THIS WEEK: Community Board 1 Combined Public Hearing & Board Meeting

Yes, gentle readers, it is yours truly’s favorite time of the month. This of course being Community Board 1’s monthly Combined Public Hearing & Board meeting! As you can see there is quite an array of liquor license applications and renewals. I have highlighted the one I found most interesting. Let’s take a closer look at this one, shall we?

It would appear an eating and drinking establishment, “Brooklyn Barge Bar, is has designs for gracing our community’s waterfront. Well, in a manner of speaking. Something about the address struck me as being odd. So today I headed over to West Street to see what gives.

Sure enough, a notice is posted.

This seems clear enough— except for one minor detail.

91 West Street (AKA: 36 – 44 Greenpoint Avenue) is a fair distance from the water in question. This begs a number of questions. We’ll keep it simple:

Why?

As the previous map clearly illustrates the building in question is roughly a block away from the waterfront.

However, the westernmost remnant of Milton Street, albeit in demapped form (in other words it is private— not public— property), still exists.

It is not only accessible to the public (as illustrated above by visitors to our community enjoying a photo op), but it provides direct access to the waterfront. This would strike me as being a better means of ingress and egress from the proposed establishment— so why 91 West Street?

A few things to consider:

1. In order to apply for a Liquor License though Community Board 1 (whose rather lengthy application can be seen here) one must provide a valid Certificate of Occupancy. 91 West Street does not have one.
2. More importantly, the license must be filed specifically for the space wherein liquor will be served. This is ostensibly not 91 West Street. It is merely providing access to the Barge Bar.
3. Having seen my fair share of liquor license chicanery over the years I have to wonder what would happen if the Barge Bar is issued a liquor license— will the next step be applying for a modification to said license incorporating 91 West Street? Provided of course they get the C of O business sorted out? Let’s just say I would not rule this out.
4. Exactly how many people does this establishment intend to accommodate? I do not know. However, it if exceeds 74 people then a place of Assembly Permit (whose fire code requirements are rather stringent) come into play.

Hmm.

So many questions. I can only hope members of our Community Board and perhaps the public sees fit to ask them. Closing on a (somewhat) related note (our waterfront), some of you may have noticed I highlighted Noble Street in the screencap I took from Google Maps.

Noble Street is indicated as terminating on the waterfront. This is, of course, because it does— and has for quite some time.

However, as you can clearly see, there is a gate gracing this (apparently) public street. This is hardly news. In fact our former City Councilman, David Yassky, took up the matter.

The fence on Java Kent has long since been removed— but the one on Noble still stands.

Perhaps it is time to resume this matter with our elected officials (NOTE: Rami Metal is presently Councilman Levin’s Chief of Staff) and Open Space advocates? I mean, if we can theoretically have a for profit enterprise on/in our waterfront, why can’t the public be granted access to public property (a street)? This only strikes me as being fair…

Image Credits: The nifty 1886 Brooklyn Map hails from WardMaps.com. The 1949 Hagstrom Map comes via Kevin Walsh’s very own Forgotten NY!