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Savin Hill wine and cheese shop charged with stocking too much wine and not enough cheese

On July 17, a Boston Police detective entered Savin Hill Specialities, the new wine-and-cheese shop at 1047 Dorchester Ave., and took careful note of how many shelves were used for wine and beer and how many for food items. He looked in the shop's coolers to compare the ratio of chilled alcoholic beverages to soda and water.

And then he wrote owner Mateo Van a citation for "failure to conform to floor plan and food/alcohol ratio, approved by [the Boston Licensing] board" - because seven of eight shelves marked on a store floor plan for "food" were, in fact, stocked with beer and wine and because there was no soda or water in the refrigerators.

At the requisite hearing before the licensing board today, Van's attorney, Carolyn Conway, said she was kind of at a loss as to why her client was cited, because she couldn't find any Boston regulations that specify a specific food/alcohol shelf ratio, unlike the practice in Cambridge, and that nobody ever told her floor plans submitted to the board were to be scrutinized so carefully.

Still, Conway presented the board with several folders' worth of receipts for the food Van has purchased since he opened a few months ago - and she recited a list of some of those items, including gourmet spaghetti, pasta sauces and cheeses, premium olive oils, crackers and popcorn and artisanal bread.

She continued, "The chocolates that are there, those are a big, big seller," she said. "The dog treats are a big, big seller."

And, she let drop, "quite frankly, the mayor's a regular customer." Gov. Patrick recently signed a bill that gives the mayor the power to appoint members of the licensing board.

She continued that Van plans on adding even more food - he has yet to stock four tables in the store because he was asking customers first what they wanted there. Van, Conway said, had been listening to customers and ditched the processed meats and other supermarketish food items that they could easily get around the corner in favor of the gourmet stuff she said the neighborhood has been craving.

She added that while there may be no soda or water in the refrigerators, Van had an entire Coke machine installed.

Board Chairwoman Nicole Murati Ferrer, who oversaw two hearings on the proposal - first when Van sought a license to sell hard liquor as well and then, when that was rejected, for just beer and wine, asked if Van is still running the same sort of gourmet wine-and-cheese shop the board approved back in January.

Conway answered yes.

At the January hearing, a few residents, in particular, Cornel Miller, pastor of the Waymark Seventh-Day Adventist Church, warned a beer-and-wine license would open the door to even more drunks and prostitutes than the neighborhood already has. Other residents, however, strongly backed Van's proposal.

Three local residents attended today's hearing to offer testimony in favor of Savin Hill Enterprise, but Ferrer closed the hearing before they could testify, because they were not present at the shop the day of the police visit. Police did not say what prompted them to conduct their inspection.

The board decides Thursday what action, if any, to take.

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Comments

If you want to expound on what a ridiculous waste of time and money Boston alcohol regulations involve, I'd say you've just found your poster child right here.

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I think that about covers my expoundation.

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This is getting ridiculous. Meanwhile the killer of (name any unsolved homicide) is still walking the streets while a detective checks shelves of a food store. The city & bpd are losing my respect more & more..

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I'm betting the farm this citation is tied to one of two things:
1) The BPD detective's uncle/cousin/childhood neighbor owns a competing Dorchester liquor store.
2) The BPD detective's nagging wife/sister/mother, who lives in Savin Hill, has WAAAY too much time on her hands, and is probably casually racist.

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"pastor of the Waymark Seventh-Day Adventist Church, warned a beer-and-wine license would open the door to even more drunks and prostitutes than the neighborhood already has."

hahaha you can't make this shit up

I wonder if he didn't pay of the right person or better yet if the nearby stores are owned by a friend of the pastor

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have proper egress.....those are places of assembly where hundreds of people gather and I'm pretty sure they all don't have the proper door hardware, sprinklers, fire rating separations between adjacent buildings, bathroom toilet counts, fire alarm systems, etc.......

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The licensing regulations may or may not be ridiculous. But the real issue here is that Tan lied to get his license. His plan from the beginning was to open a packie. The Board wouldn't allow another packie on Dot Ave so he made up this lie that selling gourmet food was just as important as alcohol, , including evidently a fake floor plan . The Board knew he was lying so they arranged for an inspection. He lied, he got caught.

Interestingly enough the origin of the Adventist Church across the street is also based on a lie. The Adventists are descendants of the Millerites who made up a lie that the second coming of J.C. was going to happen in the 1840s. When it didn't happen, they said whoops, and eventually became the Adventists.

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And yet, life goes on. The problem here is not that he lied, but he felt he had to lie because of idiotic bureraucratic regulations and restrictions that serve NO USEFUL benefit to society.

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A gadfly with too much access to the local police Captain complained about this and thus this result.

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I am duly impressed by your use of the word gadfly. However the real issue here is that Tan lied to get the license, pretty much everyone knew he was lying so he was asking for trouble and that's exactly what he got.

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Including this random officer? Because that could be grounds for harassment.

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Does the city want to run the store too while they're at it? I mean, come on now.

