PIER 26 UPDATE
The boathouse and the restaurant are covered here.

HUDSON RIVER PARK ADVISORY COUNCIL
Bob Townley, chair of the Hudson River Park Advisory Council, talked about why he thinks there should be security stations throughout the park.

MEGU: DISCUSSION ABOUT UPCOMING RENEWAL OF LIQUOR LICENSE
Megu (62-66 Thomas) has apparently been renting itself out for parties, and drunken guests have been causing trouble up and down Thomas Street. Resident John Willenbecher told of being shoved by a bouncer and watching a patron vomit at 3:30 a.m. The problem—well, one of the problems—with all this is that Megu’s liquor license allows for the serving of alcohol only till 11:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and midnight on Friday and Saturday. At first, the restaurant’s two reps denied that anyone was drinking alcohol after midnight, causing some confusion at the committee—were they really going to try to get that over? Also, there was a lot of “As far as we know…” and “As far as we’re concerned…”, which sent red flags a-flyin’. Eventually, their lawyer suggested that perhaps he take his clients out into the hall to explain some things. When they came back later in the evening, the reps acknowledged that there had been private parties but that the restaurant doesn’t supply the alcohol and no one was supposed to be drinking. They agreed to not allow any more outside parties, after the two Megu corporate events this weekend and an unaffiliated one later in the month, and those will not have alcohol. Their lawyer talked about only allowing people to exit in waves (my nightmare is being told I can’t leave a party…). The liquor license comes up for renewal in August, and the neighbors were told to keep a close eye on the situation and report back.

56 LEONARD UPDATE
Reps from Lend Lease, the construction company at 56 Leonard, were all ready to give a progress report (pictured at left), but the committee wanted instead to talk about the noise coming from the hoist. (It really is something.) It starts at 6:30 a.m. and runs all night. The permits are in order, and they’re not doing anything the city doesn’t allow. The problem stems in part from the MTA refusing to allow a hoist with a counterweight (something to do with the subway tunnels below Church), which leads to a different, noisier kind of hoist. They’re bringing in a third-party noise consultant to check it out, they’re adding more rollers to spread out the the load, and they’re going to see if they can put up shielding. But basically it sounds like the neighbors are in for a long haul: The hoist will be up and running till the end of 2015.

SIDEWALK CAFÉ RENEWAL: LOS AMERICANOS
Vote: 6-0 (or maybe 7-0—it happened very quickly).

LIQUOR-LICENSE ALTERATION: SALEYA
Saleya would like to serve alcohol till 1 a.m. Sunday-Thursday and 2 a.m. Friday-Saturday. Vote: 6-0 (or maybe 7-0).

SPRING STUDIOS DISCUSSION
The Spring Studios photo studio/advertising complex/event space garnered a lot of ill will when a Super Bowl party thrown by one of its clients, Moët Hennessey, ran late and loud and bright and annoying—and then, to make things worse, when CB1 called it to the carpet, manager David Hemphill couldn’t attend because it was Fashion Week. (If ever an excuse was ill-suited to its audience….) Anyway, he made it last night, and he said everything the committee wanted to hear—that it was a fuck-up, that they learned from it, that it won’t happen again, etc. They’ve been working with neighbors about the construction lights, and they’ve started the process that will enable them to hire off-duty cops to deal with traffic when they do have another event, which won’t be until after construction is complete (best case July). The committee, while justifiably concerned this is a snowjob, decided that Spring has been trying to hard to do the right thing to not forgive it this one trespass.

HERITAGE OF PRIDE DANCE ON PIER 26
This was on the agenda but not discussed; no reason was given.

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