A Bar Challenges A Buddhist

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by Paul Bass | Nov 30, 2006 3:34 pm

(7) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author

Posted to: Westville

Gunfire outside a bar in the heart of Westville Village has sparked a renewed organizing effort by fed-up neighbors like Padma Karma (pictured above with his boxer Boby), who runs a Buddhist center next door.

Neighbors have for years complained about drunken rowdiness in and outside Owl’s Nest Cafe at 3 Tour Avenue, right off Whalley. A few years back they lobbied the state liquor commission to deny a permit for the bar’s new owner. (The new owner has the same last name as the previous owner, who lost his license for legal violations.) Neighbors lost that fight. They’ve continued to complain about the bar, but not often in an organized way.

Until now. Late last Friday night a bar patron apparently fired five gunshots outside the bar. (No one was hurt.) The incident frightened the neighbors and brought other simmering complaints to the fore. Thursday night they were planning a meeting to prepare for an upcoming meeting with the mayor.

“We’re going to ask the mayor to come out to Westville and walk the neighborhood” to see the impact the bar has had, said one of the organizers, Thea Buxbaum, who’s hosting the Thursday meeting at 425 West Rock Ave. The neighbors want the city to install “speed humps” and new curbs and sidewalks on the block.

An e-mail describing Friday’s shooting subsequent mayhem sped through the neighborhood, promising to galvanize a sizeable turnout at Thursday night’s meeting. Click here to read the e-mail.

Padma Karma can’t make it to the Thursday night meeting. But he said he’s with the other neighbors. He has lived next door to the Owl’s Nest for nine years; his family lives on the second floor of his house, and he runs a Buddhist center on floors one and three. “There hasn’t been a day that we don’t have problems with this bar,” he said.

Just a few weeks ago a bar patron slammed into his car and caused $4,500 of damage, Karma said. The other night another patron sideswiped his wife’s car.

Besides the noise, he said, he contends with cars parked illegally on the narrow one-block street. “It’s ugly,” he said.

Karma does see one upside to the situation: It helps him practice Buddhism. “That’s kind of how Buddhism is — you can’t be compassionate when everything’s peaceful. How do you practice being compassionate when everything’s nice and smooth?”

Problem?

The bar’s owner, Jose Cunha, wasn’t around at 12:30 Thursday afternoon. The cook in the kitchen said he was too busy to talk. So did the waitress. Neither would offer a way to get in touch with Cunha. “I don’t get into that. I just work and go home,” the waitress said.

An Owl’s Nest regular, Tony Brown (pictured), was drinking a lunchtime Bud and a Hennessey.

Brown is a maintenance worker at the public library. He said he hangs out at Owl’s Nest all the time — afternoons, evening. He was there last Friday night, smoking a cigarette on the sidewalk, when someone fired the shots into the air, he said. It was no big deal, he insisted.

“It’s a nice bar. No fights or anything,” Brown said. He has only one complaint: “The police tell people” to move their cars sometimes.

Brown noted that a person was actually shot in a fight outside a different bar recently, around the corner at Jacks or Better. “That’s a wild place. I don’t go near it,” he said.

Westville’s top cop, Sgt. Bernie Somers, said he hadn’t heard many complaints from neighbors about the Owl’s Nest.

“I’m not saying it’s not causing trouble,” Somers said. “It’s a bar. Let’s face it. There’s going to be noise. There’s going to be drunk people leaving the bar. What’s tolerated by the neighborhood is tolerated by the neighborhood.

“These things probably happen at any bar. Can they be stopped? No. Can something be done about it? Yes.”

Starting Thursday, Somers and the city will likely hear more from the Owl’s Nest’s neighbors about how to make that happen.

Comments

posted by: Steve on November 30, 2006 7:31pm

I live walking distance from both “Jacks or Better” and “The Owl’s Nest”. Both bars produce tons of noise, speeding cars, and crime. Both of thse establishments should be closed for the good of the community.

posted by: Jade on November 30, 2006 9:04pm

Has Stg. Somers ASKED any of the neighbors if they have complaints? Or checked 911 records? If he did either, he’d have a many-paged list.

posted by: jim on November 30, 2006 9:30pm

WHAT??? Someone shot a gun off into the air and it’s no big deal?????? Now that’s a problem!

posted by: jon on December 1, 2006 12:38pm

FIRST- if an employee of mine drank alcohol at any time during their work day I would FIRE them!!
This bar was a neat place back in the sixties.
It is being spoiled by the scum that go there these days.!!!!!!

posted by: guest on December 2, 2006 4:42pm

Sgt. Somers is new to the district. This bar has a history of complaints and police have been called by neighbors about it. It is not a matter police can solve on their own. The neighborhood has to solve it and this is the right way to do it.

The bar is not at all peaceful. It has been sued by people who were beaten so badly inside there that they were hospitalized. It doesn’t matter why, what matters is there are only two-by-fours and some drywall separating this alleged violence from its neighbors. So, it belongs on a dusty western street far from civilization.

This bar does not belong next door to a house where children are trying to grow up.

It is located on a small residential street where virtually all the homes are cared for by owner occupants. It is incompatible because the only exit is through this small neighborhood on its one way street. Therefore, at certain hours it is a loud parade of drinkers leaving the place. Somehow they manage to have bottles or even glasses in their hands sometimes which they chuck out the window when they reach the light at Whalley and West Rock. They don’t care. The owner doesn’t enter into a dialogue with any of the neighbors. People have moved out of this neighborhood to get away from this little bar that makes everyone so upset.

I agree with the post above, expressing dismay at someone who doesn’t think shots fired is a big deal.

There is a bar right around the corner from this one that is a perfectly good neighbor, for a bar. So, it is not about a bunch of prudes ruining the fun for a perfectly decent bar.

posted by: Jonathon on December 4, 2006 9:05am

Shots fired are no big deal and the police insisting on moving illegally parked cars is grounds for complaint. That pretty much encapsulates everything that is wrong with New Haven.

posted by: local resident on December 8, 2006 11:08am

Yea! I want my picture taking on my lunch break drinking a beer and a shot :) We see you we know who you are- the eyes are watching…Has the Fire Marshal been by to check his permits, is The Owls nest up to Code. Do we need a DWI Stop 1 night..

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