In Crown Heights, tensions flare around a beloved mural and a new restaurant
"There's blackouts, there's floods, there's shortage of gas — and there's Meat."
When rumors began spreading that a beloved Crown Heights mural — one memorializing late rapper Sean Price — might be wiped away, the neighbors mobilized. An online petition garnered more than 13,000 signatures, Price’s family members stationed themselves on the block to keep watch and local lawmakers began to investigate.
The rumors were amplified on blogs and social media, by national media companies and on front stoops. As the allegations swirled, they began to focus on an offender.
Meat, a soon-to-open kosher restaurant at 115 Kingston Ave. that had already made a bad first impression on the neighbors by skirting trash regulations and turning curious residents away, found itself in the limelight.
With tensions high, the involved parties gathered for a Tuesday night meeting. Community leaders and concerned residents sat down at Meat with the restaurant’s management.