Studio Square
Oct. 18, 2018 By Tara Law
Some residents in the Dutch Kills section of Long Island City are up in arms about a local venue they say rattles their windows with music and allows its customers to leave urine, vomit and broken bottles in the street.
About 10 people who live near Studio Square at 35-33 36th St. have said publicly that they are desperate to tame the venue, which they say creates excessive noise and unleashes unruly crowds in the nearby streets.
The event space is one of the largest venues in the area, boasting 30,000 square feet and with enough room for 900 people, according to reports. Since the space opened in 2009, it has become well known locally for hosting musical events and sporting events.
However, among its neighbors, the space has become best known for disruption. Police said that they have received 58 311 calls about the venue since January, as well as 16 911 calls.
The neighbors made their case to Community Board 1 at its September and October meetings, arguing that their efforts to get the police to take action to control the space— including 911 and 311 calls— have repeatedly failed, and that they’re running out of ideas.
The neighbors claimed that the noise emanating from the venue sometimes starts at around 10 a.m. and doesn’t end until around 4 a.m., disrupting sleep and generally making life difficult for residents nearby.
Marino Frost, who operates a music studio a block away and lives nearby, said that the noise from the venue can be heard through 17 inches of soundproofing in his music studio.
“That kind of noise makes you crazy,” Frost said.
James Basco, who said he lives about two blocks away, said that although the bar sometimes hosts a “silent disco,” drunken revelers on the street will disturb neighbors by leaving glass and bodily fluids outside.
The owner of the bar could not be reached for comment.
Community Board 1 Chairperson Marie Torniali urged the neighbors to continue submitting requests to 311, as the service is the best possible way to record their grievances.
The 311 calls may come into play next month, when the State Liquor Authority must decide whether to approve a liquor license renewal application for the venue.
36 Comments
Those nasty, terrible people who run that septic tank called “Beer Garden” bribe local politicians, police and whoever stands on their way! They make lots of money there by doing all kinds of monkey-business, and they know how to clog a hole in the wall, and then they do whatever they want. On an average day, they make $100, 000 and after that, they can “AFFORD” to pay in order to play… They’ve been terrorizing the whole neighborhood for 9 years and police never stopped them. NEVER! On the contrary, the police comes and protects THEM, not the community! Disgusting shame! When they start to blast their noise (which they call music – backed up by cursing) – you can hear it at least 3-5 blocks around. WHAT THE POLICE DOES WHEN WE CALL THEM? NOTHING!!! Who is worse – the Beer Garden or the corrupt police and the local politicians?
Trust fund beatniks with a useless degrees coupled with a masters in stupidity. Profanity late night rants. urinating and defecating in driveways and private property shouldn’t be ?? not here? These complaints have fell upon deaf ears to our resident socialist aldermen . A nice notification to the IRS for a nice audit and the rat catchers and the buildings dept. will be paying them a visit one day. The dept. of health and state liquor authority will be there soon enough .
To the Midwestern trust fund babies that are complaining about NY born and bred minority people at Studio Square, how come you weren’t complaining about your leftist jerk Shia Lebouf”s (sp?) anti-Trump exhibit at MMI around the corner? The assholes there were quite white and certainly front-yard urinating morons. But I guess if you hate Trump you can do whatever you want and it’s okay. #walkaway #blackrepublicans
They also have tried to make an illegal driveway in front of their entrance by putting a “no parking anytime” on their front door.
This place is a shitty neighbor. It seems like once the owners sold the building, they stopped caring.
They NEVER cared ANYWAY (except for themselves and their own pockets)~!
Grew up in the area, been gone for some years and really glad I left. Astoria was once a pretty good place to live from what I read here it is now a nightmare place. My buddirs and I usually stayed in the neighborhood pretty much ( Ditmars and Steinway Ave about a one mile radius ). What I read about here is chaotic. Thank God I for Texas, please 90% of you people do NOT come here, we already have more than enough idiots from California.
So you moved away to Texas years ago but you still read a local blog about Astoria in your spare time………………………..
I don’t believe studio square has any glass bottles. They must be coming from another one of the numerous bars in the area.
People bring their own airline size bottles and small flasks that they drink before going in and leave or just smash on the sidewalk.
After any “event” is a big cleanup.
I have been in the neighborhood far longer than Studio Square and Studio Square is not a good neighbor.
I live on Skillman Ave. in Sunnyside, and can hear the music at night. I feel for the people that live around there.
I am no fan of Studio Square but it is impossible to hear their music from Skillman Avenue.
Well it’s possible, because I live on Skillman and can hear it.
Sure bro. I routinely hear music from 1.5 miles away also.
First of all, I’m not a bro, I’m a woman. And since you live on 31st Avenue, I don’t think you would know if I was or wasn’t able to hear the music from Skillman Avenue. I have no reason to lie and leave comments, for attention like obviously, you do. Also, no reason to lie as I don’t live across the street from Studio Square, just expressing my opinion. You must live a sad life, to have nothing else left to do, than be a troll and a menance amongst these posts. Also, I’m 0.7 miles away. Have a great weekend!
