Flyer distributed by Studio 46
Nov. 3, 2010 By Christian Murray
Sunnyside’s streets were strewn with fliers that featured suggestive images of scantly-clad woman this morning. The fliers were distributed by Studio 46, a local nightclub.
The messages read: “Dance all night long with beautiful ladies,” adding that “We have Hookahs.”
While most adults were unfazed by the fliers, some residents expressed concern that young children would inadvertently pick them up since they were littered all over the sidewalks.
The owner of Studio 46, which is aptly located on 46th Street (between Greenpoint and 47th Aves), refused to discuss why the fliers were distributed in this manner and hung up on the reporter.
The club is listed for sale at $250,000.
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23 Comments
Having been to this dump, drugs are rampant.
sunnyside_south is absolutely wrong about this establishment. Studio 46 brings a lot to the neighborhood including:
-blinking sign on wheels powered by a generator placed on the sidewalk
-peppering the cars and sidewalk with promotional flyers
-late night noise from patrons and bouncers talking super loud and the music pumping onto the street every time the door opens (ever couple of minutes as people exit and enter to smoke, fight, etc.).
-attracts people to the neighborhood who like to fight and argue on the street in the wee hours of the night/morning
For months there was no bar in that place and the street was much quieter. Unwelcome activity and fights are common whereas they were few and far between when there was no bar there. Just last week a fight ensued where several men at 4am chased several other men while one swung a belt whipping another savagely. Who cares about the hookah and the flyers when all this is going on.
This brings up the broken windows theory (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory) and that’s why we should pay attention. This is why folks should contact their elected officials in the area, the community board, and the local precinct to make sure neighborhood officials are in the loop.
There’s no reason to name call but the simple thing is there’s no reason we should have to endure loud noise, fights, and an unsafe environment at all hours of the night.
I, for one, am excited to know there is a hookah spot in the neighborhood. Now I don’t have to travel to Steinway or other parts of the city.
I think people are right, that there are worse blogs out there with horrible comments but I have been mortified many times upon reading what fellow Sunnysiders think about their fellow residents. It’s scary and offensive.
I once drove to the location of some new chicken restaurant opening up on Greenpoint or was it 48th Ave? They had distributed postcards on cars just before a heavy rain. The owner there laughed at me when I asked him to help me scrape the postcard off of my windshield. If there is a law against this, please tell me how to enforce.
“Person who created this web site is an idiot and needs to get a life….. sooooo boring”
Ahhh. The sweet irony of someone bothering to comment about a website he deems soooooo boring.
If the website’s creator has no life, then what does that say about those who bother to post comments about this boring website on a Friday evening?
Don’t worry Luke, that’s rhetorical. You need not scramble for an answer.
Luke, sounds like you also need to get a life and stop visiting blogs you consider boring.
My problem is how they littered our town! We should go in there and throw garbage all over their floors! It’s disgusting what they did. For that alone they should be fined and/or closed.
Person who created this web site is an idiot and needs to get a life….. sooooo boring
It’s the hookah/hooker joke, not an issue with actual hookahs. Something about the photo of an as-naked-as-possible woman, the guarantee of “beautiful ladies,” and the fact that they felt the need to use “sexy” five times on one side of a postcard doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.
I agree these postcards shouldn’t be scattered around half a block from a school. Not that they should ever be littering, but you know what I mean.
I work evenings and I have to walk past the club to get home. It’s one of my least favorite parts of the trip, since there are almost always several men outside whose comments make me feel uncomfortable and unsafe. I’ve been looking forward to the cold weather that will hopefully keep them indoors.
It’s not that I’m puritanical — I wouldn’t mind one bit if the club were replaced by a legitimately upscale, clean sex shop like Babeland in Manhattan or Brooklyn — as long as it were discreet enough on the outside for students not to notice. I’m just not comfortable with a business this seedy, that promotes itself this aggressively, and that attracts this much misbehavior.
The Title of the article refers to Hookahs, what’s wrong with flavored tabacco? It’s not illegal, it’s not a narcotic, it doesn’t even have 1/8 of the poison that a cigarette has… I Don’t see why the word Hookah is quoted in the title. I own a hookah from Egypt and i smoke it once every 4-6 months inside my home, it’s a tradition that’s hundreds of years old. I visited Egypt and went to a hookah lounge where i shared stories of new york and other places i’ve visited with the locals. Had a great experience exchanging stories with these men, all of this while smoking a hookah.
Many americans that are not familiar with this tradition believe that it is a drug… You can’t even smoke pot out of it because the coal won’t generate enough heat to actually get a good smoke…
If it wasn’t for this post, I never would have known this place existed.
I’m going to stop at the pawn shop and buy some cheap gold jewelry and head over to this place this weekend.
Party!
race card aside, this place is a craphole that brings nothing the neighborhood. same old story, when someone calls you out for dragging down the quality of life, they blame racism. Give me a break. As noted, there are plenty of “ethnic” establishments in SS that people love – De Mole and Pio Pio, Haab, just to name a few.
I agree with Time’s Up. At least twice a week I have to remove one of these paper fliers from my car windows ranging from clubs, bars, car services and gym memberships. I have two problems with this regardless of who they represent: first, if it has rained on these fliers they stick to the glass and must be scraped off with a blade. Second, most drivers simply remove them and toss them on the street creating a littering issue. I called 311 to complain as I believed a law was passed that prevented this type of distribution of promotional literature. I was on the phone for 23 minutes and the following morning I recieved an email stating that the police saw no evidence of the reported problem at the location listed. Funny thing how I came home from work that evening and most of the fliers were still clearly visible on the cars parked on both sides of the street.
