Friday, June 30, 2006

S.L.A.’s Daniel walks into Soho lions’ den

Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 11:51:05 -0400
To:
From: "Tenant"
Subject: SLA Dog & Pony Show in Soho

NB- This is an interesting development, but also says
this is not the time to let up on any pressure.
While there seems to be an inkling of response to
complaints in Soho and the Village, I don't think
it's translated to the rest of the city.


The June 26 summit as detailed below must have
been limited to downtown or Soho residents. The
rest of us were not notified or invited.


For Boyle to claim the SLA has a new policy in
that it is holding 500 foot hearings, is
disingenuous. They have always been held whenever
someone appears for one. The problem is that the
SLA then rubber-stamped applications, or in the
rare case where one was rejected, they were
almost always granted on follow-up applications
even if the basis for complaints or rejection still existed.
How many times have we seen the SLA grant a
license because the community is deprived of
Italian cuisine and therefore the granting of a
license would be in the public interest?


In areas north of 14th Street, Tom Duane (the
only one who attended who represents areas north
of 14th) has been completely asleep on any SLA issue.
The May 5th hearing, like others before it, may
be relegated to energy wasted on domestic
consumption. You know Silver isn't serious on an
issue when it's a one-house bill. -Tenant


-------------------------------------------
The Villager
Volume 76, Number 6 June 28 - July 4 2006

S.L.A.’s Daniel walks into Soho lions’ den
By Albert Amateau

The State Liquor Authority chairperson came to a
public forum Downtown on Monday and promised a
new era in which the agency would be tougher on
applications in neighborhoods where bars and
clubs are shattering the late night peace.

Daniel Boyle, a former Upstate police chief,
picked Soho for his first large community meeting
since Governor Pataki appointed him chairperson
of the S.L.A. in January, although he had met
with in smaller groups across the state. It was
the first time in recent memory that an S.L.A.
chairperson met with community members in the
city to talk about problem bars.

Boyle introduced the newest S.L.A. member, Noreen
Healey, a Brooklyn Heights resident and the first
member from the city in more than a decade. She
recently served as principal State Supreme Court
attorney in Brooklyn and has 13 years experience
as an assistant district attorney in Queens,
Brooklyn and Nassau County. She thought her city
residency and prosecutorial experience were the
two reasons she was appointed.

For the past few years, neighborhood groups and
elected officials have demanded that Gov. Pataki
appoint a New York City resident to the three-member
S.L.A., hoping for an agency with a better understanding
of a city that has 29,000 of New York State’s 70,000
licensed premises. Pataki named Healey two weeks ago
and the state Senate confirmed her on June 22.

In neighborhoods including the East Village, the
Lower East Side and Chelsea, quality of life
forums during the past several years have
denounced the S.L.A. for making almost automatic
exceptions to the 500-ft. rule. The rule prohibits
granting a license within 500 feet of three other
licensed premises unless it can been shown at a
hearing that another establishment is : “the
public interest.” The S.L.A. had been defining
public interest so broadly that denials were rare.

Boyle told the June 26 “Quality of Life Summit”
forum attended by about 70 invited community
representatives and election officials that the
agency has already embarked on its new policy.

“Since I’ve been chairman we’ve had ten 500-ft.
rule hearings and we denied seven. Three were
granted, one with no opposition,” Boyle said.
“We’re not going to please everyone – people
have the right to hold licenses.”

Responding to a question by Zella Jones,
president of the Noho Neighborhood Association
who organized the forum at the Puffin Gallery,
Boyle said the S.L.A. would define “public
interest” in 500-ft. rule hearings after
listening to community representatives, law
enforcement officers and the license applicants.
“We’ll try to be fair and consistent,” he said.

The agency is short-staffed, with a total of 150
employees of which 28 are assigned to New York
City and Westchester, said Richard Mann, S.L.A.
enforcement chief who accompanied Boyle and
Healey. There are only about 10 S.L.A.
enforcement agents working in the five boroughs.

Nevertheless, Mann said the agency would put
personnel where it is needed.

“I can assure you that we’ll make every effort to
address your concerns,” Mann said. “The chairman
is making us much more responsive than we’ve been
in the past. If we can show that clients of a
particular bar are continually disruptive we can
give the evidence to our attorneys to take action.”

But proving that clients of a particular bar are
the ones causing problems might be difficult in
Manhattan where revelers walk from bar to bar,
Mann conceded.

Councilmember Alan Gerson, State Sens. Martin
Connor and Tom Duane and Assemblymember
Deborah Glick spoke at the event.

Earlier in June, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver
sponsored a package of bills intended to
drastically curtail the “public interest” exception,
to control rowdy bars and to allow the S.L.A. to
enforce conditions of operations that community
board negotiate with bar owners. The bills passed
the Democratic-controlled Assembly but failed to
pass the Republican-controlled state Senate.

Boyle said there is a new Rapid Response Unit in
the S.L.A. that will respond to problem bars. “We
can’t fix the past. We can fix the future. We’re
going to put as many investigators in the field
as we need,” Boyle said to general applause.


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