Robert Brink - Writer

Arto's Ass, The New York Times and Me

April 16, 2006 | Skip To The Comments (1)

Controversy!

Ok, so the etnies crew was in NYC last week celebrating our 20th Anniversary. It was a blast. A few days later, I posted this blog on etnies.com in response to a bunch of whining maggots complaining about all the noise we made and the mini ramp on the roof, etc. Maybe I'm insane, but who moves to New York City for peace and quiet? Yet another instance of asshole-ness in modern day society.

Anyway, The New York Times ran the following article on it, interviewed Don Brown, and cited the blog I put on etnies. Pretty funny stuff. You think The New York Times would have a staff skilled enough to research the fact that the name "etnies" is not capitalized? Ya, been that way for 20 years now. Amatuers! The last paragraph is a gem!

The New York Times
April 16, 2006
SOHO
No Off-Ramp for the Neighbors
By JAKE MOONEY

ELIZABETH SCHIFFMAN'S apartment on Grand Street in SoHo is on the fifth floor, so at first she couldn't place the rumbling, clattering noise she heard coming through her window. As an experienced city dweller, she thought it had something to do with construction.

The noise, which began early this month, continued, sporadically. On the night of April 6, it was joined by the more familiar sounds of exuberant young people having a very loud good time. The event was a party at the new showroom of Etnies, a company based in Orange County, Calif., that sells shoes and clothing for skateboarding, surfing and similar pastimes.

Exclusive robbrink.com bonus asscrack photo!

The source of the mystery noise turned out to be a skateboard ramp outside on a neighboring roof. Etnies had installed the ramp on top of the company's two-story building, at 29 Greene Street, putting Ms. Schiffman and her neighbors uncomfortably close to the center of the action.

"There was a constant sound of skateboards that were being used by I don't know whom. It was as though they were right outside my window," recalled Ms. Schiffman, an artist and a teacher in New York City public schools.
Between the party and the ramp, the neighbors were not happy; several called the police or the city's 311 hotline, and one sent a simmering missive to Curbed.com, a city real estate Web log that first reported on the evening's events.

"You've got a lot of wealthy people that live in lofts that back up to there that aren't going to be very happy if this becomes a regular occurrence," said Martin Levine, a real estate appraiser who lives in the same building as Ms. Schiffman. "It's a playground up on the roof."

Local galleries hold regular events where wine is served, Mr. Levine said, but those are different. "A lot of people show up," he said, "but by 9:30 it's all gone."

The neighbors fear that the ramp will remain a permanent fixture.

Indeed it will, said Don Brown, a former skateboarding champion who is the company's senior vice president of marketing. But the ramp will be open only between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays, and only for members of the Etnies-sponsored skateboarding team, who are not often in New York anyway, Mr. Brown said.

As for the party, he said Etnies people were just excited to be celebrating the company's 20th anniversary. "We definitely apologize for anyone we kept awake or anything like that," he said. "That definitely wasn't our intention. We just have a lot of energy and a lot of excitement."

Last week, the company's Web site told a slightly different story. Beside a link to the Curbed post was a picture of the partly exposed backside of the Etnies-sponsored skateboarder Arto Saari along with the caption, "Here's what Arto thinks of the complainers ..."