Four Square, Minetta Tavern, Spin and 205

The New York Nights Club Report for March 18th, 2009

Compiled by Gamal Hennessy

Opening
Spin
(Urban Daddy)
Susan Sarandon opens the best (and probably only) ping pong club/ lounge in Gramercy.

Minetta Tavern
(Thrillist)
The old school bar and grill returns to the Village.

Stillborn
205
(Eater)
Community Board 3 is hard at work trying to prevent this venue from opening…

Product Launch
Jose Cuervo Especial Silver

Cuervo add a new premium silver to its line. If you don’t know what silver tequila means, check out our article; Tequila the Mexican Treasure.

Four Square
(Urban Daddy)
The creators of Dodge ball create a mobile social network for nightlife. Hopefully fanatics don’t use it to keep score…

Have fun.

Gamal

Drinking at 500 Feet

By Gamal Hennessy

We’ve done several stories about the threats to New York clubs and bars. A lot of these issues revolve around a club getting or keeping its liquor license. NYN started investigating the process to give the public a better idea of what goes on behind the scenes. I found out two important things at my first hearing…




And if you want to find out more about what's going on in New York nightlife, sign up for NYN Insider. It's free.

Can We Keep Clubs Open? A NYN Special Report

By Gamal Hennessy

Behind the scenes of New York’s constant nightlife party there is a struggle for control. The outcome of this conflict will dictate where and how you enjoy New York bars and clubs. A few weeks ago, we published Last Call to explain this situation from the point of view of the bars and clubs. This article will bring other influential groups into the debate. While NYN maintains its position as an advocate for nightlife, we feel our readers need to understanding the perspective of the other players involved will make all of us better informed about the issue.

Bed, Nectar and the Summer Rooftop Bars

The New York Nights Club Report for May 22, 2008

Last Call: The Latest Threat to New York Nightlife

A New York Nights Special Report
By Gamal Hennessy

Part III: The Future

Recent events have created tension between the nightlife industry and the community boards. Those tensions have fueled a sneak attack on clubs in the form of a 2 AM closing stipulation. How this situation going to affect the clubs and the people who like to go there? Find out in the last installment of our special report…

Putting New York to Sleep (Part 2)

Putting New York to Sleep: The Latest Threat to New York Nightlife

A New York Nights Special Report
By Gamal Hennessy

Part 2: The Present

In our first article we showed how the increased power of local community boards, their desire to recreate the suburbs in middle of the city, and the noise generated from the smoking ban have combined to create animosity between the boards and the nightlife industry. Today we’ll look at how that tension has prompted a new attack on the city’s clubs.

Putting New York to Sleep: The Latest Threat to New York Nightlife

A New York Nights Special Report
By Gamal Hennessy

New York is one of the few cities on earth that has a constant nightlife presence. One of the main reasons tourists and new young residents come here is because we have more clubs that are open later than almost other city in the country. The continuous energy of New York nightlife pumps millions of dollars into the city every year and helps make us the city that never sleeps.

But all of the money, energy and prestige that comes from New York nightlife will disappear if the clubs themselves are forced to shut down. How could that happen? How could a city that holds more than 1,500 bars, lounges and nightclubs be reduced to a fraction of that? If clubs are uniformly forced to close at 2 AM instead of the normal 4 AM time, it could have a ripple effect on not only the nightlife industry but the overall New York economy. New York Nights is going to take a look at this issue in a special three part series.

Nightlife News for December 18th 2007

Music
Free Concerts in New York
(Ben Sisario: New York Times)
I think New York has live music that will appeal to every musical taste you can imagine. Going to hear some of that music can also cost more than you can imagine. One enterprising reporter recently conducted a little experiment; go out to listen to quality live music every night for seven nights and spend no money doing it. He got some pretty good results.

Music
Cotton Club Survives
(Austin Fenner: New York Post)
Construction is a constant process in New York City. Building are constantly being torn down to make way for the next high rise condo, Starbucks or Apple Store. Columbia University is following NYU's lead and expanding northward on the Upper West Side. But at least one famous venue can survive the bulldozer.

Special Announcement
New York Nights Set to Launch Connections in January
(Gamal Hennessy: New York Nights)
The original concept of New York Nights was a magazine for the nightclub crowd. When we moved the idea online, we knew we had to be more than a list of events. So we added a searchable database of almost every type of venue in New York. We bring you the news that effects clubs all over the city. Now we're going to bring you a way to find the people who are into the same nightlife that you're into.
Use the Banner to Jump to the December 18th Edition of Nightlife News…only from New York Nights.

A NYN Editorial (Is New York Nightlife Dead?)

Is New York Nightlife Dead?

