Fort Greene residents are up in arms over the biggest controversy to hit the neighborhood since the Great Cat Rescue Mission of 2010: neighbors say that Diamante's Brooklyn Cigar Lounge, which opened last year on South Oxford St., is stinking up the area with an ever-present smell which has invaded and polluted their living rooms. "I cannot open my windows. It's a constant lingering odor. It's like someone is in our house smoking a cigar," said Luis Urrea, who lives across the street from the lounge.
Locals have begun petitioning owner David Diamante to install a better ventilation system to help stave off the polarizing odor. Smoking is banned in city bars and restaurants (and lots of other places!), but the Lounge doesn't serve food or alcohol, only the pungent promise of lung cancer. Diamente has already installed two smoke-eating machines to filter the air in the Lounge, but that hasn't stopped neighbors from lodging 13 complaints about the cigar bar with the city Buildings Department.
Brad Gerstman, a representative of 300 tobacco shops in the state, thinks that Diamente is a victim in a city-wide smoking witch hunt: "He's in full compliance with the law. He's worried for his livelihood...We're moving into an era of ultra-intolerance. People think they're entitled not to get a hint of smoke anywhere." But who would argue that people aren't entitled to the warm embrace of roasting tar marshmallows?
