Post 3: The formation of the Lower East Side Alliance and the town hall on bar proliferation

As always, with the exception of public figures, I use altered names to protect the individuals in this history.

Another resource emerged quickly at a CB liquor licensing meeting where I saw a kind of LES counterpart to me. Reina (I've altered the name) was outspoken, brilliant and insistent at this meeting. We talked there, immediately recognized our common concerns and decided we’d work together. She confirmed to me that the CB had been obstructive to her as well, and she expressed this even more strongly than I had. This is when LESA really began – the joining of an East Village resident and a Lower East Side resident concerned about commercial gentrification. We began a fast and furious email exchange over the next few days.

Using all our collective neighborhood contacts, mine mostly in the EV, Reina in the LES, we arranged an in-person meeting at Two Boots, a pizza place on Avenue A. Some 15 or so locals attended. It was not without conflict, and the conflict presaged the eventual collapse of the group several months later. One attendee, whom I will call Maggie, insisted that another attendee, Linda (I've altered the name), leave the meeting on the grounds that she had been a chair of the CB liquor licensing committee and therefore somehow tainted. Since the meeting was completely open to the public, this caused some tension, and needless to say was insulting to the former CB committee chair who was attending not as a former anything but as a local resident sharing our interests. Although Maggie alone had this objection to her presence, her objection was so aggressive and persistent that the former CB committee chair did leave the meeting, it seemed to me visibly upset and, it seemed to me, justifiably so. She came to help, she had expertise, and she was no longer on the SLA committee or even a member of the CB anymore. I suppose it is a matter of speculation whether Maggie's objection had any merit, but it turned out to be characteristic of Maggie and played a role in the group's future, which is the only reason I mention it.

Finding a space to meet is a great challenge in NYC. Fortunately, Maggie was able to arrange for us to meet in the future in the basement of the Orensanz Foundation, a community-friendly arts and events venue on Norfolk Street just south of Houston Street. With an attendance of between twelve and twenty or so, the group gave itself a name, Lower East Side Alliance, a mission and an immediate goal of holding a town hall meeting on bar proliferation in the neighborhood to be held within six weeks of our initial meeting, each member taking on a task towards this goal. The LESRRD email network expanded into the hundreds.

We chose a panel of speakers including the current out-going councilmember Margarita, a fiercely progressive housing activist but who had come under sharp local criticism for promoting housing over "community" gardens, and supporting or allowing the Astor Place “Sculpture for Living” a swank development at the border of the district. As word spread, the CB3 chair David, the multiple bar owner, asked and insisted that he be on the speaker panel, saying that he was a responsible bar owner, never opened a new bar but only owned or managed existing bars, so didn't add more liquor licenses than already existed. The group was uninterested in his blandishments and unpersuaded by them. Tension between LESA and the Community Board increased.

Al, the manager and brother of the owner of the Orensanz Foundation, donated his venue for our town hall event. Attendance was standing-room only, a seating capacity of three hundred. Several bar owners attended as well and many of them spoke in the Q&A. The event was a success both for its wide attendance and the mere fact that it signaled a unified movement of resistance against commercial gentrification. The CB3 chair and its District Manager did not attend.