BY WINNIE McCROY | As Hell’s Kitchen becomes a boomtown, local residents are saying enough is enough. Tired of the encroaching traffic, pedestrians, noise and sidewalk crowding in the corridor of Ninth Avenue between 40th and 50th Streets, members of the HK 50-51 Block Association testified before Community Board 4 (CB4) on the evening of June 3 at Roosevelt Hospital. Their message to business owners was simple: clear the sidewalks and tone down your loud music.
“These sidewalks are full of pedestrians, dogs, bikes, sidewalk cafes and an unabated growth of sandwich boards, signs and whiskey barrels,” said 40-year Hell’s Kitchen resident Sherri Hotes. “Sidewalks are for pedestrian travel, not for billboard ads.”
Hotes explained that the group had spoken to business owners, asking them to move A-frame sandwich boards out of the thoroughfare. They tried unsuccessfully to report the situation to 311, but were stymied when the non-emergency hotline refused to accept photo evidence. And their efforts to have the Department of Sanitation address the issue came to naught.
“We are asking the community board to get an officer from the city to talk to us, and tell us why they are not dealing with this problem,” said Hotes.
Bob Minor, head of HK 50-51, asked board members to take into consideration Mayor Bill de Blasio’s “Vision Zero” program to end traffic-related deaths on city streets, adding, “These signs are forcing pedestrians out into the streets. We understand that they can be three feet from the building and three additional feet in length. That’s six feet of sidewalk space. At least that’s what Sanitation believes are the rules.”
When a representative from Councilmember Corey Johnson’s office let residents know that these sidewalk advertisements and sandwich boards were not permitted, Minor continued, “In that case, we’d like to ask CB4 to send a letter to the commissioner of Sanitation and ask what exactly the law is, and how we can enforce it.”
Andrew Goldstein, a 24-year resident of Hell’s Kitchen, echoes this sentiment, saying, “Bob and Holly, they are not supposed to have these signs at all.”
He brought up a repeat offender, Scallywag’s (508 Ninth Ave. btw. 38th & 39th Sts.), as well as the restaurant Annabel (809 Ninth Ave btw. 53rd & 54th Sts.). The manager of Scallywag’s did not care to comment on the matter.
“I live on Ninth Avenue between 53rd and 54th, and we have some tough, loud bars and restaurants around,” said Goldstein. “Annabel is far from the worst operator, but they’ve got sidewalk tables, and they leave their windows and doors open all day and night. It’s one thing for them to not follow the stipulations, but quite another for them to be rewarded for it with a sidewalk cafe.”
This news was discussed at length by CB4 members, who were concerned that Annabel had jumped the gun on their request to have a sidewalk café by installing the chairs and tables before being granted permission. The board rethought their letter to the NYC Department of Consumer Affairs, agreeing that Annabel management had two days to submit the new drawings the DCA requires for their outdoor cafe. The business provided the necessary paperwork the following day.
“We are just trying to see what the neighborhood wants. People are looking for outdoor seating, and we’re trying to follow the rules and see how we can meet the demand for this seating while making everyone in the neighborhood happy,” said Annabel Assistant Manager Dan Kleinmann.
A third HK 50-51 member, Holly Raner, spoke against bikes, motorized and otherwise, that block sidewalks, and suggested that Manhattan be treated differently from other areas regarding legislating bicycle use.
“We want to know if there’s limits on how many bikes a delivery place can have, because there’s like 40-86 bikes chained along this stretch of Ninth Avenue,” said Raner. “We want legislation that makes them keep them in bike corrals.”
Raner also testified about noise complaints at Annabel, saying, “open doors and windows must be closed. We get about 600 emails a month about this at the Block Association.”
“It is so noisy that if there is any amplified sound you need to keep your windows closed — it’s the rule,” said Raner. “We’d like to see something done on a more proactive basis. There seems to be no consequences for these bad actions.”
General quality of life disturbances also brought community member Raoul Lavios to speak at the public session of CB4’s June 3 full board meeting. A resident of the Hudson hotel (356 W. 58th St. btw. Eighth & Ninth Aves.), he spoke on Agenda Item 1 — a letter to the hotel regarding violations of their state liquor license stipulations.
“Three years ago, they asked you to support their bid for a liquor license in exchange for a series of written promises made to then-Chair Corey Johnson,” said Lavios. “These stipulations were never met. They call it a ‘misunderstanding.’ They were supposed to put sound attenuation materials on the twenty-fourth floor, but they say they read it as being for the ‘floor,’ not on the literal floor, which is what we wanted.”
Lavios noted that they had asked the venue to not permit live bands and dancing, as the venue has no cabaret license. But as he noted, “every one of their parties has dancing.” He asked CB4 to take them to task for these violations.
When the board discussed this issue, member Tina DeFeliciantonio said that they had written to the new manager of the Hudson to inform them of the violation of stipulations, saying, “They might not know, so we are documenting the background and giving them a short time limit to respond.” CB4 is expecting a response by July 3.
“They are taking this extremely seriously, so our feeling is that we want to see how they will respond,” said DeFeliciantonio.
Several board members called for a harsher response, including cc’ing the Social Club Task Force on the letter, but leadership maintained that this was only the first salvo.
“We are walking a careful line between slamming them and putting up an ultimatum. We want them to fix it,” said CB4 Chair Christine Berthet. “They have already stopped some of their most egregious practices, but we have to be delicate about some issues, because a portion of their space is licensed for music but another portion isn’t. It makes no sense, but we must navigate this carefully.”