(The First in a Two Part Editorial)

By Gamal Hennessy

Rest in Peace?
There is certain level of malaise floating through the city when it comes to nightlife. This general dissatisfaction stems from the concept that the golden age of club life in New York is long gone. You can read it in the club reviews from magazines. You can hear it from people who ran the clubs in the 80’s and 90’s.

They say that the New York nightlife scene is dead.

The evidence to support this concept is pretty strong. Legendary spots like Studio 54, Palladium and Limelight have been gone for years, replaced by theaters and NYU dorms. AIDS and drugs hit the club scene harder than almost any other segment of society and killed many of club pioneers. Major acts like Bob Dylan or Madonna rarely bubble out of the club scene now. Today we watch them hatch on American Idol. The cabaret and ‘quality of life’ laws of the Giuliani era have been a further drag on a once very decadent environment. Bottle service and VIP rooms have changed the focus of many clubs from pleasure to business. Other cities like San Francisco or Atlanta or Montreal have become the places to party. Things have changed a lot over the past few years.

But does that mean that our nightlife scene is gone? Have we missed the chance to enjoy New York nightlife?

Click on the image to read the full story from New York Nights.

Nightlife News for October 23, 2007

Nightlife News for October 23, 2007

NY Liquor Authority blamed for decline (Lisa Fickenscher-Crain’s New York)
It is natural for a certain number of businesses to close in any given year. The businesses that disappear are usually replaced by new ones as long as the demand is there. However, while New York City has seen some bars and clubs close in the past few years, the number of replacement clubs is going down, even though the demand is as strong as it ever was...

Smarter people skip the smoking tax (Joan Gralla- Reuters)
You can’t smoke in most New York bars (unless they have hookah) and New York smokers pay more in cigarette tax than almost any other city in the country… or do they?...

New Social Network for Buying Tickets Unveiled. (Press Release)
The changes that Madonna and Radiohead brought to the music industry last week overshadowed a new service designed to help people buy, sell and trade tickets to sports and entertainment events without the high surcharges or fees....

For this and more Nightlife News, click the banner to jump to New York Nights.

NYPD Issues Nightlife Guidelines (Nightlife News)

Nightlife News for October 19th

Clubs Begin Work with City to Improve Security Conditions (Al Baker- New York Times)
The recent deaths of two club patrons in the past year is being used as the catalyst for new cooperation between the police department and the New York Nightlife Association. Yesterday, in a joint statement the two groups announced 58 measures that are intended to make clubs safer for patrons and give club owners incentive to call the police if trouble occurs.

Nightlife spots have been reluctant to call the police in the past because they didn’t want to have to deal with the disorderly premises citations that would interfere with their liquor licenses.

What does this mean to you the next time you go out? There might be more security guards, more cameras, metal detectors, ID scanning machines and more chances that cops will show up if something happens. You can also expect higher costs. The club owners are business people first. If they have to pay for more security, we have to pay for more security. But paying a little more for a drink is preferable to dead club kids in the street or clubs shut down all over the city. (Additional Coverage from Justin Silverman AM New York)

Lawmakers call for a fake ID crackdown (Brandon Bain- Newsday)
At the same time that the NYPD is developing guidelines for club security, state lawmakers are pushing to change the dram shop laws to increase penalties for the people who sell fake ID’s.

It is estimated that 16% of the alcohol consumed in New York State is consumed by minors. These minors use fake ID to get into bars and buy drinks. The law in place since 1921 hold the bartender and the bar owner liable for any injury or damage resulting from underage drinking, but the person who created the fake ID went largely unpunished.

Removing some of the burden from bartenders in this scenario makes sense, since even a trained bartender can have trouble verifying age on a busy Saturday night. Besides I’d like the chance to drink that 16% of statewide alcohol without losing it to some kid…(Additional Coverage: from Brian Howard : Journal News and Mark Siesel: New York Legal Blog )

Hurt by the Quality of Life? (A NYN Editorial)

By Gamal Hennessy

Since the early 1990’s, nightclub culture in New York has not been actively supported by local authorities and community groups. In many instances it is being attacked under quality of life ordinances that are ostensibly designed to make New York a better place to live. While many of the quality of life goals are admirable, they are also used by some to further specific discrimination agendas and political campaigns including the 2008 presidential race. However, instead of enhancing New York life, attacks on clubs arguably hurt the city and the people who live in it.

Background

There are three specific methods that the city uses to police bars, lounges and nightclubs beyond the standard criminal statutes including denial of liquor licenses (as reported in the September 9th, September 13th and October 9th editions of Nightlife News), aggressive club closings (as reported in the August 29th, August 31st, September 1st and September 27th editions of Nightlife News , and the continued enforcement of the city’s cabaret laws that prohibits dancing in any venue without a license. Although this law was challenged in 2005, it has been upheld in state court as recently as February of 2007. The use of these and other methods to control clubs is seen as an act that reduces crime.