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I must clutch them!

Can we quit being a busybody city?

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Pearl clutching in Dot? Um, okay...

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The other night my friend and I were leaving the Ashmont Grill on Sunday night when hundreds of teens came off the red line and forced the shutdown of the above stores because the kids stole everything in sight and then climbed on the roof of Dunkin Doughnuts and danced and partied as the police lit up Dot ave with their blue lights.

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Didn't even hear about that. Scary.

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They were returning from the Carribean Festival in Cambridge. Boston Police did a good job that night requesting shop owners to voluntarily close down a few hours until the disorderly group leaves. I disagree. But, the move prevented any major incident.

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It would be interesting to hear the official story.

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I wonder what would of happened if it was the other way 'round?

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Think of Boston as like a Diplodocus .

It has two brains. The Suit brain is in city hall and is the more evolved one.

The inspection squeeze brain lives way off at the end of the tail and the two brains communicate spasmodically at best.

The suit brain is all world class city and forward thinking, seeing as how it's located in the head.

But the poor squeeze brain still thinks its the bad old white flight 70s of resource scarcity and the need for shakedowns.

Meanwhile a simple change like making Harvard pay taxes would yield around 80 million bucks for the two cities hosting that fat hedge fund.. err University..that's it..university!

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/09/take-away-harvards-nonprofi...

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There's this program in Boston Called PILOT.

In FY 2010, PILOT payments in Boston yielded approximately $34 million in revenues. While the majority of PILOT payments come from the city’s private, nonprofit colleges, universities, and hospitals, the voluntary nature of the program has meant that payments by comparable institutions can often be vastly different. For example, in FY 2010, Boston College made payments in lieu of taxes totaling $289,531 while Harvard University made payments of $2,049,849, and Boston University contributed $4,980,168.

I realize that $2,049,849 is not the billions and billions that the New York Magazine writer thinks Harvard should cough up, but it's something. Maybe you should speak to those cheapskates at BC ...

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..incorrectly, that I would single out Harvard.

Hell no. In this neo feudal era where higher education stopped having a primarily altruistic social function, like decades ago, I'd be delighted to see all secondary activities like real estate speculation be taxed to the hilt.

Can the fed step in and also tax the shit out of em for idiot TV sports deals that have been turning campuses into shabby crap forever?

If they want to stick to their credential fabrication knitting, fine.

But the aggregate of all the real estate speculation fever from all these formerly useful things now become predator greed pits is hugely disruptive to every non academic monkey trying to eke a living here.

One of the best things about this place is how the issue shills come out of the woodwork whenever anyone has the nerve to suggest that they might possibly really suck.

It's all in a PR Shilly day, I suppose.

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How about churches and other religious orgs paying their fair share? They don't pay real estate taxes, and the Catholic Church has billions in gold and antiquities laying around. Harvard and other educational instituions employ a lot more people than churches, who all pay income taxes.

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Harvard is the single institution you named. Just what do you think "single out" means?

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".like".

I had a handy reference example.

Yeah churches too. Why not?

It isn't like the deist founders thought they were particularly sacred. Get all these leeches that have drifted away from their side of the bargain to resemble more ugly MBA contraptions..

Non profit status really should be awarded to things that are an unalloyed public benefit, not some rich asshole courting pavilion and not some vain naming ritual that amounts to a tax dodge.

Societies change over time and when they drift to maximum avarice, kind of a cyclical hazard, it's a good idea to make some adjustments for that drift.

There will always be attempts by the powerful to undermine fairness. A smart and alert nation has a mind toward thwarting that nonsense so we don't end up with the lopsided viciousness that has been on the menu with increasing frequency since the 1980s.

Harvard is an awesome pinata. What's to like about the entity that trained Putzi Hanfstaengl and gave noted plagiarist Henry Kissinger a platform?

And before you go screeching about that Godwin fellow, Putzi did end up defecting.

It is basically, in part, a refuge and credential for a long line of vile hacks in addition to its laudable luminaries.

And I'm willing to bet Harvard doesn't need your eager tail wag. It has the good sense to just ignore pests like me.

It is funny to watch someone rush to defend it. Greed is good.

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Your "like" did not modify Harvard, it modified simple change.

Meanwhile a simple change like making Harvard pay taxes...

Harvard was the only institution you said they should tax, and it was the only one named in your linked article.

I don't really disagree with the points you're trying to make, but the brushwork is awfully sloppy.

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PILOT isnt working as the importance these college's pay allows them to stockpile money while city services that their students use go under funded. This allows for these schools to run over the city when it comes to real estate - northeastern used to be a neighborhood. Bay state road and most of the land over by Kenmore square is all by. Mission hill is now owned by Harvard and let's not forget Harvard's land grab on Allston that the city was against but POWERLESS to fight ...because these institutions have more money and more and better lawyer. So much boston land is not taxes as a result. I have no problems with the hospitals but when the colleges are charging $30k for tuition plus another $1000 a month each for 3 students to live in what is the equivalent of a small studio apartment they need to pay taxes on it like every other landlord and business owner. GET RID of PILOT!

