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Blue Donkey Bar Gives Up Fight, Shuts Down After One Man's Complaints

NEW YORK (WCBS 880) - In the words of one Upper West Side bar owner, "the quickest way to end the war is to lose."

WCBS 880's Alex Silverman In Manhattan

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Inside the Blue Donkey Bar on Amsterdam Avenue, they were boxing up the tap handles and pulling the TVs down off the wall on Tuesday.

Blue Donkey Bar Letter
A letter posted at The Blue Donkey on the Upper West Side - New York, NY - Aug 9, 2011 (credit: Alex Silverman / WCBS 880)

"Never been treated so shabbily and so horribly," said owner Jim Goldsmith, who posted a letter in the bar's window explaining why it is closing down.

It talks about a man named Tim Tomlinson, who was generating a large volume of complaints to 311, Community Board 7, and even the City Council, for eight years.

"[We] closed the patio at 10 o'clock at night willingly," Goldsmith told WCBS 880 reporter Alex Silverman.

But Goldsmith says his neighbor kept at it and last week the police shut him down.

Goldsmith says he's still in shock.

"Potentially having my own business was an idea in the city, but now I want no part of it," Mishi Torkerov, a manager at the Blue Donkey, told Silverman.

"We accept defeat," ends Goldsmith's note.

There has been no comment from Tomlinson.

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