I also find this to be a quality neighborhood site and a fair representation of events.
Hey Adam and NAQPB:
You wanna see comments and posts filled with ignorance and racism, go to Queens Crap. The site itself is actually pretty informative, and thus, valuable. But the comments reflect what you guys are complaining about.
I don’t understand why you’re attacking this site’s writer. He actually does (and did here) a good job of objectively REPORTING facts. Ya know, like journalists used to do.
Re-read the post. It states “[w]hile most adults were unfazed by the fliers, some residents expressed concern…” Again, this is called journalism. Nowhere is the author’s opinion interjected, and there’s no slant.
I think your beef is with people who object to the fliers. And while I don’t have much of an opinion on the fliers themselves, I personally can’t stand litter. All leaf-letters should be responsible for picking up their trash.
This is a good site. Keep up the good work.
Not a Racist Photo Blog
There are plenty of great, diverse places in this neighborhood from coffee shops to restaurants to bars to stores, all owned and operated by a variety of different people from all walks of life in Sunnyside/Woodside. However, this club is not one of them. It is seedy, to say the least. And loud. (my poor Los Pollos! – You guys are missing out if you haven’t been there yet!)
After what happened with my husband (who came here from Washington Heights and is a non-white immigrant himself) he actually dodges this place on his walks home. He’s 6’1 and a big guy. I don’t want him feeling uncomfortable in his own neighborhood (particuarly when I was the one to convince him to move here!). It was the actions, not the race of this woman handing out fliers at Studio 46 that made him feel uncomfortable. Let’s not even get into the fact that it is not uncommon to see these fliers strewn allover the streets. I’d be angry if any establishment did that.
And your posts: “conception of skewed white privileged puritanism” and “not everyone in sunnyside is white and lives in the gardens.” lead me to believe you have some personal demons with racism as well. No one here said their nationality.
Also, concerning “are you some sort of morality police?” there are zoning laws prohibiting clubs/etc near schools. Not that I’d want to get involved at all (nor do I necessarilly think it is correct to) but NYC has been legislating morality since the Giuliani era whether we agree with it or not. With all due respect, what NYC have you been living in the past 20 years?
I do not mean to insult you in this post. However, as Sunnyside Post stated, there’s a difference between racism and wanting to take pride in your (our) awesome neighborhood.
@not a queens…
Enough with the race card.
There are loads of perfectly respectable ethnic establishments in Sunnyside that add greatly to the neighborhood’s prosperity and dignity and nobody has the slightest problem with them.
There is, however, a legitimate concern regarding night spots featuring risque entertainment and the behavior of the crowds they tend to draw. It’s about behavior not, ethnicity. Past incidents of narcotics trafficking and violence are facts, not figments of some racist imagination.
It’s a quality of life issue that affects residents of every background. Those of us old enough to recall the crime-ridden NYC of the 70’s and 80’s in particular worry about a return to that unfortunate era.
Most comments seem to suggest that readers– no matter their background–take pride in where they live.
so, is your problem with this flyer the fact that the club is advertising hookahs (a legal and accepted fixture in many establishments around the city that hail from a rich cultural history in the arab world), the fact that there is a (very) mildly risque woman on the flyer, or the fact that the patrons of the club are latino? or all three. b/c honestly, this post, like many others i cringe to read on this site, demonstrates a consistent and rather unbecoming air of xenophobia, racism, and classism. and i think it’s more option three that you have a problem with.
not sure if you know, but sunnyside is one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the city and if you expect that everyone who lives here and everyone who runs a businesses here to conform to whatever conception of skewed white privileged puritanism you peddle, you are living in a sad little bubble. newsflash: not everyone in sunnyside is white and lives in the gardens.
are you some sort of morality police? b/c if so, this is new york city in 2010 and multiculturalism and nightclubs that feature attractive women as a selling point are sort of the norm. if you have a problem with it and want to continue your bizarre neighborhood culture warring rife with latent racism, i suggest you relocate to kentucky and join the local branch of the tea party. or just start a branch here, you are well on your way with these kinds of posts.
lastly, your site brings out some of the most ignorant, equally xenophobic and psudo-racist commenters. it makes me sad for my neighborhood to know people like that live here.
Ugh I hate this place. Try having a nice summer evening meal at Los Pollos (a wonderful restaurant with outdoor seating) with this club across the way. I hope it goes out of business asap. Just a few weeks ago my husband was walking home and was accosted by a lady from this joint who proceeded to call him “gay” because he wouldn’t stop and flirt with her. Now he dodges the place.
I actually think this would be a great spot for a neighborhood shoe store!
I came from a tiny, very conservative town. Sunnyside makes them seem broadminded. A kid might see a flyer of scantily clad women?!? Your kid has already seen a billion of them. Jesus Christ, why do I keep coming to this ridiculous site?
Look on the bright side. If you ever wanted to visit Tijuana but never did, the place is coming to you.
“Hookahs” are plainly displayed in the ad, but I would guess that some of the “beautiful ladies” earn their livings as “hookers.”
you too could “win prices every 20 min!” or solve your unemployment issues by becoming a “sexy girls.”
who says there are no jobs?
Great, perfect spot for the Latin Kings.