GREENWICH VILLAGE?A DOB inspector did indeed visit the Equinox gym at 97 Greenwich Avenue over the big ol' signs on the building that have led to much outrage, and a tipster reports that Equinox was hit with 13 zoning and code violations. And here's a copy of the warning letter (warning: PDF) sent by the Landmarks Preservation Commission. It's looking like the signs may have a shorter shelf life than our New Year's resolutions. [CurbedWire Inbox]
PROSPECT HEIGHTS?Freddy's Bar, the Dean Street dive in the Atlantic Yards footprint soon to be seized by the power of eminent domain despite the bar's attempts to decapitate it, is feeling emboldened by a pair of recent events: the scathing anti-Atlantic Yards column written by George Will, and the connection of developer Forest City Ratner to a White Planes bribery scandal. Though none of this is enough to derail the project, it didn't stop Freddy's from issuing the most epic e-mail in the history of the Atlantic Yards Resistance.
Here is just a taste:
Freddy's Bar is in a State of Revolt against New York State's Eminent Domain Law. In the style of our Founding Fathers, we have guillotined the Eminent Domain Law in ef?gy to announce that this law was bought by Real Estate Royalty and we will not follow it. We also installed the "Chains of Justice" on the bar itself (see Cuff Love, NY Post by Leonard Greene), for patrons to chain themselves to on the day, should the day come, when the Empire State Development Corporation (government entity conducting the theft of the bar and neighborhood for the private developer and his cronies) will try to take the bar for ACORN, Bruce Ratner, Barclays Bank, and Russia's richest man. This week the ESDC responded to our revolt by announcing they will use the sheriff to physically remove us from the bar on the day of the siege (Daily News).
If they can't pull us out will they use tear gas? Will they use guns? They did not say. They only said they would use physical force, which leave us to wonder how far these villians will go to take our neighborhood to give it to somebody else.
This week's Federal corruption case in Yonkers shows that developer Ratner (called "Developer #2" in court documents) is no stranger to government manipulations for his bene?t.
We will issue our response to the Empire State Development Corporation's threat of physical force on at Sunday's event. Because the ESDC is merely working to take the land for others, our main retaliation for their threat will be directed at Barclays Bank. And we will have a special message for new 3-32 Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, too:
His banks, along with Barclays are trying to destroy our bar.
CALL TO ALL BARS AND A SPECIAL REQUEST FOR THE DRINKERS OF ENGLAND: We call upon all bars to join us in standing up, at long last, to the banks! Stand with Freddy's Bar as we stand up against Barclay's Bank, ACORN, and the high and mighty of Russia. We did not win the cold war to have our bars taken, by one of our own states, and given to Russia's richest man and the banks he controls.
British bar and pub patrons, we are asking you to pull your money out of Barclays bank to protest their spending over 100 Million of your Pounds to put a stadium that looks like a rusty waf?e iron on top of our bar. It's just not cricket! Support banks that support bars. If they only lose 1 Billion or 10 Billion Pounds from this boycott, they will get the message: leave our bars and pubs alone.
"This is like a foreclosure, except they are taking an entire neighborhood, and we're not even behind on the mortgage," said Donald O'Finn.
Bars give us delicious beers, wines, and liquors.
Banks give us foreclosures, overdraft fees, and taxpayer bailouts.
And Banks Buy Laws.
A neighborhood bar can't buy any laws. And if they could, they probably wouldn't.
In short: Boo Nets! [CurbedWire Inbox]
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