Point
But the question remains open on whether these or any of the quality of life ordinances actually decrease crime and increase the quality of life. A popular economic theory rejects this concept.
Crime statistics did fall during the early 90’s. Rudy Giuliani, who was mayor of New York during that time period, claims that victory in the war on crime was due to his aggressive policing and quality of life controls . However Steven Levitt author of the best selling book Freakonomics holds that falling crime had more to do with than Roe v. Wade than Giuliani. The concept is called the legalized abortion and crime effect.
Basically, the more unwanted children there are in a society, the more criminals there will be when those children grow up, because they will have fewer resources and economic opportunities available to them. When the Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973, it reduced the total number of unwanted children generated in the society. In 1993, just when those children would have grown up into potential criminals, crime decreased because those children simply were not there. If you add the national economic turn around that came with the dot com boom of the early 90’s with the lower number of potential criminals, you can argue that crime decreased because of population control and economics, not aggressive policing or quality of life laws.



Counter Point
Even if you assume that crime did not decrease from inhibiting club life, it can be argued that there are other benefits to the city that come from quality of life laws. While it is true that controlling things like excessive noise and public urination are beneficial, suppressing nightlife hurts New York in the long term.
Nightlife in New York City fosters the growth of art, music and fashion. Elizabeth Currid goes to great lengths in her book the Warhol Economy to explain that the cultural breeding ground that produced Warhol, Basquait, Madonna and the entire hip hop genre is as vital to New York’s society as tourism or finance (See further coverage in the September 10th Edition of Nightlife News). The dilution of that environment eliminates a vital portion of the City. AM New York, a prominent New York daily newspaper, has been running a series of columns exploring the concept that New York is losing the very elements that make it a unique city because of, among other things, the aggressive control of nightlife.

New York thrives on its unique nature, which includes its nightlife. The city recently launched a campaign to attract more than 50 million tourists to the city by 2015 (reported in the October 11 edition of Nightlife News). Underage drinking, drug use, building hazards like the Happy Land Social Club Fires do exist within the nightlife environment. Dealing with these issues are legitimate concerns for any city. But we have a choice. We can deal with them in the context of supporting nightlife or we can deal with them by attacking nightlife itself. While attacks on clubs are an easy political target because club patrons don’t normally take action, the risk of backlash is high because the economic fallout that comes with closing the clubs can ultimately damage the political aspirations of any politician.

Please submit your questions or comments to gamal@newyorknightsonline.com

Nightlife News for October 9th, 2007

Nightlife News for October 9, 2007

New Club Book Released (Anna Vander Broeck- Forbes)
Rob Fitzgerald, a bouncer at one of the Westside megaclubs has moved from a popular blog to a new book entitled Clublife. The book is a description of how Rob became a bouncer and how his job shapes his perception of New York nightlife. If you have ever wondered what a bouncer is thinking when you walk up to the velvet rope and try to hustle your way in, this book might be for you. If you want to know how NOT to act when you are trying to get into the club of the moment, this book is probably for you. Just don’t make the mistake Ms. Broeck does of using this book to paint a negative picture of every club in every major city in America.

City Could Face New Cab Strike (Chris Dolmetsch- Bloomberg)
Yellow cabs in New York City went on strike last month (see the Sept 6th edition of Nightlife News) to protest against the GPS/ video/ credit card systems that are now required in all cabs. In spite of the fact that the last two day strike did little to alter the city’s position and the fact that a judge has rejected their claims are an invasion of privacy, cabbies are planning another strike on October 22nd. I understand that drivers don’t want to be tracked (who does?) and they don’t want to pay the $6,000 it costs to install the equipment, and they don’t want to listen to Al Roker every 48 seconds, but let’s face it; being able to pay your fare with a credit card is a great idea. It leaves you with more singles to tip your bartender/ waitress/ exotic dancer of choice. (Additional coverage from NY1)

Crobar fighting to reopen (Daniel Maurer- New York Magazine) Local community boards are continuing their quality of life push. Last week, Local Community Board 4 asked the State Liquor Authority to reject the clubs new liquor license application. Miami’s Opium Group, the new owners of the space) claim that they are going to run the space differently from the previous owners and avoid all of the violations that got it in trouble in the first place. With all the spaces closed down on the west side, and the downfall of Forty Deuce, the city is making it harder and harder to get rejected at the velvet rope and pay $12 for a drink. Can anyone say lounge?

Have fun
Gamal