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Residents up hill from a West Roxbury highway worry about noise from proposed liquor store

The Boston Licensing Board decides tomorrow whether to OK a liquor-store owner's request to open a new store on the northbound side of the VFW Parkway across from Prime Motors and just up from a Firestone garage, where the road is a four-lane divided highway.

Residents at the hearing opposed Dimpleben Patel's request to buy a license from Brothers Wine and Spirits on Warren Street in Roxbury.

They said they were concerned about noise from the store on the divided highway flowing up the hill and said the store would be the first in the small strip of stores there to be open until 10 p.m. They added they are concerned about "young people" traversing their streets on foot and then walking down the hill to the liquor store.

Also, West Roxbury already has four liquor stores, and that's plenty, they said.

Patel's lawyer, Arthur Pearlman, however, said the store is separated from the homes by a five-foot-high wall and dense trees and scrub.

He said the store would prove unattractive to West Roxbury residents because getting there by car would require turning onto the former Rte. 1, driving past the store and then making a U-turn to get to it. Patel chose the location in part to keep her customers from increasing traffic in "the heart of West Roxbury," he said. He said the store would instead attract Dedham residents and Rte. 128 commuters heading north.

The mayor's office and City Councilor Matt O'Malley opposed Patel's proposal to pay $190,000 for the Brothers license and move it to the parkway. Supporting the transfer, however, was City Councilor Tito Jackson, who presumably would be glad to see the current store removed from his Roxbury district.

Board Chairwoman Nicole Murati Ferrer expressed amazement that Patel was spending all that money to buy a license on the open market when the board actually had a license to dole out for a change. Pearlman said Patel didn't realize that and that by the time she did, she had already signed an agreement to buy the Brothers license.

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Comments

Good grief. These people are groping at straws in their objections, aren't they?

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Say it with me folks!

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I think it would do better on the southbound side (much easier to U-turn) but I think a liquor store could do well here.

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You'd get garrulous throngs jamming up the very heart of West Roxbury in their frenzied efforts to bypass Macy's and Blanchards and shop there, and we really couldn't have that.

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And there are enough boozehounds in West Roxbury proper that wouldn't go anywhere to get their liquor.

EDIT: I didn't even read that part of the story, but he is 100% right. I would assume this store would get mostly the Rt. 1 commuter traffic.

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Young people traversing! THEIR streets! On foot!

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inform these good folks that they live in a neighborhood of a city.

Thank you very much.

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That particular part of West Roxbury looks and feels a lot more like a suburb next to a highway than a densely populated series of brownstones (hmm, for that matter, so does much of West Roxbury, except for maybe parts of Centre Street).

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There was a package store close to there already , right after the Burger King ( if thats still there), in the late 70's. There was another one further down the street on the other side of the VFW pkway at the intersection of Bridge street , and there were two more on the VFW, one at Gardner street , and another across the street in the old Purity Supreme. Thats four, before you get to Gary's alone, that arent there anymore.

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My friendly neighborhood CVS is having a sale on rum this week.

I'm still getting used to it.

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In Mass , I think its part of their drug dispensing license that alcohol is included. I remember as a yout getting grog from the old corner drug store, altho in limited selection. Pick your poison, Dawson beer , Old Thompson rye , Bali-Hai wine , and Tango premixed vodka screw drivers, if you were courting a squeeze that night. I think Melvin in Brighton , and Elmwood in Malden still have alcohol, and there are others. Technically the alcohol must be for medicinal purposes, as the rx from Dr. Hangover says , " Take early , and often " . Sláinte ,dudes and dudettes!

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Are there 5 CVSes that sell alcohol in Mass, under the 5 alcohol licenses per chain law?

I hadn't heard that it was raised from 3. But then someone told me the Foxboro Trader Joe's now sells alcohol, and I see they have 5 -- Foxboro, Cambridge-Mem Drive, Brookline, Framingham, and Peabody.

http://www.telegram.com/article/20120701/NEWS/1070... says the limit goes to 7 in 2016, and 9 in 2020.

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Foxboro Trader Joe's now sells alcohol

Confirmed.

I was there last Saturday. Decent wine and beer selection, too, in one of the more spacious TJs I've been to.

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If the store wants to keep its license, it will card just like every other package store.

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The person who made the comment was 75 (and she also said that hill isn't as hard to navigate as the lawyer said - she does it all the time).

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Actually, my concern would be people trying to jay walk across the highway. I don't believe there is a proper cross walk near the store site. I hate to say " I told you so" when accidents start happening.

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Prime salesmen making a quick run for a fine wine?

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Perhaps the trailer park?

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I'd completely forgotten about the trailer park - which, of course, is right next to Prime.

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There's a trailer park in Boston? Well would you look at that... there is! Huh.

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Ol' man Clair, who used to own the car dealerships next to the place, actually owned the land and got it in his head one year to evict the tenants and expand his car dealership. The residents fought back, state Sen. Marian Walsh joined their battle and after a long, long fight, Clair finally gave up and sold the trailer park (Boston's only) to the residents.

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by having to cross a dangerous highway to get their booze!

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