East Village Cloister Café sues SLA after they were
ordered to close following alleged illegal parties
BY FANNI FRANKL
Cloister Café in the East Village is
suing The New York State Liquor
Authority (SLA) after their liquor
license was suspended and restaurant ordered
to close following an Instagram post
accusing them of hosting illicit pandemic
parties.
On Aug. 4, Gothamist.com published
an article entitled “Illicit, Underground
Pandemic Parties Continue to Proliferate
In Manhattan Venues” that listed Cloister
Café as one of the venues involved. The
publication used Instagram posts by Kristina
Alaniesse, who runs an Instagram account
under the handle @kristinaformayor
in the article to prove that Cloister Café
was violating health and safety protocols.
The article sources anonymous reports of
hundreds of people at the café, all without
masks or practicing social distancing.
Three days after the article was published,
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s COVID task force
investigated the restaurant without fi nding
any violations.
Cloister Café plans to sue on the grounds
of being denied due process when their
liquor license was suspended. The plaintiff
argues that the SLA only acted as a
result of the social media post made public
by the article and that they relied on no
other evidence to support their claim. They
question the validity of the Instagram post
itself since the date and time of the posts
cannot be proven. The negligible evidence
made by the SLA investigation itself is also
addressed by the plaintiff, who sees it as
confi rmation that nothing illicit was being
held.
The SLA denies that their claim of the
illicit parties were from the social media account,
listing that multiple violations were
found on Aug.7 after an investigation was
conducted of Cloister Café.
“While we do not comment on pending
litigation, any claim that Cafe Cloister’s
PHOTO VIA GOOGLE MAPS
summary suspension was based on social
media posts or media accounts is demonstrably
false,” the SLA stated. “The
only thing guiding our investigations is a
mandate to protect public health and the
actions of bar owners — rather than trying
to divert attention through baseless claims,
this licensee should take responsibility for
their actions.”
Among the violations they listed included
numerous patrons ignoring social distancing
inside and outside the restaurant, the
restaurant being run as a nightclub with a
live DJ, and a “multitude of signifi cant fi re
and life safety violations.”
Multiple doctors’ notes were also included
as evidence that Cloister Café was
operating safely including from Filippo
Filicori, a Board-certifi ed surgeon and
assistant professor from Zucker School of
Medicine at Hofstra University.
“I found the staff and its customers to
be abiding all CDC recommendations with
regards to social distancing, hand hygiene
and mask usage,” he said. “I found the staff
to be adequately trained in contact and
airborne prevention control measures and
the environment to be adequately ventilated
and therefore not a concerning risk for
transmission of the disease.”
Owner Nicholas Drobenko will testify
for the damages that could ensue if his
restaurant cannot reopen, contending that
irreparable harm will be caused by this
closure. Mass joblessness for the employees
as well as damaged reputation was included
in the consequences of closing. According
to the restaurant, Cloister Café also relies
on its liquor license in order to attract suffi
cient customers to maintain its business,
meaning that permanent closure would
be imminent if they cannot reinstate their
liquor license.
The plaintiff is looking for compensatory
damages for all lost income and an award
of reasonable attorney’s fees and costs
incurred during the lawsuit.
New York City congresswoman helps Lower East
Side residents fill out census to ‘Make NY Count’
BY FANNI FRANKL
Congresswoman Carolyn
B. Maloney joined Lower
East Side District Leader
Daisy Paez and the U.S. Census
Bureau at Grand Street Guild
this week to help residents fi ll out
their Census forms.
New York State continues to
trail behind in the national Census
self-response rate, a pattern that
could cause hundreds of thousands
of dollars of missed funding.
As of this week, only 54.9%
of New York City responded to the
Census and 59.3% of New York
State. If there is just a 1% undercount
in the 2020 Census, NY-12
residents could lose $430,000 in
federal funding for schools that
have a high proportion of low-income
students. Additionally, New
Yorkers could sacrifi ce $320,000
Chairwoman of the House Government Oversight and Reform
Committee Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) leads a hearing about
coronavirus preparedness and response on Capitol Hill in
Washington, U.S., March 12, 2020.
in federal funding for job training
centers and career counseling.
Because of the critical nature of
the Census and its effect on New
York City funding, Rep. Maloney
urged New Yorkers to fi ll out
PHOTO BY REUTERS/JOSHUA ROBERTS
the form, especially during the
pandemic.
“In the midst of a public
health crisis, a global economic
downturn, and attacks from the
Trump Administration – a full
and accurate Census count is in
jeopardy,” said Rep. Maloney.
“The Census determines the
federal funding New York City
will receive for the next decade.
Our city has record low Census
response rates, and it is essential
that every New Yorker fi lls out
their form as we re-build in the
wake of COVID-19.”
More than $1.5 trillion in federal
funding is distributed based
on Census data in 316 different
community programs. In the 2010
Census, 16 million people were
not counted. As a result, Rep. Maloney,
Chair of the Committee on
Oversight and Reform, responded
to the Trump administration
memorandum seeking to remove
undocumented immigrants from
the 2020 Census apportionment
count. Rep. Maloney has since
been against this memorandum,
seeing it as unconstitutional as
more people will then be left out
of the Census in the United States.
Rep. Maloney requested transcribed
interviews with eight
senior Census Bureau offi cials
regarding the memorandum, but
was declined.
The Trump administration holds
onto their belief that the memorandum
upholds the constitution by
“excluding illegal aliens from the
apportionment base” stating that
“persons of the state” as written
in the Constitution, only refers to
individuals with “lawful immigration
status” in the United States.
Even so, Rep. Maloney continues
to fi ght against this memorandum
as well as emphasizes
the importance of fi lling out the
census through mail, calling
844-330-2020 or going online at
https://my2020census.gov/.
Schneps Media August 20, 2020 3
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