You may have heard that 5 Stuy Cafe applied for a license to sell wine, beer and cider, and then withdrew the application less then a week later. Why? We think Blackstone's Rick Hayduk had something to do with it. But if you are against the selling of alcohol at the cafe, don't cheer too much.
Town & Village had this updated information: "Stuy Town general manager Rick Hayduk told Town & Village that after learning about the application, he would be requesting that it be withdrawn until the details are vetted by StuyTown Property Services." Note: that it doesn't say that the application is permanently withdrawn. According to Hayduk, Stuy Town Property Services has to have the application "vetted." To me, this is merely a type of trick where STPS will "examine" if there are any issues which would disallow the application and then fix these issue before the license can be granted. I can easily see the following from STPS (truthfully, Hayduk), an announcement that a sign will be placed that the cafe is "for residents and their guests" (nothing currently states this, a violation of the agreement), and that someone will be monitoring who can buy this alcohol, as anyone below 21 years cannot buy wine, beer, and whatever cider is (I assume having alcohol content). The distance from the two parks nearby will also be checked to make sure. With this "promise" from Management (yeah, another promise, another rule) residents should be happy.
Is this good enough? I'm of two minds. On one hand, I don't see residents needing to drink beer with their donuts and luke-warm coffee, but never underestimate people. Right at the cafe, there is a short brick barrier where dogs piss. This doesn't seem to bother those at the cafe nearby that wall.
Even if beer and wine will be bought, I don't think the cafe will be financially saved, as most people (the younger crowd) use it as a study area, with wifi, and sip their coffee (or pretend to) for hours while they do their work. Yet, I do see problems. Some of-age residents will buy alcohol to get plastered right there ("More beer, Martha!"), another first for this community. Then there are those underage residents...
Stuy Town is seeing more and more college kids renting here. ("A college town" is what a waitress told me in the Lower East Side about downtown NYC.) They know how to get over with fake IDs and just plain bullshit. Stuy Town is terrible at enforcing its own rules, so why would this be any different? Talk is cheap, and the current Management talks a lot....
I have been here much longer than any of our current landlords, and I see this place as getting worse, instead of better. The introduction of alcohol into our cafe is another step in the process of things becoming undone.
16 comments:
I will not be shocked to see Hayduk approve this, but at the same time I think they are taking on a potential major liability if they do go forward with it. One underage shitshow in the oval that gets recorded and makes the news will not bode well for them.
A recent private study shows approaching 60% students renting here now.
This should not be allowed. This is a RESIDENTIAL community and there are plenty of bars and restaurants off the property and within easy walking distance. Why can't this lame-brained so-called management get it that we are a residential property and the majority of us do not want commercial enterprises on the property. Everything that was appealing and of value and attractive about Stuyvesant Town is being destroyed by these greedy, short-sighted jerks. Management, if you want respect, show respect. Show respect toward the tenants who chose to make their home here because of the pleasant and bucolic grounds. Stop being such morons.
On my way to a Tenants Relations meeting at 276 First Ave today, I took a look to see if any signage in the Cafe had appeared stating, as is done at the Ice Rink, that the failcity is "For Residents and Their Guests Only” since the Café has become major local news item and I have bought up this issue on FB (and others as well) and this blog, as well as the STR himself.
Nothing.
Beer, wine and who knows what other booze has been drunk publicly on the Oval, and around the Oval, since at least last summer, and probably before then.
Until blackstone invaded us, I never witnessed this behavior, behavior which I hasten to add at least one security guard assured me was just fine. This is in broad daylight, and has been yet another antisocial behavior which some of the older tenants are now indulging in, as well.
During "events," and especially the highly esteemed, beloved and most welcome "movie nights," people with little understanding of what they are doing bring friends and six-packs and lots of wine and sit in the dark drinking. For maybe HOURS. Routinely. And there may be children on the Oval then, too. But, hey, the parents of kids who kick each other with the blades of ice skates routinely, as someone posted on the previous thread, are just fine with that.
So much marijuana smoke hits you in various locations on the Oval those nights, too. Our rough and tough Security Guards do absolutely nothing about this, even when requested to by residents. Clearly, they are under orders to do nothing about this, and to discourage anyone who takes exception to booze and pot publicly consumed and in your face and nose and lungs and on your clothes as you walk through a cloud of marijuana smoke.
It reminds me of the signs cautioning "NOT TO WALK AROUND YOUR OWN HOME IF YOU DO NOT WANT YOUR PICTURES TAKEN FOR PUBLICITY PURPOSES."
Your home isn't your home, get it? It's blackstone's resource, get it? It's their toy and THEY CAN BREAK IT IF THEY WANT TO BREAK IT BECAUSE THEY BOUGHT IT. Get it?
Yes, sit back and enjoy it and ask for more of it, for second helpings of their own version of hell. Remember, as is on the shirts their underlings wear as uniforms: BE KIND. LEAVE PEOPLE HAPPIER THAN WHEN YOU FOUND THEM (that one courtesy of Kelly. Go look for his various postings.). And research "doublespeak," George Orwell, too.
To return to the topic of this thread, though, STR has made some excellent and cogent points. Who ever knows what misery is being cooked up by blackstone's servants?
>>One underage shitshow in the oval that gets recorded and makes the news will not bode well for them.<<
Bad news until the next news cycle takes over. Blackstone has gotten bad news before. They ram on, regardless.
That is the figure I estimated. And about 10 percent city subsidized.
If they get a liquor license at the cafe , the place will turn into a student hangout. The bros will be whooping it up and practicing their drunken revelry. I do enjoy an occasional Friday evening dinner there with friends on a nice evening, but if booze is allowed the low life demo here will take over. As for pot smoke, it abounds here: in the halls, the lobbies, apartments, and loops. It is nauseating.
Why can't they just give us what a landlord is legally bound to provide: heat, hot water, cleanliness and safety. They can keep their stupid, pathetic "commercial enterprises," that nasty cafe, 5th rate concerts and silly sideshows. Don't try to turn it into a resort because it isn't a resort and the majority of tenants don't want it to be some quasi, third-rate resort.
Management, please show some consideration for the people who live close to the Oval and the 5Turd Cafe. Do you really have to go this far to try to lure people in to rent here? How about building a reputation for renting out clean, quiet, warm and pleasant apartments? Doesn't that sound like a good idea?
If lower Manhattan is a college town, then PCVST is the largest campus dormitory inside it.
Since PCVST is technically private property, buying booze, getting drunk and going wild in ST Oval campus vicinity is the largest, safest outdoor drinking location in NYC for dormitory students and their guests, particularly under-age students and their guests getting drunk and going wild. Absent a 911 call requesting emergency police/ambulance service, there will never be a permanent, public record of any incident (no matter how rowdy, violent, outrageous, etc.) that takes place on private PCVST campus grounds.
Since Speyer, transient student dormitory housing is clearly the most profitable PCVST business development plan. Anyone telling us Blackstone would not maximize that demographic is a liar. Anyone believing them is crazy.
I would like to see the private study on student housing numbers.
That is the reason for Blackstone remaining profitable. In five years the student population will approach 75 percent. City subsidy population also on the increase. It is really disgusting that they call this a family community.
We never will. They will keep it secret.
If they ever get this license, it will mean a crack down on open container through the complex. All the bros and moms drink out there now. Great place for the kiddos...
I think management is re-thinking the alcohol thing.
Look for the "420 Oval" dispensary coming soon...
Well somebody higher up in the thread saw it. And who is the mysterious they, not management why do a study of there going to turn a blind eye to problems. Why crate a paper trail?
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