Aug 15, 2009 05:30 PM
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New York, 9:58 PM
Tue Feb 9
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Is two a trend? Today, in the NY Times: Greenwich Village residents who hated Paul Sevigny's uber-hip nightlife destination/coke den, The Beatrice Inn. And in the LA Times: residents speculatively hating the forthcoming Sunset Strip outpost of SoHo House. Viva!
The Beatrice Inn - the Village's cause célèbre amongst pissed-off residents and pissed-off quasi-celebrities/uber-hipsters - was shut down after the neighborhoods residents old fogies complained about the noise, smoking, and general ridiculousness that took place within its confines. This raises the question: is New York getting crunchier? Or more tightassed?
Though the answer fails to surface in today's New York Times article on it - the gist of which is: first, they came for the nightclubs... - they do come up with a plausible solution for clubs like the Bea:
Marilyn Dorato, the director of the Greenwich Village Block Associations, who helped residents near the Beatrice Inn with their campaign, had a suggestion for compromise that helped on her own block: "We used to have a lot of noise problems with the Waverly Inn, and that is why my neighbor bought it."
The neighbor, the Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, enclosed the restaurant's garden, and it now closes at 12:45 a.m. at the latest, said Ms. Dorato, a 37-year resident of the area.
"If there's a Graydon Carter living near the Beatrice Inn who wants to buy it, that would be a great solution," she said. "I recommend it."
Ahoy! Graydon Carter, The Great Negotiator of pissed-off residents and nightlife alike. Get yourself one of those, kids, and you can put all the blow up your snouts you want, as loudly as you can do it. Until then, there's this possibly out-of-proper-context gem, from nightlife impresario, columnist Steve Lewis:
"Nightclubs are now seen as nuisances," said Steve Lewis, a nightclub designer and a founder of the Nightlife Preservation Community, a group started this year. "The attitude is that if clubs just went away, everybody could have a quiet life."
Well, yes. I think that's the idea.
Across the country, the exact same thing's going down. Recent advocate of cultural eugenics and exclusive urban country club SoHo House will be planting their feet on the Sunset Strip after being given the go-ahead by local planning commissions. People are pissed!
The proposal has also drawn opposition from Beverly Hills Mayor Nancy Krasne, who underlined that it does not only affect the city of West Hollywood. "The traffic is already backed up on Sunset to Hillcrest in Beverly Hills and it bottlenecks in West Hollywood. This can only make travel on Sunset much worse," she said in e-mailed comments. "Now we add valets running across Sunset Boulevard to retrieve cars, cars trying to merge into Sunset with heavy traffic, amplified music on the roof of SoHo House on unknown days or evenings ... and the list goes on," Krasne said.
Don't forget the various non-filming permits reality shows like The Hills will use when they turn your backyard into the backdrop for The Drama of Our Time, or Guadalajaran Coke Mules taking refuge at your doorstep after navigating the terrifying masses occupying what's soon to be West Hollywood's most storied cultural institution. Luckily, though, anybody with an aerial view will be in luck:
"A 6 1/2-foot glass wall will enclose the top of the building.."
...and helicopters are the new Vespas. How does the "flyover country" you've been known to make fun of sound now, urban dwellers? Next to the thumping sounds of the latest Lady Gaga remix - below, as a primer - not too bad, right? Turn your speakers up as loud as you possibly can, and hear the future.
Send an email to Foster Kamer, the author of this post, at foster@gawker.com.
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