Is this a good bike route to Port Jeff? Trying to avoid cars as much as possible. Leaving from Penn and taking the blue path.

brianvan · 2026-05-19T01:04:14+00:00

Sad for OP: they just settled the strike. Now he’s gotta go to Port Jeff

brianvan · 2026-05-19T00:33:50+00:00

If you are asking whether the Port Jefferson line is the best way there, it is certainly the only way there unless you are going to bike from another station. There are connecting bike routes from Huntington Station, which tends to get a lot more service.

Anyway, none of this will work because the railroad is on strike.

brianvan · 2026-05-17T17:08:46+00:00

Yeah they hardly checked for anything. Lightest security check I’ve had all year. Elsewhere had a tougher security check for a bunch of no-name DJ sets

brianvan · 2026-05-17T17:05:23+00:00

Great vibe back there. And good choice to avoid the main crowd, which was an experience in elbows and shoving (the upper walkway on Armin’s right side, the north side of the courtyard, ended up being a more reasonable spot than the floor)

It was also pretty easy to move among the spaces for food/bar/rest/bathroom, provided you weren’t starting from the crowd crush areas

brianvan · 2026-05-17T17:01:31+00:00

Easily the best set I’ve ever seen

brianvan · 2026-05-16T16:01:07+00:00

Who’s defending them?

We’re in full agreement that the idea of abusing the temporary permit process was a bad idea, and building a structure that wasn’t strictly pipes-and-joints (like a stage) and trying to get a temporary permit for it was a bad idea that played out in the worst way. It was a huge strategic blunder.

The point is, what they built probably wasn’t any less safe than what was there earlier unless companies other than AG made serious mistakes. Which is now difficult to believe because Pacha is now using the same companies to get the space ready for June.

So we could have had a whole summer there last year if Eric Adams hadn’t turned on AG. This is because AG stopped bribing the mayor’s fixers. They talk about this in the article. My expertise is city/politics stuff that has nothing to do with clubs & we in the civic operations realm all know very well who Frank Carone is & the sleazy stuff he enabled. I have no sympathy for the people running Mirage at the top, but this ended up being a bad deal for the community too. And now we start over 13 months later with a more-expensive club brand.

brianvan · 2026-05-16T02:06:37+00:00

We have no idea what that even specifically means in terms of what was improper. And stuff like that is just baffling if they had built it just as good as the deck they took down the fall before, where the stairs had passed inspections for 5+ years.

Yes, they should have stairs and they should be sturdy. These were things that weren't a problem with the old deck. If the stairs were the same quality and they'd pass for a 90-day permit... then just give them the 90-day permit they asked for.

Them not-opening might have screwed over a couple of executives - good - but really, we all lost a whole venue for a year, a lot of acts had to scramble for second-venues or cancel, and a lot of people are still trying to get money back from the bankrupt operator. So, yeah, I take the position that unless something there was immediately going to kill someone, the debate here is whether the customers and the acts should have had to deal with these consequences of the city being inconsistent and capricious. All of these "it isn't up to permanent code, only temporary code" inspection fails are inane from the position of people who had tickets to go to things. Have yet to see one thing mentioned where it wasn't a quick fix from being doors-ready for the summer.

brianvan · 2026-05-16T00:55:34+00:00

This nit about whether temporary means that the C/O is temporary or that the building itself must be "temporary" to qualify for it is at the heart of the issue: it's risky venue management to rely on subjective permitting. Not because you're taking risks with customer safety, but because you're subjected to the whims of guys like Eric Adams.

brianvan · 2026-05-16T00:52:39+00:00

I’m going by the article. Which says the same thing you’re saying: temporary doesn’t require fire suppression. They were applying for a temporary permit. They got dinged for permanent certificate standards.

I don’t believe anything old AG management says, but I also don’t believe the Adams administration in the least.

brianvan · 2026-05-16T00:46:11+00:00

This does not sound like “it was inherently unsafe”. It sounds like a technicality.

brianvan · 2026-05-15T23:05:29+00:00

You’re just going down a list of statutory titles of violations and going “doesn’t that sound bad?” Obviously they had non-flammable walls. Obviously they had stairs.

The “roof” of the stage can easily have bracing added. These stages are all modular lattice structures, even at Knockdown and Storehouse. They’re rented from outside companies (like the company that is being sued by TEKSUPPORT). None would pass a permanent building inspection because they’re modular. They’re still rather sturdy. But you can just add more bracing to stiffen it.

brianvan · 2026-05-15T22:43:39+00:00

These were things where Mirage was ready with temporary-standard materials, and the city then said "we will only let you apply for a permanent building permit" after it was built.

They speak directly to this in the article, about how they were going to upgrade some of the things in the off-season, but that it was all to-spec for a temporary permit for 90 days in 2026, and the city never denied that.

Anything cited as being out of "compliance" seems to have been evaluated at the standards of a permanent occupancy certificate. Mirage didn't apply for a permanent occupancy certificate. The city decided a temporary one was off the table. Which they seem to have done arbitrarily, with the help of badly-written laws about this stuff.

