Moments after a hearing in which Habitat for Humanity testified in favor of shutting down the man on the right’s Newhallville bar, the non-profit housing organization got an anonymous phone call threatening to burn its offices down, a city official testified at a hearing Wednesday.
As part of a clampdown on crime, the mayor and a squadron of city officials and residents have been pursuing a remonstrance to prevent the Taurus Café at 520 Winchester Ave. from renewing its liquor license. If successful, the move would effectively shut down the facility, which is zoned as a 85-seat restaurant but known as a bar.
The petition was originally filed by 50 neighbors to the bar, who can by state law lobby against the license renewal if they deem the bar “not suitable” for the neighborhood. The mayor, citing 33 police calls to the bar in 2006, including a shooting on New Year’s Eve outside the club, has dubbed the club one of five “hot spot” bars that are havens for crime and need to be shut down.
“The way they’re operated right now, they’re a threat to neighborhoods,” said Mayor John DeStefano in a recent interview.
Wednesday, suit-clad City Hall officials and denim-clad regulars from the bar filed into a hearing room at the State Office Building in Hartford, where Taurus Café owner Larry Livingston (pictured above) is seeking renewal of his liquor license before the Liquor Control Commission.
Last week, a group of people including the New Haven chief of police, assistant chief of police, Habitat for Humanity, and a woman who at that time was living in a Habitat home right near the bar, spoke out against the Taurus. Attorney Peter Berdon is litigating on the city’s side.
This week, the city came armed with lawyers, Livable City Initiative (LCI) officials and a zoning expert, but no residents. In the wake of two recent threats and a burglary after the first hearing, residents who opposed the bar were too afraid to come, testified Newhallville Alderwoman Alfreda Edwards and Julie Savin, a Newhallville staffer from LCI.
Savin detailed three threats.
Last week’s hearing let out at 2:35 p.m. Moments later, Habitat reported getting an anonymous phone call threatening to burn its offices down, testified Savin. Police spokeswoman Bonnie Winchester confirmed Habitat reported an arson threat at 2:57 p.m.
The single mother who moved into a new Habitat house at 526 Winchester in April also appeared at the Jan. 4 hearing. Just two days later on Saturday, she reported burglars prowling in her home. She called police twice, reporting a burglar first fiddling with her door then entering her bedroom, said Winchester. Savin said the woman has since moved out.
“What? They’re making things up!” whispered a snickering Taurus loyalist in the audience.
Savin said she also witnessed a third threat to an anti-Taurus Newhallville neighbor Sunday, but she did not elaborate further.
Word of these incidents has been flying around Newhallville, intimidating would-be witnesses, testified Alderwoman Edwards (pictured). “A lot of people do feel intimidated to come because of the hearsay that people have been threatened.”
New Haven police, as well as the FBI, are investigating the threats, and a detective was present at the hearing, taking names and addresses of those who testified.
Livingston, who owns the Taurus, denied any relation to the threats: “There’s nobody in the community that’s making no threats to Habitat — that’s B.S.”
The Debate
To prevent Livingston from renewing his license, the city must show the bar is not suitable for the area. LCI’s Savin, in the hot seat for most of Wednesday’s hearing, spoke of the city’s Newhallville revitalization plan, some of which has been started, to stabilize the rundown area by bringing in owner-occupied homes. That effort is thwarted by the Taurus, she testified.
“There have been brought to my attention a tremendous amount of concerns” about the Taurus, “criminal activity inside and out,” testified Savin.
The hearing officer, Elisa A. Nahas, a short-haired, bespectacled woman sitting at a desk on a raised platform at the front of the room, cut in: “We need more specificity.” Savin related the tale of an elderly woman on Thompson Street who objected to loud DJ music late at night. Nahas admitted the hearsay as evidence, but said hearsay proves nothing. “We need to see living people here to testify.”
“People are frightened to come here,” said Savin.
Luckily, Alderwoman Edwards came in and stepped up to the plate. Her ward members complain of bar patrons urinating on their properties and making too much noise, she said. She sat on the Newhallville Management Team, a group that worked hard to help draft the Newhallville revitalization plan. “I believe this bar is a menace to my ward getting these houses. Who’s going to buy a house with all the problems we’re having there?”
Taurus Caf√©‘s attorney, David Avigdor, who is also a rabbi in New Haven, derided the city’s case as a “shotgun blast of allegations” without sufficient evidence. He questioned the 33 police calls in 2006, only eight of which the city had provided police reports for. His cross-examination centered on the notion that no one had taken the time to talk to Livingston about his caf√© and find a solution.
Last Thursday, three extra-duty police officers, employees of the Taurus Caf√©, testified on Livingston’s behalf. A dozen Taurus supporters showed up Wednesday, but will not testify until the next hearing on Feb. 21, when Avigdor will begin to build his case.
One bar-goer, a 40-year-old who gave his name as “S.P.,” said he came because he was “part of the club, like Cheers.” He noted the Taurus is the only bar left in the ‘Ville, after the Oasis and the 7 – 11 shut down. He and his friends don’t want to go drink in a different ‘hood where they would not be welcome. Shutting down the Taurus would create “more killings,” he said.
This patron, Yul Watley, portrayed the hearings as a city-backed “trial by ambush” against a minority-owned business. The Taurus had long wanted to buy the lot where the Habitat house now sits to use it as a parking lot, he said. “I really knew when they built that house there, they were going to come out at him.”
I am outraged that a Habitat homeowner and her family were forced to move out of their home because of the despicable actions of a few who don't understand the real meaning of a community. Fear and intimidation are NOT the fabric of revitalized communities.
Habitat for Humanity has been serving the working poor in New Haven for years now and it deserves the respect of ALL city residents. Habitat of Greater New Haven has a long and proud tradition of transforming entire streets, blocks, and even neighborhoods that others have written off as too dangerous or too poverty-striken for their investments.
The tragic behavior of the Taurus Cafe and its patrons should infuriate all New Haveners who truly care about this city. We can and should stand up and put a stop to this nonsense! We talk and talk about halting the violence that is taking so many of our young people's lives...now it is time to walk the walk!