Subject: PM Lounge – Hearing for Noise Code Violation
Tuesday, June 26th and Wednesday, June 27th at 9:30am
111 Centre St. Room 949 NY, NY 10013 / Judge Stallman / NYC Civil Court

Dear Neighbors,

My husband and I and two young children (Lucas, 6 and Juliette, 3) moved into unit 1A at 838 Greenwich St. right after our honeymoon in October, 2006. Our unit is directly adjacent to the PM Lounge, and our lives have been a nightmare since the first day we moved into our home.

Despite working in good faith with the club to find a permanent solution to the noise problem, in our opinion, the owners and managers of the PM Lounge failed to adequately respond. During December, we turned to the court system, seeking an injunction to stop the club from operating in an unlawful manner. We also hired an acoustical expert, who found the club in excess of the New York Noise Code on all nine occasions he took readings in our unit, sometimes as much as 4 TIMES ABOVE THE LEGAL MAXIMUM. The club’s actions and the ensuing legal battle have taken a major emotional and financial toll on our family. In fact, we have been forced to seek refuge at hotel rooms on over 40 occasions.

The principals of the PM Lounge are well aware of this problem, which has plagued 838 Greenwich St., as well as dwellings on Horatio St., for years. Through our painstaking efforts and legal action, the club finally entered into a stipulation during March 2007 which provides that the PM LOUNGE WILL BE PROHIBITED FROM PLAYING AMPLIFIED OR LIVE MUSIC if we show that they have violated the NY Noise Code again. We believe such violation has occurred.

Judge Stallman will hear our case on Tuesday, June 26th and Wednesday, June 27th, at 9:30 am at 111 Centre St. Room 949. We believe the presence of additional concerned parties will help the judge understand the severity of the problem. Your attendance is appreciated and will hopefully result in the increased enjoyment of your unit and the overall health of our building and neighborhood. Please feel free to e-mail any comments or questions to skelley13@yahoo.com or call (917) 319-6994.

Regards,
Suzanne Kelley & Ross Henderson

For more about the community’s history with PM Lounge, please click “PM Lounge” at the bottom of this article.

Fig & Olive, the new Mediterranean resto (which serves over 30 olive oils – holy olive oil batman!) at 420 West 13th street, b/w Wash & 9th, is requesting permission for a sidewalk cafe to consist of 17 tables and 34 seats. That’s a lot of tables!

CB2 Business Meeting, Liquor License: Tues., 4/10 @ 6:30 PM- Tony Dapolito Recreation Center, 3 Clarkson St. 3^rd Floor

AM Operating Group, an aptly named new group formed by folks that own PM, is applying for a license at 55 Gansevoort (formerly Sascha Restaurant) as part of their grand scheme to open a 24-hour joint across the street from their successful club. Community Outrage Begins.

Case-in-point: In May of ’05, almost exactly two years ago, the emails were flying to rally folk to attend a CB2 meeting to testify against PM Lounge so that they would be denied a sidewalk cafe application.

Now, emails are flying to rally folk to attend a CB2 meeting to testify against PM Lounge so that they will be denied a liquor license application in a new space across the street. Really, I could just re-post the old blog post, and replace SIDEWALK with LIQUOR and Monday, May 9 with Tuesday April 10. (you can get a history of some of this blog’s posts about PM Lounge by clicking “PM Lounge” in the ‘tags’ listed at the bottom of this post – nifty, huh?)

In all seriousness, however, this is a bit different. This time, PM Lounge (as part of a group called AM Operation Group, LLC – oh the witty wordsmiths) is applying for a liquor license at the space across the street, occuped by SASHA (53 Gansevoort Street) … Revoking a liquor license, well, that’s almost impossible but if you are one of the many who calls 311 repeatedly about noise levels at PM Lounge, here’s an even better place to make yourself heard. Bring your log of complaints to 311, your letters to local politicians, your letters to management, bring it all, and get a chance to testify.

The application is to be reviewed by CB 2 Business committee at a hearing Tuesday evening April 10 at 6:30 at Tony D’Apolito Recreation Center ..3 Clarkson St. THIRD FLOOR (It’s near Carmine and Seventh Ave South).

As an interesting comparison, it’s much easier to report on the Hotel G’s various (truly creative) skirmishes with the nieghborhood. First there was the contention that the site of the hotel was the original site for the water tunnel construction, which instead took over Seravalli playground; then there was the (no adjective necessary) design of the hotel; then the noise problems, first with music blaring from the roof; then the whirring sound of an airplane engine emanating from the hotel restaurant ventilation system. And now, of course, now we have their illegal, horrid billboard. I really wonder what’s next for them. Nothing horrid has appeared on the sidewalks out front. Perhaps they’ll accidentally defile the sidewalk next?

Neighbors: Kate Seely-Kirk, assistant to Council Member Christine Quinn, would like to get together with concerned neighbors to talk about PM Lounge sometime next week. She would like to hear and understand all complaints about PM Lounge and discuss possible ways to leverage Council Member Quinn’s options to help resolve the problems. It turns out that Council members have some power over sidewalk cafe applications and she proposes to consider this to achieve some resolution to the continuing problems with PM Lounge.

I hope you are available and interested. If so, please let me know (click here to email Nancy) so that I can pass on your name to Kate. She will then set up the meeting.

This turns out to be one more way in which we can affect the process of application approvals or denials and strongly express our concerns about development in the neighborhood.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Nancy

Residents of 838 Greenwich, which corners onto Horatio and shares a wall with PM Lounge, are so outraged by the club’s noise-level that there have been grumblings of a class-action lawsuit on grounds of a private nuisance. Matt Bucher writes in, “We have two or three nights a week when we are unable to sleep at all. We have worked with every city agency and politician you can think of and PM Lounge still blasts the music so loud it shakes our cabinets.”

How do you fight back? If you are concerned about PM Lounge, please attend the CB2 meeting on Monday, 5/9 at 6:30pm (75 Morton Street b/w Hudson & Greenwich St.) to voice your thoughts on whether or not PM Lounge should receive the outoor seating license they’ve requested.

As for the rumors that PM Lounge is closing and moving to Germany, keep dreaming (or stop fretting). While they are looking into opening international locations, they aren’t looking to give up their MPD home.