Liquor, not milk brings jobs
To The Editor:
Re “Bloomberg will push for city resident on liquor board” (news article, March 10 -16):
Mr. Amateau’s article refers to community boards and neighborhood advocates that complain that the State Liquor Authority finds issuing licenses to be in the public interest if the establishments do no more than provide a few employment opportunities.
A busy 40-to-50-seat restaurant with a 12-to-15 seat bar will typically employ between 12 to 18 people directly generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in salaries and tips, tens of thousands of dollars in sales and payroll taxes and thousands more indirectly through vendors and other purchased services.
Selling alcohol is part of what makes a successful business and to flippantly dismiss a few employment opportunities as not in the public interest is foolish. Operators and owners should not have to face any parts of the city being made off limits in a blanket regulation but applications should be considered on a case-by-case basis with input and consultation with the local communities. New York has always had a vibrant nightlife, which does contribute to the economic and social health of our city. On the other hand, we can become completely Disneyfied and be tucked in at 9 p.m. with a glass of warm milk. Might as well live in monastery.
Christopher Molinari
Owner and chef of Frank’s restaurant
Getting to the memorial’s bottom
To The Editor:
I just wanted to say thank you for your excellent summary and analysis of issues related to the memorial (news analysis, March 10 – 16, “An underground memorial loses some of its upside”). It was great to see it distilled and presented so clearly and succinctly.
Tim Lannan
L.E.S. problems
To The Editor:
Re “Lower East side commander focuses on rowdy bars” (news article, March 3 -9):
Captain Dwyer must feel pretty good about himself to spout that line of drivel and bunk that was printed in Downtown Express. He must think we are morons.
Dwyer seems more interested in grooming himself for promotion than returning phone calls or in truly helping the long-suffering residents north of Delancey St., where there are still many hotspots of crime — unlicensed after-hours clubs and a string of Bangladeshi bodega robberies that was never solved, besides pickpocketing and purse-snatching. Why are lanes on the major streets like Houston and Essex allowed to be taken over by limousines, causing gridlock, horn honking and yet more noise while the police look the other way? Why has horn-honking taxi-lock been allow to occur late at night and on weekends? Babies and children are trying to sleep, which is as essential to proper growth as water and food.
Reminding the people making noise they are standing under the homes of sleeping residents or asking them politely two and three times to be quiet is not enough — we need some real enforcement. The crowds that invade our neighborhood are drunken and/or drugged when they arrive — if not soon thereafter — so their inhibitions are less and they tend to talk much louder, walk in groups of threes and fours (and more) and create a cluster of loudness. Calling 311 is a joke. Why hasn’t the law regarding public intoxication been more strongly enforced? Why aren’t those creating a public nuisance and violating the noise codes or public order or public safety codes being arrested and put through the system? A few weeks of this enforcement and word would get around to behave in our neighborhood.
If Captain Dwyer really wants to focus on bars and how they negatively impact residents, let him come north late one night for a walking tour of the area instead of dancing the hora on Grand St. We are neither morons nor clowns.
Marcia H. Lemmon
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