Suppose this is, in fact, the policy being directed to C.B. 3 by the Liquor Authority. In that case, it is only fair that the public is aware that the linchpin for all the liquor-license approvals in Hell Square is based on this explicit understanding.
There is no point for residents to seek redress from C.B. 3 or the S.L.A. The 500-Foot Law — which factors in the quality-of-life conditions, adverse history of the premises and the applicant, and the number of existing liquor licenses within 500 feet — is clearly no longer the legal standard applied to Hell Square.
The only redress we can seek is from our elected officials, who are tasked to serve us. We ask that you prioritize the public safety and health of the residents, including children and the elderly, who live here. If nothing is done regarding enforcement and policing, and if the unspoken mandate is for C.B. 3 to continue to license this area into oblivion, we can expect more mayhem, chaos and violence.
Hell Square is a failed economic policy, failed governmental policy and failed police and enforcement policy. Things are on course to end badly and tragically if the residents are left out to dry.
Boyd is a member, Lower East Side Dwellers.
More than a year since it was published, Ms. Boyd’s letter is more relevant than ever. I’ve lived in this neighborhood for 30 years, and it’s rise from the “bad old days” has been eclipsed by a decline that has only gotten steadily worse. Mounted police used to enforce closing times during the post-9/11 Bloomberg admin (one of the very few good points of his reign), but now we’ve been abandoned to the thuggish mobs that congregate here every single night of the week.
has anyone thought about a massive protest in front of the mayors office? if you can get MSM coverage that may bring results.
How many years have residents been complaining about this situation? as long at Susan Stetzer has been in charge of CB3 I’m sure! It has now risen to unbelievable levels and has spread to create “Lower Hell Square” below Delancey St, where 5 new licenses are on July’s agenda. Thank you Ms. Boyd for your dedication in speaking up for residents here. This kind of thing would never happen in districts where they have a well-run community board, one that actually represents the concerns of the COMMUNITY.
The police not policing when they should. CB3 not advocating for the community to the SLA. The city that abandoned its citizens.
I truly feel for all of you decent citizens trying to live a life of normalcy among these young spoiled entitled brats!
the businessees pay off the politicans. the mayor is the problem. most cities run by DEMS are disgusting. the PD are told to stand down. be grateful there’s not another looting riot or a ritual burn-it-down. stop w/the orangemanbad, begin diblasiobad. instead of spending time criticizing the mob, go to the top dog in charge. goodluck w/that one 🙁
I live at the corner of Ludlow and Stanton, have done so for over 20 years. Thank you Diem Boyd for not only this article but all the staunch defense you’ve given to us residents down the years. Thanks as well to all the commenters making many cogent remarks and arguments.
I watched the events of this past Saturday (see this Bowery Boogie article https://www.boweryboogie.com/2021/06/the-menace-of-summertime-saturday-night-on-ludlow-street/) from my window. It was infuriating to be woken up in my own home by such outrageous idiocy, but I was doubly gobsmacked by the actions –- or should I say non-actions -– of the police. They just pulled up and stood around.
It looks like most of us commenting here understand that the police have abandoned the policing of Hell Square, seemingly as policy. But imagine, if you will, a casual observer that night. They’d see the police standing there in their numbers and assume, okay, they’re surely assessing the situation to figure out what it will take, deciding for instance how many uniforms and wagons they’ll need in order to make arrests and to handle the situation should it get out of hand. That’s what any reasonable person would think while watching the police in those first moments. However, that is assuredly not what happened. Instead time passed and the police numbers barely grew, if at all. When the police finally did walk in to break it up, they did NOT have an increase in numbers or anything of the sort.
What is one left to think, observing this? To my mind, the most likely reason for the police waiting was that an order had to come down to them from above. That must be it. It would at least be an explanation; otherwise what, fear of being police, or waiting for the right song? Seriously, now, I observed at least one sergeant on the scene and they could have made the call to break it up far sooner. I’d like to set up an after-hours rave outside that shadowy overlord’s window, I can tell you.
Understand something, those of you who were not there. This DJ was absolutely blasting dance music at club levels. The police eventually came after goodness knows how many complaints (I myself made multiple), but the music kept playing. That is the thing. While it’s true that the whole situation was crazy and hundreds of people were acting like spoiled idiot children, it is patently obvious that the greatest disturbance to the greatest number of residents was in the noise from that DJ’s speaker system, simply due to how bass-heavy sound travels. People for blocks around must have heard it and been kept from sleep; it was an audio assault. There’s an obvious solution when it comes to a mechanical nuisance needing an electrical supply. But the police left it going for well over half an hour following their tardy arrival (which in turn, incidentally, kept the revelers reveling and also feeling approved of).
