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Neighbors of South Boston Lithuanian club sue over what they charge are excessively loud events, drunken, drugged revelers and harassment
By adamg on Thu, 10/03/2024 - 5:04pm
Update: Association replies.
A Suffolk Superior Court judge holds a hearing tomorrow afternoon on a request from Adam and Shelby Burns, who live behind the South Boston Lithuanian Citizens Association on West Broadway for a temporary restraining order that would effectively shut the club down as they pursue the suit they filed today over alleged noise, rowdiness and harassment by the club, its managers and its patrons.
Adam Burns, a local developer, and his wife, live in a condo on E Street at Athens Street. In their request for a temporary restraining order, filed with their lawsuit in Suffolk Superior Court, they document what they say are a repeated series of violations of city noise ordinances from events, starting in 2022, at the association building at 368 West Broadway that often do not have required permits or run longer than allowed. And, they charge, they are often attended by people who then continue to drink and do drugs outside as they leave behind a layer of cigarette butts, broken glass and other detritus:
For several years now, Mr. and Mrs. Burns have suffered through persistent and intolerable noise issues emanating from the SBLCA. They have tried everything to make it stop. The SBLCA has refused to cooperate and regrettably has forced Mr. and Mrs. Burns to file this litigation.
The Burnses say they have asked repeatedly, and at least initially, politely, to get the club to quiet things down and do something about patrons at its events.
The association ignored their requests until, one day, they allege, the hall manager told them, in essence, tough, the association was there first and they should have done a better job of investigating their prospective neighbors before buying their condo. They charge that after that, the manager began filming them on the street and even in their own home in an attempt to intimidate them.
The Burnses say they tried installing a third pane in their bedroom window and putting in sound-absorbing curtains to no avail, and things are so bad they've had to find "alternative living arrangements" on nights they know the association will be hosting events.
Equally useless to date, they allege: Complaints to the Boston Licensing Board and the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission, both of which have rules requiring holders of liquor licenses to be good neighbors.
Among their filings are affidavits by two residents of 376 West Broadway, one of whom said things have gotten so bad since 2022 - he and his wife sometimes had to push their way through patrons on returning from walks with their young child in her stroller - that he was finally forced to sell his own condo and move away. The other, who has lived there since 2012, complained of "drunken pushing, shoving and other horseplay involving guests of the SBLCA."
In their request for a temporary restraining order, the couple specifically asks a judge to immediately stop the association from:
[H]olding any events, banquets, or meetings with recorded or live music, an amplification system, and/or dancing, including, but not limited to, weddings, baby and/or bridal showers, anniversaries, graduations, birthday parties, funeral receptions, community meetings and events, corporate and private meetings and events, organization meetings and events, plays and performances until further order from this Court.
Although the association will have to answer the request for a temporary restraining order tomorrow, it does not have to answer the couple's suit until Jan. 31, according to court records.
Request for a temporary restraining order, which mirrors the allegations in the lawsuit (4.3M PDF).
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Comments
“a lawyer of cigarette butts”
“a lawyer of cigarette butts”
I know what is meant but am intrigued by what such a thing could be.
A Lithuanian folk art piece with roots in pagan ceremonies?
A member of a legal defense team for certain inalienable rights of ethnic butt tossers or butt collectors?
A badly translated Lithuanian cliché meaning ….
…. ? What might it mean?
Collective name for a mass of butts?
Or somebody who failed to proofread his own story?
Fixed.
You Bought Next to the Lithuanian Club?
I know Southie has changed, but it is not like Old Southie is pushing daisies. It has rounded third, but it is not done yet.
That place has been a, um, zoo for generations.
I feel bad for the couple but the line about the carriages kills me.
Don't buy in East Boston, or hell, City Point, if you don't like planes.
Don't buy next to Burger King if the smell of meat makes you sick.
Don't live above a pet store if you don't like roaches.
Please don't buy behind a wedding / first communion / let's just have a party venue if you don't want noise.
Golly gosh, that’s ever so helpful “advice”.
Or victim blaming. Or old fart style justification of status quo.
I hope these people are successful. It looks like they were polite and reasonable for a long time.
The South End...
Where you live...
The neighborhood has changed. Many new people have moved into the neighborhood and let's just say the character of the neighborhood has changed from an area with a queer majority or near queer majority to one with a lot more strollers in the past 30 years.
What if some neighbors were not happy with Pride and the events around it. You know, too much noise, too much drinking, trash, and too many drugs. Lots of events going late into the night.
