A motion to reduce the length of the San Gennaro Festival was defeated by a vote of 20 to 13 last night at Community Board 2, according to an article by Lincoln Anderson in this week's edition of The Villager.

"Traditionally, the feast, which lasts a full 11 days in September, has stretched along Mulberry St. between Canal and Houston Sts. However, new designer boutique owners, restaurateurs and residents in stylish Nolita, at Little Italy's northern end, have grown increasingly opposed to the event. They say the neighborhood has changed. And the 85-year-old festival isn't authentically Italian anymore, they say, but is just like other generic street fairs and, most of all, is a major disruption for the neighborhood for close to two weeks each year," the article said, adding that "Unfortunately for Nolita's boutique owners, the feast also coincides with Fashion Week and Fashion's Night Out, keeping fashionistas away during what should be a highpoint of the year."

"The Charlotte Ronson boutique, near Spring St., owned by hip music producer Mark Ronson's sister," the article continued, "simply closes for two weeks during the festival, said assistant manager Jessica Pimentel, speaking the day after the C.B. 2 meeting."

Nolita residents last year successfully organized to defeat Danny Meyer's plan for a Shake Shack at Prince and Mulberry Sts. "Lacking sufficient seating, the sure to be wildly popular hamburger takeout would have overwhelmed the neighborhood, they argued, before Meyer ultimately pulled out due to their opposition. The recent petition effort to shorten the San Gennaro Festival at Kenmare St. was an outgrowth of this positive experience fighting Shake Shack, said two Nolita denizens, Kim Martin and Sharon Gary," the article said.

"Through the work of its Street Activities & Film Permits Committee," the article noted, "C.B. 2 did succeed in getting a number of concessions from Figli di San Gennaro, the nonprofit board that runs the festival. The group has agreed that, at this year's festival, there will be no "Dunk the Clown," since people complained it was too raucous. Also, there won't be any karaoke, no booths selling or playing CD's - unless the music is directly related to the festival's theme - and no vulgar or mafia T-shirts for sale, either. Figli di San Gennaro has also agreed to strict guidelines on shutdown times for each night and will rotate the soundstage's location so as to spread the noise impact around equitably. Also under the stipulations, no building of structures will take place overnight."

The community board, in its resolution, recognized that the festival "is an important and symbolic annual event" and it stated that the board "strongly urges [the city to consider cutting back the size of San Gennaro by stopping the street fair at Kenmare St. so as not to disturb the emerging business community in Nolita who expressed significant concerns about lost profits and disruptions caused by the festival."

"Vivian Catenaccio, a San Gennaro board member, noted that Old St. Patrick's Cathedral, between Prince and Houston Sts., was only just recently designated a basilica. To think of excluding this block from the festival, 'it's an insult to the basilica,' she said," the article said.

An article January 26 at DNAinfo.com by Jordan Heller

said that the board sent the city a letter that noted that critics of the 85-year-old festival "lobbied the board with a string of complaints, citing 'the loud carnival like atmosphere causing constant disruption, the lack of a religious or cultural focus, and public intoxication.'"

Robert Marshall, a San Gennaro board member, said that the festival's critics "want to turn Mulberry Street into Madison Avenue - it's a war on our culture" and John Fratta, 58, president of the Little Italy Restoration Association and a San Gennaro board member who said his great grandfather founded the festival in 1926, called opposition to the feast "bigotry."