If police had it in mind to keep order and protect the peace, their first action would have simply been to walk into the crowd, tell the DJ to turn it off, then if he didn’t, they’d turn it off themselves. Whatever else they would do, they would surely START with that. Let the DJ or crowd think their rights were somehow violated (I’d like to see them get anywhere with that argument). I realize shutting off the music wouldn’t have ended the incident right there, but it was the most obvious initial action that right-thinking police, witnessing such a flagrant disturbance of the peace and moving to correct the situation, would have taken. So, WHO told them to refrain from doing the obviously right thing?
In closing, let me be clear I am NOT calling for this situation in our neighborhood to be handled by some privatized law-and-order outfit nor by gangs of outraged residents taking up arms (or eggs, there just aren’t enough eggs!!). I am simply saying that the police force MUST DO ITS JOB OR BE MADE TO DO ITS JOB. Your average police officer will follow the culture, as well as the orders from their superiors. So be assured, the rot starts at the top. Thank you.
I live in the East Village so I know what you’re going through. We are surrounded by NYU dorms and outer-borough hooligans who come to party with them. The police are useless and sometimes complicit, like flirting with the young ladies outdoors. I was told by one of NY’s Finest that I should move. The trash and vandalism are palpable. The noise intolerable. I once documented with a tape measure the number of bars on a few avenues. Illegal number. I submitted my results with names of establishments to the community board. No action taken. After all, I was told, it brings income to the neighborhood. I don’t see that we benefit from any of this. City council members equally useless. We need to take back our neighborhoods.
NYC can thank Transportation Alternatives, their money, their zealotry and their hubris for a good deal of the anguish and jeopardy we experience on the streets and sidewalks. TA wants to drive the motor vehicle from the city. They prevailed on Mayors Bloomberg and de Blasio to keep the NYPD on a short enforcement leash. Enforcement is the backbone of a responsible bike culture. The NYPD has been undermined. TA claims the more bikes / 2-wheeled vehicles on the streets and sidewalks, the safer
the streets. The NRA claims the more guns in circulation, the safer the public. Tell that to the families of people who have been injured or killed by bikes and guns. WC Fields said, “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.”
I have lived in this neighborhood, now infamously labeled Hell Square, for years. This problem has been going on for a long time, but it is definitely getting worse. Susan Stetzer is useless: She wants all complaints to come to her, but when you do complain to her (nothing happens) and the next time that business comes in front of the community board, she seems to develop amnesia and conveniently forgets and claims that there are no complaints. The new chair of the SLA Committee, Michelle Kuppersmith is an utter joke. It is obvious if you watch the videos of the meetings that she has no idea what she is talking about. She takes all of her orders from Susan, repeatedly asking Susan what to do. She practically flirts with some of the applicants and most of the time when she speaks to residents, she is condescending and gives incorrect answers. I was optimistic when she took over, only to be extremely disappointed; she is a disaster for the community. Don’t even get me started on David Crane, he seems to know everything, he’s just Susan’s lap dog… Jesse Beck just seems like a party boy who wants to add more and more places for him to drink, lucky for him that he lives on the quiet end of Rivington, and he obviously doesn’t care about the rest of the neighborhood. He just hates seeing empty storefronts, typical millennial. I now realize how good the previous SLA Committee members were. How can we do something about this? I guess we could start at the top, which would be the chairperson of the community board, Alysha Coleman. It seems like she is the most clueless one of all. As my mother and her friends used to say, “Bless her heart.” She can’t run the meetings; after all of this time as chairperson she still does not understand what is going on. How can she continue to be elected, how can she sleep at night? She also takes all her cues from Susan, you can see that in the videos when you hear Susan in the background telling her what to do, I think this is exactly what Susan wants. This whole situation makes me extremely sad. It’s disgusting that this is the group that is supposed to represent us.
Apologies to W C Fields, that’s, “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them
with bullshit.”
As I write, “The Mysteries of Mental Illness” is on PBS. This is not a coincidence. Recently I had a go around with Ms. Stetzer of CB #3. A liquor license application, that although the closing hour is relatively early @ 10 pm, it will severely impact my quality of life resulting from a long-standing problem due to the placement of an HVAC-legislation pending. Clear harassment.