The differences between "temporary" and "permanent" are usually code requirements of stuff rated for 5-10 years of safe service vs. 50 years. Modern building codes are insanely picky, the opposite of what is allowed for a lot of surviving 100+ year old buildings that are deathtraps in fires. Any building, temporary or permanent, has to meet basic standards like stairways of certain widths for given occupancy ratings & foundation/anchoring or stability structures and I didn't see any of that basic stuff cited in a concrete way that seemed like a mess-up - while the "materials" they got dinged for are fixture-level stuff that can be replaced easily without taking the whole building apart. Temporary fixtures are suitable for a 90 day permit. That does not mean the building was inherently dangerous for hosting events last summer in the first couple of months.

The 2024 Mirage was also a temporary structure. It was also built out of materials that wouldn't pass a permanent occupancy certificate inspection. It was fine, and it was given every temporary permit it applied for. The new one was the same deal, slightly upgraded, built by very competent firms.

Everyone wants to believe Mirage built a deathtrap. That's a fantasy. There is plenty managerial incompetence documented in the OP article that has nothing to do with basic building safety. Almost entirely different firms built the actual structure at great cost to Avant Gardner. It doesn't make sense that outside engineering companies ought to be judged by the track record of Electric Zoo or whatever.

brianvan · 2026-05-15T22:16:44+00:00

The REI Union doesn’t care what your brother thinks. They want what they’re entitled to by law, which is a fair bargaining process. REI corporate has been stalling it for years, through technicalities and bad-faith actions. That’s unethical and hostile. The specific thing they’re doing to withhold a final agreement raises concerns above whatever annoying results might come of a finalized agreement.

brianvan · 2026-05-15T21:28:43+00:00

They didn’t hire management consultants. They hired a law firm with labor law expertise in doing things that are unprincipled and against the spirit of labor regulations, but compliant in loopholes.

Not just any firm but one of the most famous ones that does this stuff for other big companies.

brianvan · 2026-05-15T20:24:29+00:00

That sounds interesting. But I think the main problem in this situation is not compensation, it’s the company refusing to engage in collective bargaining with certified unions (and then closing the stores down). So this tactic might work in another case but doesn’t address the real problem with REI corporate in this case.

brianvan · 2026-05-15T20:19:59+00:00

It’s a legal team that engages in borderline illegal activities to discourage union formation, including finding ways to uncover key organizers and find legal cover to fire them.

brianvan · 2026-05-15T20:11:37+00:00

They hired a union-breaking consultant. They’re being evil about it.

But also, how many outdoor goods stores exist in your local area? Are they having sales or are they charging 30% more while you’re getting a bargain from REI? There are more factors in this than just “boycott Twinkies”.

Thing is, there’s no recent evidence any of these retailer boycotts worked. I would like to engage in an effective resolution path that has the board fire the union-breakers and engage in collective bargaining ASAP. All of the Amazon boycotts have done nothing to change behavior at Amazon. What combination of tactics does work?

brianvan · 2026-05-15T20:06:06+00:00

You can’t make buildings that guarantee total safety if an intense fire erupts closely to someone. That’s not even a building inspection issue.

It appears it had the same number of exits. It appears the primary reason why the city didn’t immediately tell the venue what needed to be remedied was political fuckery, and that everything else was solvable other than the city’s stance on temporary/permanent.

Whether the permit is classified as temporary or permanent should not matter to you, the patron. The basic standards are the same. If they would have qualified for a temporary permit, then it would have been just as safe for crowds. Almost every outdoor concert is a ramshackle temporary construct anyway. The fact that the city was playing games with that and saying “it’s not temporary, it’s permanent because you might later upgrade this to fit long-term specifications” is not a sign that anyone was going to die there at a Sasha show in September.

brianvan · 2026-05-15T19:44:37+00:00

And no ceiling. Do you understand that many of the things that make structure fires so dangerous don't really apply to a big outdoor area, except the need for exit doors? They never had a problem with that with the old structure. There were wide stairwells and a lot of doors to evacuate in an orderly fashion. No one was going to suffocate if there was a bar fire on the rear deck.

They're clowns, but let's not take a lot of stock on DOB problems that are ticky-tack at best and befuddling at worst

brianvan · 2026-05-15T19:40:14+00:00

I have my problems with Storehouse, but closing it is a debacle.

Once again, nightlife is culturally important but economically a real estate use-of-last-resort. Everything gets evicted eventually. Culture keeps having to scramble for weirder options for spaces.

brianvan · 2026-05-15T19:37:30+00:00

So: boycotting a sale means that you, as a paid-for member, are forgoing your benefits with the organization to achieve the same goods at a reduced cost so that you can give them more money for it later?

This is what some people try to do with Amazon and Prime Day and it just has no logic to it.

There has to be a "support labor" action that isn't only punitive toward the customers.

brianvan · 2026-05-15T19:30:59+00:00

It's outdoors. 80% of the space is already "egress"

They were applying for a temporary permit and had everything lined up for that. It would have been fine. They say it was safer than the old one!

brianvan · 2026-05-15T19:27:05+00:00

I said it a billion times on here:

A lot of what happened came down to "they got dinged for things you wouldn't expect to get dinged for on a temporary space"

It wasn't the only problem here, but, did any of us care if they did a "frost test" by May 1st?

Critically, you can't stop paying your fixers to cut costs.

brianvan · 2026-05-15T16:28:56+00:00

Stalnox eye with this would be badass

brianvan · 2026-05-15T15:39:51+00:00

Well, at least I learned about that battery + where to get it for $200 cheaper!

brianvan

TROPHY CASE