You got that big, sunken railyard between you, I could imagine their noise reverberates through to Skillman on a quiet night.
Hey now, 31 Avenue is a whole lot closer to Studio Square than Skillman Avenue. Especially since Skillman Avenue is in SUNNYSIDE. Stop the lies…
You must have bionic hearing to be able to hear music that emanates from 36th Avenue up through Northern Boulevard, past the cavernous multi-acre Sunnyside railyards and into your Skillman Avenue home. Stop the lies, you attention weenie.
Seriously
I Agree 31aveguy, hipsters move to Queens to try and change the culture…..I read about this once in school, when the settlers came to America. ..I guess things dont change.
I have lived in the same house since 1973 which happens to be right across the street from studio square and I can’t stand the noise the vulgarity if it’s costumers who have the gall & disrespect to come into my yard to urinate $ dedicate in my private property myself and my neighbors have complained to the 114 precinct with no justice at all there needs to be action taken to stop this vile & unruly behavior otherwise we as a neighborhood need to take our own action !!!!!!!!
The people living in the new developments are more unified in terms of getting together, creating awareness and trying to solve an issue. This may lead to better changes. I tried to start a petition/ complaint letter in my older building due to quality of life issues on Ditmars and the majority of the times all I got was doors closing in my face, people who did not speak English and hardly anyone caring.
There is not a single house on either side of Studio Square (36th or 37th Street). Stop the lies.
OK so she lives on 36 Ave which ain’t exactly “across the street” but it’s close enough to hear the blaring music. That said, I’m near there virtually every night and I don’t see SSq patrons doing anything near what these posters are saying. The place is crawling with cops especially if there is anything black/hiphop or third world soccer going on. There are literally paddy wagons and tons of cops on every corner around the place.
You must be a worker of that terrible place, or you never’ve been here before… this place is a dumpster of the worst kind!
Bodily fluids? You mean like tears from crying?
YES, all bodily fluids… including sweat and tears… girls are crying and screaming, guys yell and fight… they come drugged and drunk from Studio Square after 4 am to piss and shit on our doors and our backyards…
I live on Ditmars and I experience the same quality of life issues with the crowds, cars, dirt, bars and restaurants. Complaints have gone no where because rents are cheaper around here. Its so unfair!
Definitely the new people that are moving into this part of town and the rest of LIC and Astoria that aren’t used to the raw energy / wildness that are complaining about this. If you move into a new neighborhood it should be embraced, not brought up at a community board and 311 calls about how it should be changed.
But what of those who are suffering from the malady of binge drinking? They need to find a spiritual solution for their problem. I pray they find the willingness to turn their lives and wills over to something greater than themselves.
those who downvote my wisdom must be mired in the grips of their spiritual malady-medicating their feelings with booze and drugs. They see no issue with these sick people vomiting, screaming, urinating, and defecating in public. Shame on these apologists. I will pray for you that you too find the courage to get sober and join the ranks of the living.
Bill-sadly the work we started over 80 years ago wasn’t met with this type of negativity. People were happy to see their hopeless family members recover from the spiritual sickness that led them to sanitariums, jails, and the graveyard. These days the sickness is embraced, glorified, and encouraged-no matter the consequences suffered. We need to start leaving pamphlets outside of this den of iniquity-praying that we can save at least one of the many who are suffering. I will continue to pray for all of these people as well. They really need help.
Dear what I’m assuming are transplants … don’t like noise … don’t move to ny … it would be like moving to Florida and submitting complaints about the heat …
You said it, bro. If you’re a local like us, you just accepted long ago that things are always gonna be terrible and you’ve convinced yourself that somehow putting up with the noise and filth inherently makes you tougher than other people.
Many residents have the same issues throughout Astoria because of the Business/Commercial on every Ave. Its not only the people who recently moved here. Most long-term residents will tell you of these issues and how they have become more problematic throughout the last couple of years.
I live nearby and the noise can get deafening, especially when they have the radio station DJs hosting parties. Music and the PA system in the back yard can be heard from blocks away and I can actually feel the bass vibration in my walls. The huge TV screens in the back yard attract lots of people who seem to want to get drunk, buy food from food trucks and quickly dump the food and containers on the sidewalks.
Now that the cold weather is approaching and the back yard isn’t being used much, the problems have died down.
I used to occasionally call 311 about it but it seemed like nothing was ever done about it. Hopefully the SLA gets that people don’t want to live around a noisy place with out of control customers.
I feel for these people. Studio Square is gigantic and attracts more “bros” per square inch than any other bar in the city. Their liquor license will be renewed-no one gives a flying fuck about quality of life with the tax revenues being generated by places like this.