If we seek the root of the multifaceted assault on our quality of life we need to go back to 9-11-01. Not the subsequently unhinged Rudy Giuliani’s naked attempt to retain power — does this seem familiar? — but the ascension of Michael “little big man” Bloomberg to Gracie Mansion. Bloomberg declared that his NYC was to become
“a luxury destination.” He wanted to attract the digital commerce. Google. Facebook.
Tech titans that saw, came and consumed. Not incidentally, driving up real estate values along with fattening the tax base. Enter Transportation Alternatives. Lying in the weeds. Whistling in the wind. The tech employees — mostly young and healthy — like to ride bikes. TA, led by the visionary-in-chief Charles Komanoff, promoted the
fanciful and regularly fatal notion that the more bikes — can we now add most motorized 2-wheeled vehicles? — on the street — should we add sidewalks? — the safer
the streets. One supposes this is meant for cyclists. The veracity of this preposterous notion was on the basis of an alleged study somewhere in the Australian bush. This according to a transportation aide to then-CM Rosie Mendez. Further enforcing the law against delivery agents on bikes would be “oppressive” because many of them are immigrants. Ah so, butterfly.
TA’s mission statement said that it wants to drive the motor vehicle from the city.
Therefore I was told by a State Assemblyman, “The reason there is no enforcement is because Transportation Alternatives doesn’t want it.” Bloomberg wanted the digital
commerce. Bloomberg went along with the visionary hallucination about the more bikes, the safer the streets — and seemed to withhold enforcement by the NYPD on the
irresponsible bike culture. We now — all of us, electeds-deaf, dumb and blind — know that there is no safety without a responsible bike culture. This also undermined the NYPD.
Enforcement is the backbone of a responsible bike culture.
The bike infrastructure, aptly named “vision zero,” thrown up pell-mell without the benefit of an environmental impact study, brought about massive congestion. This, with the digital-commerce ride-share influx of vehicles. Thus obviating talk about bikes reducing pollution. And now with the advent of electric vehicles, that is no longer relevant.
However, congestion brought about a congestion tax. There was a notable loss of business occurring prior to the pandemic. The pandemic generated the carnival-like construction of sheds. Again, this contributed to making parking an increasingly frustrating process. Bike lanes. Bike racks. Party sheds-become permanent. Now TA
was working a similar field as the real estate industry, which is also known for being aggressive and filled with hubris. Expand capacity, charge higher rents. Build sheds.
Reduce parking. Hand in hand.
De Blasio never responded to the public-safety problem by developing an effective, sustained enforcement. Too busy running for president, squandering a billion on his wife’s futile mental health failure. And throwing up colossal rezoning propositions to fatten the developers’ already-swelled coffers. And we might speculate, his own.
I leave you with this: Neurotics build castles in the air; psychotics live in them; psychiatrists collect the rent; and the public pays the price. As W.C Fields once
cagily said, “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, distract them with bullshit.”
What’s going on Downtown from Hell Square to Washington Square Park to the East Village and the endless dining sheds clogging the streets is so distressing. The air of mayhem and no recourse for residents is an undue stress after enduring the past 15 months of pandemic living. Not one politician or City Council representative has the balls to stop it. Every one of them needs to go.
My sympathies are certainly with Ms. Boyd and all residents bothered by this new reality. I want to share with you what I learned from the past year speaking with our representatives about 1.) the state of our parks, 2.) the state or our streets & sidewalks, and 3.) the noise generated by bars & restuarants-gone-wild.
What I learned is we are not enlightening our progressive electeds to the problem. They already know this.
They know our parks are filled up with homeless and the mentally ill. They know you can’t cross the street or walk down the sidewalk without getting mowed over by a horde of ebikes and motorized vehicles. They also know the East Village and Hell Square are a nightmare of noise and public drinking every weekend that rivals mardi gras.
The progressives know about these issues because this is precisely their policy!
Here’s what I was informed. Progressives say the level of documented and undocumented immigrating into NYC is so high that they can’t even keep count. It is higher than it’s been since the middle of the last century.
The problem is there are no jobs or housing for them. They can’t speak english and are largely unskilled.
Hence any industry that can hire them is being given carte blanche by the progressives.
Ebikes and every other type of unlicensed, motorized vehicle the recently immigrated need to get around has been unanimously approved the NYC City Council, City Hall and Albany.
The nightclub, bar and restaurant industry has been given the big thumbs up and awarded the biggest sidewalk land grab in the city’s history because that is the industry that employs this new influx of refugees.
And our parks are being used to house the homeless and mentally ill.
The Progressive message to you is “get used to it.” This is the changing face of New York.
Goodbye working people. So long, middle class. Your electeds are telling you, Leave if you don’t like it.
but….orangeman baaaaad.
When will PEOPLE and RESIDENTS come first?
Businesses should serve the people, as elected officials and city agencies should serve the best interests of the PEOPLE. This is a no-brainer. The current situation is a Public Health and Public Safety Crisis. Thank you, Diem Boyd, for articulating the issue.
Residents, hardworking or retired, all of whom have a right to peaceable living, have been abandoned. The Open Streets and Open Restaurants programs may have been acceptable for the shutdown period, or even for an extended time, but to make them permanent is lazy, short-term and shortsighted thinking. There are other ways to reinvigorate the City’s coffers, but that takes courage and a willingness to examine certain tax possibilities or otherwise ignored solutions, as well as to accept the possibility of losing campaign funds from moneyed special interests. [i.e., the NYC Hospitality Alliance] This is the acquisition of public space for private profit, and it is perfectly dystopian.
What kind of society are we living in where this is tolerated? Someone mentioned Trump above but, c’mon, this wasn’t caused by Trump, let’s not be silly. This is just flagrant disregard of the law because apparently those tasked with enforcing the law are unwilling or unable to do their job. And the partiers from far and wide get the message loud and clear — that the neighborhood is a free-for-all, 24-hour playground where laws don’t apply. If this is allowed to continue unchecked, one thing is certain, it will end in tragedy.
Sir, no one said that this ugliness was caused by Trump, which would, indeed, be silly. What I wrote was that the partiers “all appear to be narcissists on the level of Trump,” which is a very different thing and which I stand by. The issue is not Trump but narcissism. Saying that, I am in complete agreement with you that if this is not remedied and remedied soon terrible things are bound to happen.
Thank you for the wonderful article. NYC is being destroyed by the lack of enforcement of the dubious laws surrounding restaurants. It seems to me that the lack of any enforcement has been the main reason that everything else is so out of control.
The Covid emergency is over, so the sheds and everything they represent should also be over. But, alas, is there anyone that can bring order back to our very sad city?
I live in the East Village on Avenue A and Open Restaurants has blown up a neighborhood already oversaturated with bars and restaurants. There are 5 bars between 13th and 14th Sts. and 3 restaurants between 12th and 13th Sts., which creates a sea of noise that rolls up and down the avenue. The sheds are not soundproof and the shouting, music and outbursts make “open windows” impossible. Putting bar-level noise on the street is criminal. Quality of life for those of us facing the street has been sacrificed and we’ve had zero input. Open Restaurants as a temporary-idea solution for struggling businesses was a good idea. Open Restaurants as a permanent condition is horrific.
As an example …our tiny block on Orchard and Stanton Street has 5 buildings. It has at least 7 ABC (Alcohol Beverage Control) licenses. That is insane.
Thank you, Diem Boyd, for articulating so clearly the ever-increasing indignities that so many residents of the Lower East Side have been forced to endure as a direct result of horrifically contemptuous policies of the city and the New York State Liquor Authority, in cahoots with Community Board 3, all whom thought it a splendid idea to hand out over 100 liquor licenses in a five-block radius. This is not complicated. What we are seeing and hearing and smelling –- the vomit, the urine, the incessant idiot bass lines that penetrate our walls and dominate our very homes, the mobs of hundreds of drunks at 4 in the morning — is the inevitable result. Horrific and cynical policies bring forth horrific, unbearable realties for the people who must live under them. And what is created by horrific and cynical policies can only be altered by intelligent and compassionate policies, which the Lower East Side is in extremely dire need of now.
Hopefully, Mayor Adams will clean that up for you.
Yeah, very likely… he is in the pockets of the same interests that promote and thrive from this mess. Hopefully we won’t be able to savor the enforcement of this black Giuliani wannabe, which would be much the same as his inspiration and mentor: divide communities, punish the poor and defend entrenched economic interests in all neighborhoods. The fish rots from the head down, with Adams at the top things would get even worse (I know, it seems impossible now). Hopefully we will get Maya Wiley.
Even with the best descriptions, you can’t believe how awful it is. I wonder who raised these people who don’t care about the noise they make, the filth they spew, the indecent remarks they make. Who hired these cops that drive through the madness, stand around and watch, and why aren’t they being fired? Why do Americans drink so much?
