e already took away their ashtrays. Now the owners of New York City's bars and nightclubs fear that the mayor has a secret plan to send the city to bed early. Posted on 02/07/2004 2:58:58 AM PST by sarcasm
e already took away their ashtrays. Now the owners of New York City's bars and nightclubs fear that the mayor has a secret plan to send the city to bed early.
So they are mobilizing once again, this time to defeat a piece of legislation that does not formally exist. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's administration has been working on a plan to replace the city's antiquated cabaret license with a general "nightlife license" for large, noisy clubs that stay open past 1 a.m. But the club owners claim that the real goal is to push the current 4 a.m. closing time to much earlier for most bars, turning New York after dark into Riyadh after noon.
"That's a distortion that some guy is out there feeding everybody," Mr. Bloomberg said yesterday, as he found himself defending legislation that was still being written, although a six-page draft has been widely distributed. "There's no bill that's been submitted yet. So this guy who's pushing this is a little bit going overboard."
The guy in question is David Rabin, president of the New York Nightlife Association, whose members are still smarting from their failure to win any concessions on the smoking ban that they say has crippled their businesses. Mr. Rabin says the bar and club owners are united in their opposition to this latest plan.
"Everyone from hoteliers to taxi companies to bars understands what this means," he said. "There is no debate in terms of whether this is any good for anyone's health." He has begun to hold meetings with bar and club owners and plans a full-court press. "If we have to, we are going to show up with 5,000 people at City Hall."
Mr. Rabin, his lawyer and some other nightclub owners are also spreading a claim that under the plan, most city bars would have to close at 1 a.m. , essentially wiping out New York City's fabled all-night party scene.
Oddly enough, the administration started on this path in an attempt to get rid of something the nightlife industry hates: the 78-year-old cabaret law, which requires a license for any establishment that allows dancing. In the past, bars have been padlocked when a few patrons were caught swaying to a jukebox or a jazz singer, and the Giuliani administration often used the law as a weapon against clubs that had made themselves nuisances in other ways. Under the draft Bloomberg proposal, the cabaret license would be replaced with a more general license for all bars, clubs and restaurants that can hold more than 70 patrons, that stay open past 1 a.m. and that are noisy.
The demise of the cabaret law would certainly be embraced by some, especially the owners of small bars who resort to flipping on Lite FM whenever police or consumer affairs officials come by to see if there is dancing afoot. But many nightlife denizens are in no mood to trust the administration that drove smokers out into the cold, saying the new law would have onerous effects. Bars and clubs that choose to get a nightlife license could be required to pay for soundproofing, owners say. Those that choose not to get a license would have to close by 1 a.m., they insist, and those that have their licenses revoked - which they argue would happen more easily if the proposal became law - would also end up with an early last call.
Under the plan, licensed establishments would indeed face temporary or permanent padlocking if they did not obey certain provisions. For instance, a license could be revoked if there were more than one serious assault inside the bar, and a bar could be closed for 10 days after three sanitation violations.
"There is no question this is a de facto closing of bars and clubs at 1 a.m.," said Robert Bookman, the lawyer for the nightlife group, "because no one can withstand the provisions of this law."
Bloomberg administration officials argue that the more onerous provisions would affect only a minority of businesses. Dina Improta, the spokeswoman for the Department of Consumer Affairs, which enforces the cabaret law, said the agency surveyed 15 restaurants, bars and nightclubs and found that only one had noise levels at or above 90 decibels, one of the three conditions under which a nightlife license would be required. The noise level of Manhattan restaurants ranges from 60 to 85 decibels.
But the administration might face a tough public relations fight. Perception will mean everything, and the proposal is complicated, said Adam Shore, a founder of Legalize Dancing NYC, which wants to end the cabaret law but is concerned about this proposal. "The New York Nightlife Association can whittle it down to one phrase - '1 a.m.' - and the entire industry is going to respond to that," he said.
And a fight with the nightlife industry is the last thing that Mayor Bloomberg needs as he inches his way out of a significant trench in opinion polls. Yesterday, on his weekly radio show, he said the proposed legislation was misunderstood.
"Now I don't think in this day and age we need dancing police," he said. "Let's get serious. Who cares if you dance? If you want to have a bar that has dancing, God bless you.''
He said the city was also trying to respond to neighborhood noise complaints. "You don't want lots of loud noise,'' he said. "So what the proposal from our Consumer Affairs Department is, if you're open after 1 in the morning, you have to have a license."
The consumer affairs commissioner, Gretchen Dykstra, has been making her own rounds to promote the proposed legislation as good for neighborhoods concerned about noise and for the bars that suffer under the cabaret law.
Many community groups are embracing a change. Anthony Borelli, the district manager of Community Board 4 in Manhattan, which covers Times Square, said it was an important initative. "I believe if nightlife owners could be encouraged to install soundproofing in order to prevent disturbing their neighbors,'' he said, "that will be helpful."
Even some bar owners have been won over. "I have been hating the cabaret law for years," said Arthur Gregory, the owner of a bar in Lower Manhattan. He said bars would be able to stay open past 1 a.m. for a small fee, which has not been officially discussed. "It comes out to like 30 cents a day. I went to the nightclub association meeting, and they are just misinforming people."
I wonder is this guy ever got invited to parties as a kid. He seems to ruin everyone's fun.
A couple dozen clubs are open until 5:30AM, smoking is permitted, and the music is just as good as NYC, and LOUD.
Otherwise there seems to be a global effort to make people go to bed at 1:00AM.
Hey, Bloomy, having "smoking police" is just as silly, especially when you crusade against smoking, but allow your billionaire buddies to smoke cigars at the St. Regis Hotel, while you say nothing.
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