This weekend was a supersized sister fun weekend so I was pretty preoccupied until Saturday morning when JoJo and I left to run to the post office and I spied a DT outside of the Production Lounge in addition to a marked cop car. That usually indicates something happened.
About noon me and the girls went to Alter and Tommy gave me the lowdown on the drama. He said there was a wild shooting outside of Production Lounge sometime around 3am-ish. The cops were there until early Saturday morning, complete with crime scene tape and searching for shell casings. Something like 20 shots were fired and he mentioned a grand old Cadillac had a shot-out tire. And to top it off, rumor has it a girl was shot in the derriere outside of River Barrel in the middle of this melee.
So then I checked my email and reader Peter Bitenc and his friend Hans sent me this with the accompanying photos:
Here’s a tip per my friend Hans:
Here are some pics of last night’s destruction. There was a shoot-out last night at 3:30 am, practically right outside my window, in the intersections of Kent st and Franklin Av. There were some “out of the neighborhood-ers” last night at the Production Lounge, a terribly cheesy establishment on Franklin.
Thanks to Tommy from Alter and the two readers for alerting me to the craziness.
In addition to the protesting comment on Yelp, just this afternoon I heard a few people gathering on Franklin Street discussing how they can get this place shut down for good. Normally, I’d be one to say this isn’t the establishment’s fault – because usually that’s correct – but in this instance, Production Lounge is just a tad on the obnoxious side. I come home sometimes during the week from my sisters apartment and I can hear the music inside PL from a block away. Yet, I never see anyone actually in the place. It really surprised me to hear this happened there and not at Club Exit.
I haven’t done any research of heard of what crowd was there when this happened. Nor could I even speculate as to what sort of crowd hangs out there… Any more insight, photos or info, feel free to comment or email me.
I knew what place this was before I even clicked any links or heard the name of it.
The “sort of crowd” that hangs out there are black thirty-somethings who seem to enjoy top-40 rap. And the whole culture that goes along with it, which sticks out like a huge fucking sore thumb in Greenpoint.
People resort to stereotypes when there is a relatively foreign element (myself included, obvs), so this fairly self-fulfilling prophecy won’t help things for them. But, when I walk home near there, I am constantly seeing older white people in their doorways, in their pajamas with arms folded, so it looks like they may finally get their way.
I'll be fair. TPL's crowd varies from night to night. Although at TPL, there usually isn't a crowd. They have a merengue band on Thursdays that actually sounds pretty good. But the only nights that get a crowd are loosely-described hip hop events that seem to be booked on a per-event basis, and whose crowd is made up of men & women who essentially adhere to what the comment above describes. On Saturday their website theproductionloungeny.com was advertising 'Punany: an erotic poetry cabaret'. Go figure?
The place is loud as hell, thanks to big plate glass windows out front and almost non-existent soundproofing within. A lack of bodies only adds to the megaphone effect. I personally have been guaging the lifespan of this place in months, due to it's being so out of sync with the tastes of the current indigenous population of the neighborhood. Sadly for them, bullets aren't going to prove as fatal to this place as location.
Just want to point out, especially in response to the above comment about what was booked there on Saturday, that the shooting happened on Friday night. They “events” page at theproductionlounge.com still has an image promoting that night’s event; it’s a little hard to read and even harder to decipher. But something along the lines of a hip-hop style dj style.
Also, the term “shootout” isn’t exactly accurate. One person did all of the shooting after being ejected through a back exit onto Kent Street as he walked back towards Franklin. Rumor has it that the woman who was shot is the girlfriend of the other guy he had a dispute with inside the bar.
There is a special Cb 1 meeting tommorrow night….I suggest everybody who is outraged at this go and tell them what you think…they have the right to pull the license and shut this down…not in my neighborhood!!! if anybody would like more info on the meeting go to: Title: Executive Committee Meeting
Description: 6:30 PM – The Executive Committee will meet at the Board’s District Office, 435 Graham Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 11211 (Corner of Frost Street)
Phone: 718.389.0009 Fax: 718.389.0098
Email: bk01@cb.nyc.gov
ON THURSDAY THERE IS A PUBLIC SAFETY MEETING AS WELL..THIS IS YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD, GO AND LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD..I WILL BE THERE!!
CHEF
Please…… Greenpoint to my knowledge has always been some what dangerous I graduated at Automotive High School and that area has alot of different people with major attitude problems including the police TPL is a place all cultures can party together violence needs to stop in every community. {Bronzito}