A sad day in the world of queertainment. Popular black gay establishment Chi Chiz. After a long battle with the police and the NYC court system, the long standing West Village establishment will close. After losing a recent appeal against charges by the State Liquor Authority, the owners announced the bar would shut down for good on January 3, 2011. In a recent e-mail, Chi Chiz attorney Tom Shanahan wrote about the decision and the actions of David Poster, vice-president of the Greenwich Village Block Association and one of the main forces in the effort to shut it down:
“This [closure] was forced but [still] our decision, as we cannot run a business with sustained harassment by the NYPD, as has been occurring. Deputy Inspector Caroli issued twelve summons since March…and all have been dismissed. The time and [cost] of litigating one thing after another—and all of it being dismissed—are too expensive for a private-sector business the size of ours. It is truly sad—and bad for Christopher Street and the LGBT Community. Moreover, it is clear that David Poster and his minions will be whatever they can to chase African-Americans and the transgendered away from Christopher Street and the community. The continuing harassment by these ‘village idiots’ has continued and poses a problem to running a small business. Now they [will] deal with a vacant block on Christopher Street, which has a 50% commercial vacancy rate.”
Source: NEXT Magazine.
This is clearly white folks with money doing everything they can to rid the West Village (which is the stomping ground for many in the gay community since before the Stonewall riots) of the community who consider the area a safe place to hang out and be themselves. Chelsea, like the West Village has become a vacant lot of stores and latte chains, many of the gays moving to Hellsea (known to those not in the lingo as Hell's Kitchen) and the East Village. I haven't hung out in the West Village since about five months ago when a few friends of mine came up from Texas and they were treated like shit at a little bar in the village called The Hangar
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