The New York Post reports that the owners of Ludlow Street bar, No Fun, have filed a $2 million defamation lawsuit in state supreme court against the Lower East Side Dwellers neighborhood organization:
A Lower East Side community group hell-bent on shutting down rowdy establishments has finally messed with the wrong business — a bar named No Fun… (The lawsuit claims) that snooty gadflies in the pesky block association “have employed improper and illegal tactics to terrorize restaurants and bars in the neighborhood.” Other establishments targeted by the group have given up and shut down, but not No Fun.
According to the bar’s lawyers, the Dwellers went too far in posting fliers throughout the neighborhood which accused No Fun of operating without a certificate of occupancy and running a night club. In court papers owner John Pierce argues:
Defendants narrow-minded intolerance and disdain for people who do not share their values and worldview (yet patronize their local businesses) is the driving force behind their quest to destroy any neighborhood establishments that they believe are patronized by the ‘bridge and tunnel’ crowd.
As the Post noted, the bar has been fined almost $20,000 by the State Liquor Authority in the past three years. Dwellers leader Diem Boyd (who’s also named individually in the suit) said, “This complaint is meritless legal harassment. We will not be intimidated and will respond to the court.”