What if these new neighbors went to the City and filed an injunction to stop all the parties surrounding Pride? You know, the thing that has been the status quo for over 45 years. You would lose your old fart mind.
Second that
I don't live in the South End, but even 40+ years ago, the South End east of Copley Square (where the old Back Bay Station was) and Roxbury were absolutely run down until they began razing the train tracks in 1979 for the new Southwest Corridor and took down the train embankment from Cumberland Street near Northeast University to Forest Hills. Developers saw this as a bonanza and bought up everything for cheap, and brand new, chic luxury apartments went up.
Same thing happened to Washington Street. Once the blight of the Orange Line came down, developers bought up everything for a song and developed it into ultra-unaffordable SoWa. Then, the new money and suburbanites rolled in, pushing out the old guard with their their tank-like strollers and their snooty, cosmopolitan attitudes.
A couple of weeks ago, a few Back Bay residents were bitching that extra pot dispensaries would turn Newbury Street into Allston. At least the people from Allston (and Brighton) have far more respect from their neighbors and have a better welcoming attitude than a bunch of stuffy blow-ins.
I don’t live in the South End.
And you don’t have a point.
Victims?
Victims of what? These people aren't victims, they're inconvenienced at most, and most likely pissed they shelled out nearly $1M for condo and have to deal with noise on the weekend.
Also, what you call status quo is also known as what people in that neighborhood have been doing for generations. Suggesting that they need to change because people from out of town/out of state decided to move there is peak entitlement and privilege.
Also, what you call status
I don’t have a dog in this particular hunt one way or the other, but we do have laws governing acceptable levels of noise. Suggesting that someone who recently moved to a neighborhood somehow has less standing or fewer rights to ask that the laws be obeyed, is equally peak entitlement and privilege.
You Know Better
I’m not arguing that the people who move there have less rights, but part and parcel of living in a city is that you’ll have to deal with noise and everything that goes with it. Don’t like it? Spend that million on a house off 109, Rt 1, Rt 3 or wherever else you can get peace and quiet.
When laws are broken ….
…. it’s not part and parcel.
Nor are suburban fantasies.
The nerve!
“Yeah, for years we got away with violating the law. But new people moved in next door and they have the unmitigated gall to ask us to abide by the law. Jeez, what entitled pricks, amirite?”
theyre not victims
theyre just entitled pricks
I agree
First off, I agree with you John. Don't buy a place next to something you may not like.
However, as someone who had a identical problem I agree with them too. When I moved to Chelsealand we had an issue with a bar masquerading as a restaurant on the corner. Amazingly was never open during the day, but opened at 7pm. Loud parties on their patio until 2-3am on weekends. Beer bottles broken out front. Tons of reports of fights.
When I first moved here, Roommate and I had no idea about that place. Again during the day it was closed up. Roommate said he drove by this place multiple times at different times of day and did not see any problems so he purchased the place. Boy we were in for a surprise that first weekend we were here..
Needless to say when we called local PD on several occasions, eventually we were told that this bar had been a problem for some time and the city was attempting to do something about it. It eventually was closed by the city and now there's a nice centroamerican restaurant there now (who amazingly opens at 11am and closes at 10pm)
My point to my story is.. sometimes you don't know how bad (or good) your neighborhood is until after you've moved there. No amount of research can help sometimes.
So I agree with both.. John and theirs. In fact, as I read the attached documents, I even more feel like this was very similar to my situation, except the city of Chelsea knew and eventually took action. Seems like Boston dropped the ball here. These folks are well within their rights to do this.
Hmmmm
A real estate developer effectively trying to eliminate a business which would lead to the devaluation of said real estate, doesn’t take a genius to figure out what he is trying to do here.
I live in the area and know they have occasional weekend events and shows but would consider the 6 bars on either side of it or be far worse contributors to the noise and drunken patrons in the area.
Exactly this.
They are only complaining about the club next to them, not the ten bars right near by. A developer who would just happen to be the first person to bid on it, if it gets closed for some reason.
Sounds more like a plan to expand than an actual problem.
actually it seems that the club is not strategic
The problem is the side door on E street. That is where people are congregating. Most clubs wouldn't allow that. It also sounds like it happens in the middle the day which is different from many bars.
A couple new places in Dorchester are upsetting the neighbors, but it is at 2am.
