NYC Black Gay Bar Chi Chiz to Close After Long Legal Battle

Photo: Chi Chiz Gallery

It is the last call for Chi Chiz, the Black gay bar on New York City's Christopher Street in the West Village. After several raids and closures lead to a protracted legal battle and losing this week's appeal against charges by the New York State Liquor Authority, the owners announced they would close the bar for good on January 3, 2011. Chi Chiz is the one of the last Black gay owned bars in New York City.

Chi Chiz attorney Tom Shanahan explained the decision in an email: "This [closure] was forced but [still] our decision, as we cannot run a business with sustained harassment by the NYPD, as has been occurring. Deputy Inspector Caroli issued twelve summons since March…and all have been dismissed. The time and [cost] of litigating one thing after another—and all of it being dismissed—are too expensive for a private-sector business the size of ours. It is truly sad—and bad for Christopher Street and the LGBT Community."

On December 16, Chi Chiz was scheduled for a final hearing in the city’s nuisance abatement lawsuit that sought to close the bar.  Co-owners Ronelle McKenzie and Everett Raywners tried to reach a settlement with the city but "the terms that they wanted were too onerous," Shanahan told Gay City News.

The NYPD cites four drug sales that police say happened at Chi Chiz  between July of 2009 and January of 2010. But the bars owners' and many patrons believe the NYPD and Bloomberg Administration is targeting the bar because local residents resent the club and black/Latino gay youth in the West Village. Shanaan specifically cited the actions of the Greenwich Village Block Association and its vice-president David Poster, who testified against the bar at the Liquor Authority hearing, and said they "will do whatever they can to chase African-Americans and the transgendered away from Christopher Street and the community."

The bar's closure marks the final chapter of Christoper Street's once-fabled reputation of being home to a number of Black gay-owned bars such as Keller's and Two Potato. "For a dozen years, Chi-Chiz was a place for the LGBT community of color to stop in, meet others of like interest, and express themselves freely," writes Nathan James at GBM News. "With its imminent closure, it remains to be seen whether another establishment quite like it will be seen again in New York City."

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NYS Liquor Authority Moves Against Chi Chiz
NYC's Black Gay Bar Chi Chiz to Lose Liquor License?
Report: NYPD Officer Shouted Anti-Gay Slurs at Black Gay Bar
Activists Fight Closure of Chi Chiz
UPDATE: Chi Chiz Remains Open for Now
Starlite  to Close July 31
Property Sale to Doom Starlite?
NYC's Oldest Black Gay Bar Facing Eviction

Comments

[Dre]

NYC is now officially dead for gay African-Americans. All there is now are underground house parties. This has been an ongoing process. A lot moved to Atlanta and elsewhere.

[ST]

Were is the http://www.naccp.org/ and AL Sharpton were is the rally. Call these people on it, take a stand people,

[Mel Smith]

This is really terrible news. Are they attacking bars attended by white patrons in the same manner how they are attacking Chi Chiz?

[Mel Smith]

Heterosexual black folks don't care about this situation because they think they're better than us because we don't represent their norm.

As gay folks of color, this is an issue that we have to respond to. I'm not looking for heteros and sell out closeted cases to help us.

[MW09]

Terrible news!!!

[duane10]

Chichiz management ran this place with negligence and with disdain for their customers. One owner snarled at the customers as she rushed downstairs to count the take and "do the books;" the other played cards in the back as if he had no responsibility for ensuringi that the place was run properly. They hired someone to manage the place who boosted his low self-esteem with actions that accelerated the shrinkage of their once-loyal customer base. This place had three strikes against it. Liquor license revocation; nuisance action; and eviction proceedings for not paying their rent. If the first two didn't do it in, the third soon would have. And the third cannot be attributed to some conspiracy or injustice, except the pathetic truth that the last place for LGBT people of color in NYC was owned and run by such a bunch of clowns.

[anonymous]

At last years gay pride fest (which for blacks it begins when the sun goes down)a friend and I over heard a conversation with a group of young black gays who were wondering where were they suppose to go if ChiChi's closed. My friend and I both shook our heads.

With lofts a half block away from this infamous black hangout starting at $900k what is shocking is how long it took for the inevitable to occur.

Every night after the gay pride parade there is literally an ocean of black gay men and women who take over the two blocks leading to the pier. The "Miss Girl" and associated screaming and yelling at the tops of lungs goes on until sunrise and then after. Those days are gone now.

Hopefully a few enterprising black gay men will see an opportunity here and get together and open a club. The clientel is there. Black gay men need to get their act together.

[Charlie Wilson]

Hasn't the black gay bar "scene" been replaced by social networking (Grindr, A4A, Manhunt)? I'm sorry to hear about Chi Chiz, like the Starlite Lounge, but maybe we should go back to basics. I would rather host or go to a BYOB with a few mature brothas than be cruised by some kids at a bar.

[Jarid]

wow.. I rem Keller's... hardly anybody cd fit in that joint.. but sure a lot of people did. squashed between the bar and that crazy juke box thing lol. not bein that 'out' i only been in there twice but i def knew it,, just like the piers with the holes in the pavement leading straight down to the water and all the weeds growing up around the homeless cardboard homes in the middle of the piers.

[Carl]

There was serious neglect on managements part, the young gay Black kids did not know how to act civilized often fighting, stabbing, yelling and throwing trash all over the place, there was drugs being sold in and around the bar, prostitution, harassment of people who passed by happened constantly, although there is obvious racism between the White owned gay bars and Chi Chiz (on Christopher Street), the fact that Chi Chiz did not demand "better" from its customers is why it is now gone. Just because it is Black owned does not mean it should be Ghetto ran. They gave the City all the evidence and resources they needed to close them down. The bar lost their prime customers a long time ago and they knew it. Is it a shame? Yes, for Black owned businesses but for the Gay Black community? No. This is their final Wake up Call.

But let's not take into account the obvious prejudice of the community. There are other straight bars that are just as vagrant, loud and obnoxious. I can list at least 6 in the area and one on Christopher Street (The Kit Kat). And if you did a stop and bust I am quite sure you will find drugs on the customers. I get it, people have paid millions of dollars for their tiny apartments in the area but equal attention must be paid to the White Bars and Straight bars as well.

[Tom Bradford]

NYC is not dead for gay african americans. In the last three years I've noticed a lot of gay black guys walking around chelsea. I still go to g lounge on 19th street occasionally. On a saturday night the crowd at g is a good 25% african american guys. The gay black scene in nyc is not dead it has just moved uptown.