The golden era of the noble, ineffectual 'respect our neighbors' sign
Heathers, on East 13th Street. Sarah Laskow
9:52 am Feb. 1, 20124
Until the rules went up in pastel colors on the left-hand door of Heathers on East 13th Street, it was easy to pass by without realizing that, behind those black doors in that black front, there was a bar.
Heathers has been open for more than six years, and although its owner, Heather Millstone, says she has tried to keep crowds from gathering out front, the bar has never received the blessing of Community Board 3 to obtain or renew its liquor license. Heathers has an unobtrusive entrance and, for that matter, unobtrusive, almost bookish bouncers. But to noise-sensitive neighbors, those features matter less than the bar’s beating music and the chatter of patrons as they come, go, and linger outside to smoke.
One day, Millstone’s neighbors asked for, as a token of good faith, a sign—one that would ask Heathers patrons to “please respect our neighbors.”
The bar has since posted a series of such signs: The first one “was pretty great,” Millstone says. (It referenced "Voices Carry," the 1985 song by ‘Til Tuesday.) All of them have had the same message for patrons—please, please be quiet—and yet they did not keep Heathers’ neighbors from challenging Millstone’s most recent request for a liquor license renewal. It was in the wake of this dispute that the rules went up.
Rule #1: Be very quiet.
Signs like the one Millstone’s neighbors requested spackle the East Village. These signs aren’t new. McSorley’s, open since 1854, has inscribed in a stone just beyond its front step a tongue-in-cheek version: “Please help us keep our neighborhood in order.”
But the signs have multiplied since New York banned smoking in bars, and can be found by the dozen in neighborhoods like the Lower East Side, the West Village, and Park Slope. Williamsburg has at least one.
Neighbors worried about bar noise specifically ask for the signs, and lawyers advise bar owners to include them in their noise-mitigation plans. Like Millstone, some bar owners use the signs as a way to advertise their bar’s particular character. One bar owner said he put up his as part of a settlement with the city over violations for underage drinking.
Despite their ubiquity, bar owners find that these signs do not work. The majority of bar patrons are not aware that they are participants in New York’s noise wars, and that their chatter can have consequences for the owners of their favorite bar. Also, at precisely those times customers are most in need of sign-borne admonishment about the noise they are making, they are drunk. Keeping them quiet requires a more committed strategy than putting up printed warnings, even when the warnings are in all caps.
At Heathers, the "Voices Carry" sign, which was eventually stolen, was succeeded by a series of signs with the same message: Please be quiet. Still, when it came time to renew the bar’s liquor license in the fall of 2011, Millstone faced a history of noise complaints, and the community board voted not to renew. Although it takes the community-board vote into account, the State Liquor Authority has the ultimate say on liquor licenses, and while it was considering its verdict, a piece of paper on the door of Heathers made a more detailed plea to patrons:
“Hey! When you need to smoke/talk/wait for someone, please move to Ave A. Not the tree, or the next tree, go beyond the trash receptacles. Thank You. Anyone and everyone who wants to keep Heathers open for another 2 years!!!”
The liquor authority approved the license, and the rules appeared on the bar’s door.
Rule #2: If you go outside to smoke, please go all the way over to the corner of Avenue A.
Both sides of the noise wars—bar owners and sleep-deprived neighbors—trace the origins of their fight to 2003, when the city ban on smoking in bars brought patrons out onto the streets to linger and smoke and talk well into the night.
In the East Village, at least, the neighborhood was changing, as well. The area had played host to the city’s nightlife aficionados for years, but through the '80s and '90s its residents were paying rents low enough that they could overlook nighttime noise. As rents increased, so did complaints.
“When people start paying that sort of money, they expect more from the neighborhood,” says George Ruotolo, who with his brother owns and manages a trio of whiskey-focused bars. “Because of the way things have changed in the past 15 years, you have to be a better neighbor, if you want to coexist.”
Ms. Laskow...you have some key facts completely wrong. The LES and East Village were much, much quieter as little as 10 years ago. The enormous influx of young, well to do people--and the plethora of bars and restaurants that sprang up to serve them--is a relatively recent, post 9/11 (or so), post-'Sex and the City' phenomenon. A dramatic increase in night noise, traffic and rude, loud behavior began at that time. And the signs have been around, on the far fewer establishments that then existed, since at least the mid-90s.
Noise complaints typically come from long-time residents, I believe, like myself, who miss the neighborhood that has changed so much around us. I would gladly go back to when there were a total of three or four diners and maybe a couple of more legitimate restaurants in the entire East Village, and a group of old, reliable bars where you could smoke inside, listen to the jukebox, and not encounter the suburban, privileged kids who were too afraid to come to the neighborhood.
As a long time resident that remembers a quieter time on Ludlow Street,I am tired of hearing remarks from bar and club owners who insist that that their establishments made the neighborhood better and safer for everyone.The bars have attracted a very unruly crowd who often get into fights and disrupt everyone who is trying to sleep.They park their fancy cars and often play their car radio at an unacceptable volume.I have seen what looks like clandestine drug transactions outside my window on occasions.The community board has turned down a number of applications for new licenses in our district,only to have the bar/restaurant owners appeal to the SLA who go against the community board rule in favor of the bar/restaurant.
A sign posted in a window or door does little to keep the noise level down,when people are drunk and looking to show off in front of their friends.The solution is to limit the amount of bars/clubs that can open in an already congested area.
Blame the smoking ban, not the bars or their customers. If people could smoke inside, they wouldn't be standing outside to begin with, plain and simple. No one goes to a bar in order to stand outside it. Bloomberg and Quinn, who supposedly represents the Village, created the whole problem. Remember that when Quinn starts running for Mayor.
Downfall wrote on February 6, 2012, 1:39 AM
Blame the smoking ban, not the bars or their customers. If people could smoke inside, they wouldn't be standing outside to begin with, plain and simple. No one goes to a bar in order to stand outside it. Bloomberg and Quinn, who supposedly represents the Village, created the whole problem. Remember that when Quinn starts running for Mayor.
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