Then maybe we need to have
Then maybe we need to have more acoustics and soundproofing so people can party the stress away!!
?
They are surrounded by popular bars/restaurants- loco, Lincoln Capo. That 3 to 4 block stretch of West Broadway is awful any day let alone on weekend. Buyer beware.
This can be said about every
“Restaurant” on East and West Broadway. Before they identified as a restaurant they were called bars. Every one of them have rowdy patrons, roofie dispensing bartenders and managers who don’t care about neighbors but only the bottom line.
Live and Let Lett?
Sounds like the NABB whinging about "fraternities reducing property values" in the 1980s.
Their condos were a new thing. The frats had been in the area for nearly a century.
Mosley’s
Oh, this reminds me of when I lived across the river from Mosley‘s in Dedham. There were some nights it got so rowdy that I had to call the police because the noise just carried over the river to our building.
Good times… Good times…
Licensing Board is a waste.
Ask them about "One Day Licenses" which they give out in bulk to places without proper zoning. Just think how it will be when we add over 200 licenses around the City, and restore the dive culture to all the places where people couldn't wait to see things improve. Buy LVMH.
This never would have
This never would have happened in old Southie.
Drinking, smoking, drug dealing violations
If you can shut down establishments for noise violations and rowdiness the next stop should be to shut down Andrew Station.
No symptahy for them
This RE developer is making his play.
He and his yuppie crowd will not rest until there is no local culture in Boston outside of IPAs and Shakespeare readings.
Honesty, I'm black and not at all from South Boston but it feels disrespectful to a decades old institution and Boston culture in general.
We dont know
We don't know his motives in regards to Real Estate. Don't ASSUME.
Secondly Quality of Life issues are important. This place clearly is working its grey line area between "social club" and "bar". They are the ones at fault here.
Like I said above, the issue is what has happened at the club.. and that the club owner started to take this to a second level with harassment. That is KEY here. People are glazing over this fact. DONT. This is the criminal aspect here.
"Culture". BS. I've grown tired of obnoxious behavior being brushed under the carpet as "Culture". Being drunk, loud, and threatening is not "Culture". Its called being an asshole. Nothing more or less.
Remember we all have to live here, regardless of the differences we have. We all have a right to decent quality of life. These people were not getting that living next to this club so they did something about it.
I am 100% positive you would have done the same thing. I did. Read my post above. Months and months of loud music until the early hours, or hearing fights or seeing drugs being done on the street corner.. you get real sick of it fast.
If you disagree with me, I will extend a open invitation to anyone to come over to my house during the summer when one of my neighbors is having one of their thrown down parties with music so loud it vibrates the house. 6,7,8 hours of non stop thumping music that goes until the wee hours of the morning.
Have that happen multiple times over the summer over a few years and you'll get real tired of very fast. I don't care how liberal or understanding you may say you are. You will get tired of it.
Any visitor I've had to my house when these parties happens all tell me "how do you tolerate this". My reply is "People have a right to have fun in their home just like me, so I turn a blind eye to it". And yeah I don't say anything most of the time.. I do, however, call CPD if it runs after 1230am. Sorry, my sleep matters at this point. (fwiw, usually by this point others call, so I am not alone here)
Like I said, you can be the most liberal, tolerant, and understanding person the world.. and eventually this will wear you down too. Talk is cheap. Everyone says things, but when it happens to them, its amazing to watch people's tunes change.
Well said!
This is reality and fairness speaking.
The city needs more places like this, not fewer
I sometimes attend the Real Ale festival at the Lithuanian Club, and I always enjoy the fact that such a space exists. You'd never know that it's there from the outside, yet it's perfect for all sorts of pop-up events, and yes, that includes parties and other alcohol infused social gatherings. There used to be places like this in every neighborhood, and we are poorer as a community when they disappear. Part of what makes cities so vibrant is the opportunity for social interaction outside the confines of private space. I sympathize with the complainant, but maybe they would be happier living in a suburb.
“ I sympathize with the
“ I sympathize with the complainant, but maybe they would be happier living in a suburb.”
As a life long city resident I sometimes wonder why suburban folk disrespect city neighborhoods so much with their cars and drunken and druggy behavior. I don’t excuse them but I think I understand them better when I encounter bullshit elitist attitudes like this.
We had a nice time, the club staff seemed friendly enough.
I was at an event there last December for a holiday play. The show started at 8, and was over by 10:30. The bar closed at about 9:30pm, after the intermission. Didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary.