Chairman Abate stated that "it has been noted that the area is becoming over-saturated with a recent proliferation of establishments serving liquor and loud music. Residents and elected officials have been raising opposition to these uses. The full Board voted to oppose the application…" He further explained that "the recent review of Sine's application conducted by the SLA in April was done so in a virtual vacuum devoid of any input from the elected officials and community residents. We oppose the method by which review was carried out and request a complete investigation of the methods used by the State Liquor Authority.

District Manager Gerald A. Esposito discussed the feelings of the residents opposed to the proliferation of licensing. He noted that "we oppose the license on tap atmosphere and we are very concerned about the neighborhood and quality of life. The Community Board will forward its opposition to the wholesale lot approach taken by the State Liquor Authority in granting liquor licenses to applicants." Although the Board's recommendation is one that is in an advisory capacity, District Manager Mr. Esposito felt confident that along with the residents and elected officials, they could press the concerns about these licenses upon the agency and halt the mere purchasing of licenses from the State Agency. In an additional letter to the City's corporation Counsel the Board is seeking legal assistance to pursue the State Liquor Authority and their malfeasance.

For further information regarding this press release, please contact District Manager Gerald A. Esposito at Community Board No. 1, 435 Graham Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 11211, tel.(718)389-0009.

From the New York Times, July 23, 2000

How hip is too hip? It depends on which Williamsburger you ask.

A local group, citing too many loud bars in the area, is suing the State Liquor Authority after the agency gave a license to Sin-é, a club offering live music that is to open next month at 142-144 North Eighth Street. But Sin-é's owner, who owns a music club on the Lower East Side, says Williamsburg residents invited him.

The group, Friends of the Northside, which has fought the liquor license since last fall, says it was taken by surprise by the April 26 decision, which followed a hearing it says it was not told about in time.

"The community really didn't get the opportunity to voice its opposition," said Barry Mallin, a lawyer.

A spokeswoman for the liquor authority declined to comment.

Construction of the club resumed when the license was granted.

Residents handing out "Make Sin-é Go
Away" fliers recently said they had suffered from the areas' recent popularity and what one called "theme park" development.

"We've had loud, obnoxious, drunken behavior," said Sarah Porter, who lives across the street from the site for Sin-é. "People have had their doors rung in the middle of the night, there's been urinating, car mirrors smashed, new trees being destroyed."

She added that the block in question, between Bedford Avenue and Berry Street, is mostly residential, and that there are eight bars within one block in every direction.

Shane Doyle, Sin-é's owner, said he would not cater to rowdy patrons.

"Most people that pay money to see a gig, they don't get drunk or disorderly," he said, adding that the 4,800-square-foot one-story site is zoned for industrial use.

Mr. Doyle, who owns Arlene Grocery in Manhattan, said many of his performers and patrons were Williamsburg residents who encouraged him to open a club in Brooklyn, and that local residents had signed petitions for him. He said he had offered to make the space available for community groups at no charge.

Wendy Small, a North Eighth Street resident who supports Sin-é, said the influx of artists had made the area more valuable. "Given that they do that, they should also have a place to make their music," she said.

But residents said they would have preferred that the space be used for a doctor's office or a day care center.

"These people who come in from Manhattan, they don't care about the neighborhood,"said Stephen Wiepz, 63, who has lived on North Eighth Street all his life. "They come, they party and they leave."

From the FreeWilliamsburg online magazine, Volume Six, August 2000 (www.freewilliamsburg.com)

"TEEEEEEEEEEE-NAAA!"

My sleepy eyes popped open, my chest tightened.

"TEEEEEEEEEEE-NAAA!"

'What the hell?' I grumbled, pulling myself from my bed to the window. There she was, a dolled-up twenty-something. I had seen her and a few friends wander over to Teddy's Bar and Restaurant an hour or two earlier. She had probably drunk a margarita or two, and now the entire block was suffering for it.

"TEEEEEEEEEEE-NAAA! TEEEEEEEEEEE-NAAA! YO, GIRL, WHERE YOU GOIN?"

Enraged that she was too lazy or drunk to trot down the block to catch up with her friend, I tore open the sash.

"Hey- what are you doing?"

She looked at me in shock.

"Quit yelling. People live here. There are families and children. This is a neighborhood."

She snapped, "Yeah, o.k.," and then returned to looking down the block. "TEEEEEEEEEEE-NAAA!"

That was it, I redlined. "Hey, you idiot, what's wrong with you? How would you like it if I stood outside your home and screamed like a jackass? Cut it out!"

