Wednesday, February 8, 2012

CB3 aims to make daytime drinking more sociable, sort of

On Monday night, CB3's SLA Policy Taskforce met... and they came out of the meeting with a plan to consider easing up on restricting new liquor licenses ...

But with a catch. Bars-cafes-restaurants that only served beer-wine and closed by midnight would have a better chance of gaining approval under the proposed plan.

The new policy would be more welcoming of daytime establishments — those closing by about midnight and serving only beer and wine — in keeping with CB3's efforts to increase foot traffic during the day and avoid new late-night establishments.

This report comes via Julie Shapiro at DNAinfo.

Nothing's definite, of course. Next steps. A meeting! March 28 at 6:30 p.m. at a to-be-determined location. CB3 members are encouraging public participation. CB3 won't vote on the proposed policy change until after the public hearing in March, Shapiro reported. (Read the whole article here.)

Any early thoughts on the potential policy?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

How does having more bars & cafes open during the day spur retail diversity? And who is going to be around Saturday at midnight to actually check if these places close then?

bowery boy said...

The only way to grow retail diversity is to just say No to the bars. Or raise the taxes on bars the way bloomberg did with cigarettes. It may sound cruel toward this type of business, but like all government regulations, you can't change behavior unless you change the rules.

If the CB/SLA committee says No often enough, other sorts of businesses will eventually have a chance. But diversity doesn't just happen. Just look at what saying Yes some of the time has done to the neighborhood. Eventually, any community would be overrun by one type of the most profit-making business.

Makes me wonder if the members of the local CB are proud at what the EV has become under their leadership. Absolutely no one says that the neighborhood is better now than it was. Even a druggie-hood or the impoverished immigrant days look better by comparison to today's EV.

I know that CB jobs are under-appreciated and very hard, so I really feel bad for the members who now have little to be proud of for all their time and hard work. I wish them better luck and resolve in the future. As an artist/producer, I understand well that often No is the most creative response for generating new developments.

Anonymous said...

bowery boy-

how does a "druggie hood" better the current situation.

oh i get it - as an "artist producer" then i guess gangstah rap is better than lady gaga.

more street i guess.

more guns
more violence
more needless minority death

right.