Focus on Knitting Factory as Neighbor By Carl Glassman “I know there is generally a negative connotation to clubs,” Michael Dorf, chairman and founder of the Knitting Factory said last month in an appearance before Community Board 1’s Quality of Life Committee. “But we are a jazz club and we put on world class music.”   “It’s not really a jazz club on the night that the syringes were left outside 80 Leonard,” responded Caroline Martin, a nearby resident. Martin held up a large photo of a needle, nestled near a column of the building, then rattled off the names of some bands that played that particular night, names such as Leftover Crack, Day Care Swindlers, and Virulent Strain. “Who’d like to tell me what jazz groups those are?” It was liquor license renewal time for the venerable music venue at 78 Leonard St. and Dorf was on hand to face some of his club’s severest critics. While no one was claiming that the syringe was anything but an isolated find (it was discovered five months earlier), residents wanted to call attention to other problems from the club—noise, garbage and loitering—that they said has plagued their block for years. At the same time, Dorf was eager to show that he had begun taking “extreme over-the-top measures” to be a good neighbor: more staffing outside the club, expanded garbage pickup, and new management. On hand was his new general manager, Scott Long, who gave out his cell phone number and promised to work towards “zero negative impact on the community.” It was liquor license renewal time for the venerable music venue at 78 Leonard St. and Dorf was on hand to face some of his club’s severest critics. While no one was claiming that the syringe was anything but an isolated find (it was discovered five months earlier), residents wanted to call attention to other problems from the club—noise, garbage and loitering—that they said has plagued their block for years. At the same time, Dorf was eager to show that he had begun taking “extreme over-the-top measures” to be a good neighbor: more staffing outside the club, expanded garbage pickup, and new management. On hand was his new general manager, Scott Long, who gave out his cell phone number and promised to work towards “zero negative impact on the community.” Indeed, in the weeks following that meeting, even Dorf’s critics admitted to improvements on the block. “They are cleaning up the street when we leave in the morning. They are making a concerted effort to keep people off the streets. And when we call them they do try to lower the music,” said Ruba Leutwyler, who lives next door at 78 Leonard St. But Leutwyler said she and her family are still tortured by the noise, which routinely keeps her up until 1 or 2 a.m. “I write to Michael Dorf at 3 a.m. ‘Dear Mr. Dorf, I’m up. Are you?’” Leutwyler said she has little hope that conditions will improve because Dorf refuses to properly soundproof the club, a charge that he denies. The sound, he said, is coming through an empty storefront at the base of Leutwyler’s building and only sheetrocking by the next tenant will solve it. Dorf denies the assertion of some neighbors that his club is booking “drug-type bands,” though he acknowledges that since Sept. 11, “we’ve opened up on both sides of the type of music we’ve had. I don’t think we’ve changed the course of direction at all,” he said. Community Board 1 did not issue a resolution on the Knitting Factory’s license renewal. Committee chair Carole De Saram said she wanted to give Dorf a chance to “clean up his act.” A spokesman for the State Liquor Authority said that the club has no “derogatory information” in its file and the license was renewed. In the meantime, Dorf said he is busy shuttling between New York and his club in Los Angeles and planning yet another venue for Paris. The day-to-day running of the Knitting Factory is being left to others, and that, he noted, is good for everyone. “I stink at operations,” he said.