Lawmaker Opposes Bar Reopening In Kensington

A Brooklyn lawmaker is opposing the opening of a bar on Kensington’s Ditmas Avenue, saying it was just a reopening of a bar on the same site closed for unruly behavior.

Councilman David Greenfield said Thursday that he wrote a letter to the New York State Liquor Authority, asking them to deny a license to the owners of the proposed Ditmas Beer Palace, located on the corner of McDonald Avenue. He said that they are the same proprietors of the Coronitas bar, which was shut down in January due to a history of neighborhood neglect.

Greenfield also pointed out that the bar would be located doors away from the Dzirka beis medrash, whose congregants have long complained of drunks coming to sleep on their steps and periodic fights breaking out on the street.

“This is a quiet, family-friendly community,” Greenfield said. “This is no place for a loud raucous bar, much less one whose patrons threaten the safety of our residents and children.”

In his letter to Dennis Rosen, chairman of the Liquor Authority, Greenfield, a Democrat who represents the area, said that the same owners were seeking to reestablish their business under a new name, “a common tactic negligent bar owners use to keep their rowdy bars in operation,” he said.

“I have no doubts that the same establishment, now operating under a different legal name, will generate similar controversies,” Greenfield wrote.

This article appeared in print on page 4 of the August 8th, 2014 edition of Hamodia.