Back in the “bad” old days, before the bars, when it was just drug crime, it was quiet, it was a good place to raise a child. Not now. The SLA Committee of CB 3 is terrible and does nothing to help the residents. They should be replaced. Especially the board chairperson.
Simply disgusting. How can people block streets and have their party going on at 4 am in the morning and the authorities do NOTHING?!! Not the first time and NOT the last one either. The neighborhood keeps deteriorating and the city ignores us. Surely this wouldn’t last a hot second if it were done anywhere else in the city. CB3 has no shame…
Just to point out, Jane Doe, that the parties are not “going on at 4 am ” but beginning at 4am and last until NYPD arrives which, on average, takes about an hour. Meanwhile, we are absolutely hostage in our own homes to this madness.
Significant reform is needed in our State laws regarding issuing of Liquor Licenses. The matter is becoming extremely dangerous. Wild crowds that are accurately described as MOBS are taking over our city and destroying our communities. And our politicians sit back, raking in all that NY Nightlife money for their campaigns.
How sad that this neighborhood continues to suffer these insults. As bros and transportation advocates tout open streets, and tell longtime residents to move to the suburbs, or “that’s what you get get when you live on the LES,” or “NY is a noisy place,” they paint residents as petty, party-pooping NIMBYs, but the fact is that no one can live (sleep) when this is going on.
And CB3’s SLA Committee’s Michelle Kuppersmith and Susan Stetzer are selling them down the drain; handing out licenses to problematic operators with a history of violations, 311 complaints, breaking stipulations and fines who are applying for massive 3-story, multi-bar operations on a small residential street. At the recent June SLA Committee meeting Kuppersmith offered this operator (for a supposed multi-floored, multi-bar restaurant?) an extra night with a closing time of 4 a.m. (because people need to eat at 4a.m.?). They weren’t even ASKING for it!! She came to the meeting unprepared with NO KNOWLEDGE of the operator’s history, violations, 311 complaints and fines upward of $30,000! It’s incumbent on the SLA Committee chairperson to have researched this publicly available information in order to inform a licensing decision for a venue or operation. But Kuppersmith (and Stetzer and the rest of the committee) had to be informed about this by tenants at the subsequent full board meeting. When someone mentioned that the operator had violated live ticketed music rules subject to him due to zoning restrictions, Stetzer offered to help him apply for a waiver!!! Kuppersmith is unfit or unwilling to do the job with any kind of integrity. When it comes to licensing, the devil’s in the details and Kuppersmith seems content with sitting on her throne and tossing out generalities. She’s not the right fit for SLA chairperson and should be removed ASAP. Let her find another stepping stone for her political career. And Stetzer, as always, is creating more mishap than help by interjecting herself into situations that she ought to stay out of. She is a district manager of the community board. She is meant to manage the community board, not run it or help create policy. It is no wonder this neighborhood runs amok on a regular basis; their community board sells them out at every chance they get.
Send them over to Washington Square Park. They’ll be in good company. Police won’t do anything because these ‘folks’ are de Blasio’s base.
I’m thinking water balloons and air horns to disperse the crowd?
We throw eggs. They respond by throwing glass bottles up at us or our building.
In pre-2000 NYC, eggs and buckets of water were enough to remind people to be respectful. These miscreants are entitled and selfish, can’t be redeemed.
I don’t think you have grasped either the size or casual viciousness of these mobs. You’d need 500 water balloons and 50 people throwing them to even make a dent. And I guarantee you many of them would start whining and complain of being attacked and stripped of their rights. Read the comments in Bowery Boogie on reports of these mobs. Again and again you have these people stating that residents who don’t like being completely stripped of their rights should simply move. This is the quality of people you are dealing with. Absolute moral trash. They truly do not care about other people. They truly seem to believe that it is their right to do what they will, where they will, when they will, all others be damned. They act as if they are the only people whose lives were disrupted by Covid. They all appear to be narcissists on the level of Trump. Who else would act this way? The cops need to bust the DJ’s, confiscate their speakers and toss a few of these smacked asses into the Tombs for a night or two. Maybe then, when they’re behind bars defecating in their drawers, the thought might occur to them that they are not the only people on earth. But for the time being the NYPD can hardly be bothered to show up. Except perhaps if you started throwing water balloons, at which point they’d be just as likely to bust you while politely dispersing the mob who woke up your entire block.