If you're a bargoer, you know the feeling. At 1:30 every morning, the bartender bellows, "LAST CALL!" and a collective groan erupts from the hangers-on, as they order their last round. The lights go up, and everyone stumbles out. In New York, it's different. Most bars don't close until 4 a.m., dragging the ruckus and partying late into the night. Turns out, not everyone is a fan of the late-night revelry.
Brad Linder, journalist and writer for sister site Green Daily, recently reported on this issue for NPR. He spoke to one woman who lives in the NOHO district and is a member of a community board that's trying to get liquor-licensed establishments to close at 2 instead of 4.
Community boards like hers now have so much pull that many bars and restaurants must ask permission before staying open 'til 4, like teenagers asking to extend their curfew.
I'm sure we'd all rather not experience loud arguments and car alarms at 4 a.m. But at some point, isn't the noise and general hubbub part and parcel of living in a trendy NYC neighborhood? If you don't like the scene, shouldn't you just...move somewhere else?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-03-2008 @ 1:03PM
Big John said...
"If you don't like the scene, shouldn't you just...move somewhere else?"
I'm sure everyone has the flexible capital to do this whenever they'd like.
4am is ridiculously late for bars to be open. 2am is just fine.
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5-03-2008 @ 6:47PM
Candida said...
To John: If you can afford to live in Manhattan, you can afford to move somewhere else.
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5-03-2008 @ 6:47PM
Bunny said...
"I'm sure everyone has the flexible capital to do this whenever they'd like."
If she can afford to live in Manhattan, she can absolutely afford to move someplace quieter. Like New Jersey.
I think it's a great thing that the bars in NYC are open so late--it prevents the sort of problems they had in the UK with binge drinking when the bars there closed early.
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5-04-2008 @ 5:52PM
missjoanne said...
Apparently none of you live in NYC. Most of us who live in trendy neighborhoods, lived there way before it got trendy, when drug addicts, dealers and prostitutes worked the every hour of the day. The regular working people of this city are being priced out by the trendy raising rents and disturbing quality of life. Hey I love drinking until 4am, but I don't need to hear profanity and other madness when I'm in bed.
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5-05-2008 @ 10:24AM
Ami said...
As a new yorker I take pride in the fact the bars are open that late, um hello its "the city that never sleeps"...when i'm out of town and 2:00 am rolls around and people are leaving the bars/clubs, it makes me appreciate NYC even more, and i agree, if you can afford to live in Manhattan, you can AFFORD to live anywhere else...you can't have everything...so suck it up or move!
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