Past issues
Feeds
The Paper in print
Twitter
Facebook
Contact
Email updates Twitter Facebook RSS Feeds
Residents of a Clinton Hill artist loft have returned to their apartments after being raided by the Fire Department last week, but the building’s large first-floor event space — which was at the center of the eviction crisis — remains off limits.
City inspectors on Monday wrote up the Classon Avenue building operating an “illegal cabaret” on its first floor, a space that was well known among Brooklyn underground social circles for its popular late-night revelry.
The FDNY’s decision to keep the first floor closed has frustrated residents of the building’s art collective, called Rubulad, who say they need to access their studios to create artwork.
“They think we’re going to have a party as soon as they let us back in,” said Sari Rupinstein, a Rubulad spokeswoman and performance artist. “We’ve been there five years. It’s kind of ridiculous. It’s our work space. We need to be able to do our daily work.”
An FDNY spokesman said that the building was partially vacated following the violations because of the presence of several “illegal raves” which were contrary to the industrial building’s certificate of occupancy.
“The issue here is safety,” said an FDNY spokesman. “If someone is operating a dance club or cabaret there must be appropriate fire access and means of egress. These types of illegal clubs put everyone at risk. If people are there, we want to make sure they are protected.”
But the Department of Buildings only issued a violation regarding complaints from neighbors over the building’s rowdy parties, not over the lack of proper exits or fire safety, which has puzzled some public officials.
Amy Cleary, a spokeswoman for Assemblyman Joe Lentol (D-Williamsburg) believes that Rubulad members will soon be able to gain access to their studio once confusion between the two city agencies is cleared up.
“If there’s a safety problem it should be dealt with but if there’s no safety problem, people should not be moved out of their home or work space,” said Cleary.
©2010 Community Newspaper Group
By submitting this comment, you agree to the following terms:
You agree that you, and not BrooklynPaper.com or its affiliates, are fully responsible for the content that you post. You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening or sexually-oriented material or any material that may violate applicable law; doing so may lead to the removal of your post and to your being permanently banned from posting to the site. You grant to BrooklynPaper.com the royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual and fully sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such content in whole or in part world-wide and to incorporate it in other works in any form, media or technology now known or later developed.
Print this story
Digg this
Del.icio.us