Over the past several years as the community fought to both landmark the Meat Market and preserve the integrity of the area’s zoning, it was often repeated how the area has a unique ecosystem. During the day, galleries and boutiques flourish. At night, bars, clubs and restaurants come to life. As if on cue, as the last of the nightlife shuts down at 4 a.m., trucks roll in to the meatpackers’ businesses. No one gets in anyone else’s way and everything functions smoothly, so the theory goes.
The district was landmarked and so far residential encroachment has been kept at bay in the defeat of a plan to build a 32-story tower on Washington St. Landmarking and preserving the area’s manufacturing zoning were seen as ways to keep out big residential development — specifically, towers — while helping the meatpackers maintain a foothold in a dwindling wholesale market and allowing nightlife to exist without annoying residents. The victories seemed like a win-win for everyone.
But now it’s become clear that nightlife is taking over the Market. Ninth Ave. is now a bustling club scene with a phosphorescent hotel as its soaring centerpiece, with restaurants doubling as nightclubs with cavernous drinking lounges and discos in their basements.
Some residents now fear that in their effort to block residential development, allowing the Market to become a free-for-all party zone that they have created a monster — a bar monster.
It was PM on Gansevoort St. that first awakened residents to the problem. Far bigger clubs are now angling for a slice of the action — Buddha Bar and Narcisse, both on 13th St. Residents on the Market’s edge — and a few living legally in the Market — are now saying it’s time to draw the line, to start fighting new liquor license applications, both at Community Board 2 and the State Liquor Authority.
This approach may get some results. However, the S.L.A. has proven unresponsive in general to community opposition to new licenses. Also, the fact remains that the Market’s zoning — which the community fought to keep — is a manufacturing zoning that specifically allows the largest nightclubs and dance clubs.
And while it might not be popular to say it — the Meat Market is dying, rapidly. The exodus to Hunt’s Point is in full swing. By the end of the year, probably less than 20 meatpackers will be left, about three-quarters of these in the city co-op building and in another building owned by James Ortenzio. This is down from 150 in the 1950s. Those who own their buildings are waiting to sell; the rest will have to leave as leases expire.
In short, it’s time to take an honest and hard look at the Meat Market’s future. What will it be like in five years, 10 years? Clearly, if nothing is done, it will become a bigger and bigger bar and club scene, with its effects probably increasingly felt in surrounding neighborhoods. For instance, is it time, perhaps, to consider some limited residential development, with height restrictions on new construction? These are tough questions, but they should be asked. After all, it’s better to be proactive than to respond after the fact and play catch-up — when changing the results by then may be impossible.
