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Locals Fight Barclays Center Liquor License, Fearing Puking, Peeing Nets Fans
By
John Del Signore
Published Apr 9, 2012
Modified Apr 9, 2012
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SHoP Architects
By
John Del Signore
Published Apr 9, 2012
Modified Apr 9, 2012
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Residents of the neighborhood surrounding the Barclays Center plan to fight the arena's liquor license application at a special Community Board meeting tomorrow night, where Barclays reps will appear to answer questions about their application. Thus far the arena has not provided any details about how they'll handle crowd control outside the venue, which will unleash thousands of inebriated Nets fans upon Prospect Heights, Park Slope, and Downtown Brooklyn.
"The arena is a monstrosity to begin with, but with a liquor license, there will be drunk guys vomiting and peeing in the street,” Boerum Hill resident Wanda Fleck tells The Local, which reports that the SLA is expected to approve the license no matter what the Community Board votes. (Community Board rulings on liquor license applications are purely advisory.) Some critics simply want Barclays to stop selling booze at halftime, not just at the end of the third quarter, as NBA rules mandate. At a public meeting in January, an arena rep was asked if that was possible, and the response was, "I think it's impossible."
Atlantic Yards Report notes that "the arena encroaches on a residential neighborhood, as the state overrode zoning that requires a 200-foot cordon around a sports facility. Those returning to the interim surface parking lot would walk on sidewalks as narrow as six feet wide." Well, you can't expect them to wade through the streets once they're turned into rivers of urine and vomit! Prospect Heights resident Patti Hagan is just one of many Barclays Center neighbors currently filled with dread, but at least she hasn't lost her sense of humor. "They serve alcohol at Yankee Stadium," she tells The Local, "and there are nothing but brawls — and I don’t see how this would be any different. Except that no one goes to Nets games."
Tagged
Atlantic Yards
barclays center
basketball
brooklyn
downtown Brooklyn
park slope
prospect heights
the nets
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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