She cocked her hip to one side and delivered. "Yo, what do you want me to do? You wanna come out here and settle this?"

I almost convulsed with laughter. As if she could kick my ass. And for what? "No," I retorted, 'I'd like you to shut up and attempt to behave like a civilized human being instead of a piece of trash coated in Maybelline. Or is that too difficult for you?" I then slammed the sash and pulled the curtains.

Returning to bed I had visions of her tearing the flower boxes from my windows, stomping my sweet gardenias to death. Then I wondered how many of these sorts of crass fools I'd have to deal with when Sine opens in the next month or two. Sine, as you've likely heard, is supposed to be a music venue and bar, with room for almost 300. It's tucked between the homes of a lot of elderly Polish people on N. 8^th between Bedford and Berry.

In the past two years the two block stretch of North Eighth between Bedford and Wythe has become louder and more populated. At least a dozen times in the past year I've been awakened by drunken boobs or imbeciles hollering in their cellphones. And the number of times that livery cab drivers have pulled up outside the local bars and then blared their horns is innumerable.

What can be done? I'm tempted to begin hanging signs about the neighborhood that read, "Welcome to Williamburg's Northside, where people live AND SLEEP. Please keep that in mind." And if that doesn't work, perhaps I'll buy a paintball gun and begin popping the idiots from my rooftop.

From the New York Daily News, August 4, 2000

Beleaguered people living in Williamsburg's hot and trendy North Side say enough is enough, especially when it comes to noisy nightspots.

The community is seeking legislative help to stop bars and clubs from colonizing residential side streets.

An Assembly subcommittee hearing was held yesterday, sparked by reports that the State Liquor Authority approved a license for a proposed 5,000-square-foot music bar and club. The club, which would accommodate 299 people, is planned for a former silver-plating factory on a N. Eighth St. block where 230 people live.

The agency granted a liquor license in April to Sin-E Enterprises, owned by veteran Manhattan club owner Shane Doyle.

The club would Webcast musical performances around the world. The license application reports the club plans to remain open until 3 a.m.

Sin-E was granted an exemption to the rule barring new liquor licenses for clubs and restaurants within 500 feet of three other licensed premises.

There are as many as eight other licensed premises within 500 feet, including one club planned for another part of the former factory.

The recent boom that transformed Bedford Ave. into a center of nightlife has spread onto Berry St. and side streets.

The agency failed to give a legally mandated 15-day notice to Community Board 1 before okaying the Sin-E license, residents argued in a lawsuit filed to stop the license.

A temporary restraining order has delayed the final license until a hearing slated for next week, when residents and elected officials will seek to kill it.

The agency took the brunt of the criticism at yesterday's hearing.

The hearing, by a subcommittee of the Assembly Economic Development Committee, drew participants from Manhattan and Queens as well as Williamsburg to Public School 132 at Manhattan Ave. and Conselyea St.

Authority officials did not show up, and Assemblyman Robin Schimminger (D-Buffalo), who heads the subcommittee, said that showed legislators get no more response than residents.

Community leaders from Manhattan's lower East Side, where some blocks have nine and 10 businesses with liquor licenses, and from Queens testified about the agency's lack of enforcement of rules governing existing licenses.

They also complained about its compliance with requirements that it take community views into account when issuing licenses.

"Whose interests are served?" N. Eighth St. block dweller Sharon Porter asked. "Certainly not the community, which stands to lose so much."

Doyle now runs the Arlene's Grocery club on Manhattan's Stanton St. He said he was putting the finishing touches on his Williamsburg club and would be a good neighbor, as he said he has been in clubs he ran on the lower East Side.

"I came to Brooklyn because I was inundated with requests to open a music venue in Brooklyn," said Doyle, who added that many of the musicians who play at his clubs live in Williamsburg.

Assemblyman Joseph Lentol (D-Greenpoint) acknowledged the problem is in large part a result of the North Side's emergence as a center of the music, club and bar scene.

But Lentol said that doesn't mean "predators" looking to take money by opening bars that disrupt the area should get special treatment from the state.

The legislators, including Assemblyman Vito Lopez (D-Bushwick), said they would look at proposals to create a city liquor authority to replace state oversight. The state has fewer than 20 inspectors to police 28,000 licensed establishments in the city and surrounding suburbs.

Lentol said he also wants to change the law to require community board approval for new liquor licenses. Now the boards have only an advisory role.

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