Save Live Music in Inwood!
Since opening its doors 5 years ago, the Garden Cafe has provided a valuable platform for presenting live music and cultural events in the Inwood community. Its owners are now in the process of opening Ouva Wine Bar & Beer Garden nearby but are encountering opposition from a handful of residents who have created a petition to shut down live music at both venues.
Like the Garden Cafe, the new Ouva Wine Bar & Beer Garden will be an asset to the Inwood community by providing a vital outlet for local residents to engage with their neighborhood's arts and music scene while also creating a destination to attract outsiders into the community.
The City of New York already has a Noise Code in place that addresses the need to balance music in bars and restaurants with residential quality-of-life concerns. Petitioners against the Garden Cafe and Ouva Wine Bar & Beer Garden are demanding that Community Board 12 (CB12) go above and beyond these regulations by implementing draconian restrictions that would prevent these venues from presenting live music.
Please take a moment to sign this petition in support of Garden Cafe and Ouva Wine Bar & Beer Garden. Let Community Board 12 know that you support the presentation of arts and culture in Inwood!
We the undersigned support the Garden Cafe and Ouva Wine Bar & Beer Garden as a valuable presenter of live music and culture in the community of Inwood. Furthermore, we stand opposed to the implementation of restrictions upon these venues that would go above and beyond New York City's existing Noise Code.
The arts in general, and live music specifically, are a vital part of any community and a recognized contributor to the economic viability of our city's bars and restaurants. As such, venues that promote and support presentation of the arts should be encouraged, not hindered.
We recognize the need to balance residential quality-of-life concerns with the right of bars and restaurants to present live music, but ask that this balance be found within the existing New York City Noise Code, NOT by implementing further restrictions upon local businesses.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
