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1 OAK owner Scott Sartiano (standing at right) defended his W. 17th St. club to a group of residents upset over the noise caused by crowds of the popular nightspot. (Photo by Patrick Hedlund)

Nightclub drubbed by sleepless 17th St. residents

Published: Thursday, September 10, 2009 2:42 PM CDT
By Patrick Hedlund and Diane Vacca 
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“We can’t sleep,” said W. 17th St. resident Ann Fredlin at a meeting of Community Board 4’s Business Licenses and Permits Committee on July 14. “We’re just asking for more sleep.”

She had come before the board to speak out against the popular nightclub 1 OAK, which sits across the street from her 20th-floor apartment in the Caledonia building between Ninth and 10th Aves. According to Fredlin and other residents of the block, persistent noise lasting until 5 a.m. on most nights has created an unbearable situation for the sleep-deprived tenants.

After months of working with the board and the club’s owners to find a solution to the problem, the residents are now asking that 1 OAK shutter two hours earlier to alleviate the early-morning racket.

“We are suggesting—begging you—that the club close at 2 a.m.,” said LeCee Johnson, who lives in another building on W. 17th St.

At the meeting, which was attended by 1 OAK owner Scott Sartiano, the residents showed a video taken over the course of a few late nights in June capturing the cacophony of honking taxis and crawling limos along the street. Johnson pointed out images of individuals she said were visibly smoking marijuana, urinating and selling jewelry outside the club after closing.

The group had initially brought its complaints over noise and traffic to the board in March, when Sartiano and the residents agreed to work toward an amicable solution.

But the tenor of the follow-up meeting took a decidedly acrimonious turn, leading one committee member to support the 2 a.m. closing time.

Christine Berthet, who has long opposed nightclub operations in the area, made a motion to support the tenants’ request to shutter 1 OAK two hours earlier—one of the most extreme steps that could be taken in this case.

When only Berthet and fellow committee member Martin Treat—both of Hell’s Kitchen—voted to support the motion, she commented: “The committee voted for less sleep for the community.”

One of the main concerns agreed upon by everyone was the lack of police enforcement on the block. While Sartiano said he has bulked up his security staff to deal with the rowdy crowd, residents feel he hasn’t done enough.

“I would like to make everybody happy,” said Sartiano, who is also a Caledonia resident and noted that he’s paying two security guards $9,000 a month to help with the crowds. “I’ll still do anything… someone’s got to help me too.”

However, Johnson countered that the guards are ineffective. While acknowledging that the “the owner’s very nice,” she claimed he told her that “if we didn’t like the security, we were welcome to hire our own and pay for it.”

Johnson also said an associate of Sartiano’s “suggested that if I were having problems, I should move. None of this strikes me as being in the spirit of cooperation.”

After citing incidents of violence by the club’s patrons, Fredlin read sections of the New York City code that identify activities shown in the video as grounds for revocation of a cabaret license.

Chuck Spence, co-chairperson of the committee, said only the State Liquor Authority or other governmental bodies have the power to restrict a club’s hours of operation, so “it’s virtually impossible for us to do something at this point.” 

So far, the board has engaged the issue “in a way that we never before,” noted committee member Corey Johnson. “I feel like this has been an endless nightmare for everyone,” he said. “I don’t know if we can keep doing this.”

Committee member Paul Seres added that the committee’s involvement in the matter could set a precedent moving forward for how the board deals with neighbors-versus-nightlife concerns.

Later, Berthet asked Sartiano if he had a cabaret license.

“Oh, yeah, we’ve applied for one,” he answered. “It takes time for the paperwork to go through.”

Berthet then noted that the application for the license was made in January.

“Nobody here is complaining that there’s too much dancing,” said committee member Tony Juliano.

Spence proposed the committee write a letter to the police commissioner asking that the police provide more resources, especially around closing time at 4 a.m.

“First of all, I don’t agree that more police presence is the solution,” Berthet responded. “Because if we have 15, five or 10 police presence at one club, I think the city’s going to be bankrupt.”

Juliano, however, insisted on continuing to work toward a viable solution. “Business owners are very cooperative and are doing whatever they can in order to try to resolve the problem, but it’s a bigger problem than they can handle,” he said. “We have elected officials that are frustrated, the community board is frustrated, but we still have lots of people that get woken up at 3 o’clock in the morning.” Juliano concluded, “We have a real problem. We all have to stay engaged with this problem and wrestle it to the ground until we figure it out.”

Following the meeting, Sartiano released a statement regarding the outcome. "We are happy that the community board and 1 OAK came to a joint resolution at last week's meeting," he said. "We are in agreement that additional police support is necessary in order to maintain the neighborhood's residential well being and will work in conjunction with the NYPD, neighboring businesses and local community groups to achieve this."


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The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of chelseanow.com.

New York Nights wrote on Jul 22, 2009 3:47 PM:

" The local residents have a valid concern, but nightlife operators can't be shouldered with the blame for controlling noise that comes from patrons out in the street. A higher police presence in areas of nightlife concentration is a more reasonable and viable long term solution than forcing a venue to close earlier. A 2 A.M. close will essentially cut off its revenue stream and eventually close the venue. While residents might welcome fewer nightclubs, they will not welcome higher taxes and higher crime in their neighborhoods.

http://nynintro.blogspot.com/2009/07/war-of-noise.html

Have fun.
Gamal "

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