New York Shitty Day Starter: Highlights From Community Board 1

As some of you who follow New York Shitty are undoubtedly aware: yesterday March 17th, marked the sixth year yours truly has operated this site. Therefore I elected to spend the day doing what I like to do: knocking around our fair city! Foremost and above all it was my utmost desire to visit Mehanata Bulgarian Bar at 113 Ludlow Street (whose “four tooth minimum” requirement and rather colorful lavatory fixtures— the purpose of yours truly’s visit in the first place, I’ll note— can be seen above). But alas it was not to be. They were closed. Thus I closed out my day of celebration by attending the monthly meeting of our local Community Board. Follows are some highlights (with occasional commentary). Enjoy!

Roll Call

• 26 members answered the call. NOTE: 2-3 more Community Board members showed up after roll call. This brought the number present up to 29 (of 49 members total). Believe it or not, this is a good turn-out.*
• Follows is some footage of the public they serve so as to give you, gentle readers, a general idea of the turn-out. As you will see, it was a full house!

The Chairman’s Report

The District Manager’s Report: : AKA the Oh-Es-A Minute

Our City Councilman Speaks

• Early childhood funding/subsidized education will probably be cut in zip code 11222.
• Mr. Levin speaks out for better investigation of vehicular/bicyclist accidents.
• Assemblyman Levin will be conducting a loft law workshop April 24th, 2012.

• There will be a Community meeting regarding the reconstruction of Nassau Avenue at the Lutheran Church of the Messiah.

Nassau Avenue Construction Community Meeting
Monday, April 23, 2012 at 6:30 p.m.
Lutheran Church of the Messiah
129 Russell Street
Brooklyn, New York 11222

And the main event: concerned neighbors of Williamsburg Manor speak up!

For those of you who are not in the know, the (apparent) owner of Mehanata Bulgarian Bar (whose lavatory graces the beginning of this post) wishes to be granted a liquor license for an approximately ~10,000 square foot space. This is daunting in and of itself. The fact “Williamsburg Manor” will be abutted by residential property on all sides and will apparently tout such amenities as rooftop garden and a “party bus”, well, that did not help matters. Both DNA.info and Aaron Short of the Brooklyn Paper have covered the proceedings at the last SLA (as in State Liquor Authority) Committee Meeting. Mr. Short makes note of Mehanata’s “Ice Cage”:

…a refrigerated “ice cage” where waiters in Russian military garb serve booze amid furniture and glassware made from ice.

Regrettably this delightful item was not brought up at last night’s convocation. That’s too bad because (in my humble observation) if there’s anything that will not ingratiate an liquor license applicant to what (still is) a community with a substantial Polish population it is men wearing Soviet uniforms selling vodka in a facility with the word “cage” in its name. Call me Solzhenitsyn. Nonetheless, the printed matter presented by the (would be) neighbors of “Williamsburg Manor” was an epistle its own right clocking at a whopping 24 pages. Without further ado, here it is for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

(As always, you can view all the previous material in larger format by clicking here.) It should go without saying that the Community Board voted to go with the SLA Committee’s recommendation that this liquor license be declined. Given the Community Board’s opinion is only advisory (READ: non-binding) I doubt we have heard the last of this.

And that’s all she wrote!

*For those of you who are wondering why the attendance of our Community Board is as lackluster as it is, follows is the attendance policy per their By-Laws:

You can read the rest here.