Let's not let the news that Brooklyn's Community Board 1 voted (symbolically?) against the concerts at the Williamsburg Waterfront overshadow the other distressing development that emerged from last night's meeting: the locals are poised to go through with this moratorium on new liquor licenses in north Brooklyn. And unlike the State Parks Department, the SLA has a history of doing the community boards' bidding.
Old Vocal residents in Williamsburg and Greenpoint are fed up with the raging nightlife that costs them the precious peace and quiet they've come to expect in the provincial backwater of NYC. The poster boy for this war on nightlife last night was Alma, the boisterous Latin club that opened with great fanfare and searchlights back in 2010. Months later, the Times praised the establishment for providing an alternative to all the ubiquitous hipster artisanal microbrew specialty cocktail bars, but those who live nearby aren't feeling it, as this video from Brownstoner shows:
"Once a company has a liquor license, their message to the community in a lot of cases is pretty much a middle finger," CB1 Chair Christopher Olechowski said last night after calling out Alma for all the noise. In 2010, 138 new liquor license applications were approved in the neighborhood, with another 54 in 2011. Is that 54 too many? Next month, the Community Board is expected to ask the SLA to join them in the moratorium, and, we assume, to support more family-friendly canasta clubs and needlepoint classes.
