Residents battle bars over noise in East Village

NEW YORK (WABC) -- There are fewer of stores now, fewer mom and pop house wares stores, fewer cool used bookstores.

But there are plenty of bars in the East Village, more and more every week, it seems to some residents.

"Around 2 or 3 people get a little bit drunker, conversations get a bit louder," said Ian Caruth, a resident.

The problem is pretty easy to define and is as old as New York itself, and that is here in the East Village people do their drinking and they do their living pretty much right on top of each other and that can cause some conflict. Solving that problem is another problem all together.

They've even held meetings about it. Community board three met Wednesday night.

"You often hear screaming or yelling or singing sometimes cheers, sometimes I'm surprised that people who should grown up act the way they do," said Susan Stetzer, District Manager for Community Board 3.

Some bar owners make an effort. Lately, there have been a lot more of these signs up, asking patrons to behave. Rich Corton owns Sophie's on East 5th Street.

"So we kind of made the effort to put the signs out front and at least let people know that it's a quiet block and they should respect it and such," Corton said.

Not everyone shares that approach.

"Everybody has the attitude, not in my backyard, but that can't happen in reality. You know, if you want to live in a perfect world move to the country," one New Yorker said.

It's leaving residents sleepless.

"It would be nice to have some foot patrol in the neighborhood," Caruth said.

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new york city, east village, new york news, jim dolan

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