December 8th Block Association Meeting

Greetings Friends and Happy Holidays -

Below are notes from our most recent Block Association meeting. Apologies for the tardiness.

The main item to note: Monday, January 5th, we'll be hosting our winter gathering at Landmark Tavern on 46th and 11th, we'll be joined by our friends from the 46th Street Block Association, and we hope you'll all be there.

The topics we covered:

- Allison from 46th Street filled us in on the club situation in the neighborhood. A new club at 621 West 46th Street has been granted their license over community objections. Even though the SLA twice denied 621, and the neighborhood was concerned about a second mega-club in such close proximity to Pacha, 621 had spent money on renovations before they had the license, and thus had a stake in it. Their lawyers threatened action and wrangled the license, challenging the long-standing understanding of what the "3 licenses withing 500 feet rule" means (now interpreted as 3 of each type of license, not 3 liquor licenses total).

So, what does the community do now? 46th Street Block Association is in conversation with a lawyer that would require a $10,000 retainer. And the 45th Street residents hadn't had as much directly negative experience with Pacha, so there was less urgency.

However, we wanted to support 46th Street -- so as they write letters to electeds to clarify the law, and engage Senator Duane and Assembly Member Gottfried, we'll stand by to help, and Allison will forward us the letters, petitions, updates.

- At the same meeting, Brian from Pacha came by. Their club is trying to connect with the community, and he knew there had been some problems. He wants to be responsive, and will come in person to hear the feedback. That said, nobody had any concerns and we thanked him for joining us.

- There was some concern about the park not always being locked at night, but it seemed to be getting better.

- It's tour bus season -- if you see them idling on our street, tell them to move (or at least cut their engines) -- Vice President Chana Widawski has done this to great success.

- And though it's wintry now, members are looking ahead to the Food Festival in the spring.

- Following the success of our October movie, there's excitement for our next social event: the winter gathering. Brian generously offered Pacha, but it looks like we'll settle on Landmark this time on 46th & 11th and invite our neighboring associations...and save Pacha for the future.

- It was good to see Alice back. She doesn't go to New Jersey as much when it's cold, and thus she came and warmed up our meeting with stories of her 6 decades on the block!