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while city services that their students use go under funded.

Really? Do a lot of students have kids in the public school system?

http://www.cityofboston.gov/images_documents/02%20Summary%20Budget_final...

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city services - use and maintenance of streets, parks, bridges, tunnels, police, fire etc....schools aren't the only things that the city provides.

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while city services that their students use go under funded.

Really? Do a lot of students have kids in the public school system?

http://www.cityofboston.gov/images_documents/02%20Summary%20Budget_final...

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Logging on now to Citizens Connect to complain.

But where do I begin...help!

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So, what actually happened with the argument about the food/booze ratio? Does Boston have such a thing or not?

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the city makes it so easy to run a small business here. Listening to customers and adjusting your business model to meet market demands? Nope, not on Boston’s watch you won’t.

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There are no opportunities for graft when the laws are clear and unambiguous.

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n/t

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There should be a comma in there, and a plural: Keep voting, Democrats!

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Isn't she a Menino political appointee?

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Deval.

This licensing board is appointed by the Governor for now (soon to be the mayor's choice). She's much better than the last guy (whom I believe was appointed by Romney).

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She was a city hall attorney prior to the board. I always assumed Menino appointed her. The board is a joke.

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Nicole Murati Ferrer is Mary Poppins!

When was the last time a lottery outlet was scrutinized for their receipts like this? Ciggy sellers?

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There is something to be said about keeping an eye on it for collateral damage potential like drunks running over bicyclists.

The little wine and cheese shop problem probably could have been handled with a reminder, a sort of 'counting coup', rather than just whacking it, unless that was already tried and failed.

One problem here is always going to be how a missing detail or two shifts the nuance trend.

The lottery and tobacco receipts could probably be scrutinized with sorting algorithms at the appropriate entities to look for anomalous patterns consistent with cheating.

It's good to see you back. The place gets more torpid when you're gone.

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Yeah I was beginning to wonder what happened to Swirly! Welcome back, darling! We've missed you.

(I just assumed you have a life like everyone else and had no time for UH)

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When a grocery store obtains a license to sell alcohol there is set forth a ratio between space for food and space for alcohol. You can't have a moldy package of cheese on a shelf and the rest of the store devoted to alcohol. Then you simply have a package store. Someone has to restrain these property owners from ignoring the regulations. In Boston its the Police Department.

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This does seem like nonsense, but this is to prevent your local store form getting a liquor permit, then stop carrying food at all and just becoming a liquor store.

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...Because the board would not approve another liquor only store on dot ave ... so therefore this person obtained a license for a wine and cheese shop when his true intent seems to be a liquor store. Thus committing fraud when he spied for his license. Why get on the police for doing their job?

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Exactly. For some people, bitching about the police is a full time hobby.

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"fraud" in obtaining a licesne to operate a business hurt? Answer - No one!

Instead of defending the police and the Licensing Board bureauracy for punishing a business for no good reason (and "not selling enough cheese" falls squarely into the category), perhaps we need to start pushing to revise these "necessary" licensing laws that result in businesses being denied the opportunity to conduct business because "the Mayor's Office doesn't want this", or on the nebuolus claims of busybody neighborhood associations like "we already have too many liquor stores on Dot Ave."

That would be far more useful and beneficial government reform than most of the nonsense the City Council has been proposing.

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I'm not in the neighborhood, so take what I say with that grain of salt.

Then the owner went to get his license approved, the feeling was that there were too many liquor stores in the area. There are a lot of parts of Boston where the residents would feel that way. Heck, there are whole movements where community leaders decry the fact that there are too many liquor stores and too few whatever they want that is a community good.

Until the government gets out of the business of regulating alcohol sales, the owner seems to have tried to pull a fast one on the City.

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..Because the board would not approve another liquor only store on dot ave ...

That's the underlying problem that needs to be fixed.

If the location needs another liquor store, it'll succeed. If the location doesn't need another liquor store, it'll fail. We don't need a board to make this determination; the market does it for us.

"You are hereby ordered to start selling shoes in your pizza restaurant, since the Board has determined that there are not enough shoe stores in your neighborhood. Be prepared to show proof of the required transaction volume when the inspectors visit."

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You can't have a moldy package of cheese on a shelf and the rest of the store devoted to alcohol. Then you simply have a package store.

And what, exactly, under any reasonable theory of government, would be wrong with having a package store?

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Isn't that redundant - or, in other words, supposed to happen?

I would suspect that a shop in France would be issued a citation if the cheese wasn't sufficiently moldy!

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Next thing you know, they'll be forced to carry nips, blunts, scratch tickets and 40s, because they currently don't have enough "poor" merchandise in their inventory.

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Don't they drink wine in church?

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Are you kidding me? Im a member of the law enforcement community and I live in the neighborhood and love this store. It looks great, its clean and it has great products. Why would BPD be wasting its time here? I think BPD needs to reconsider its placing detectives instead of looking for more cheese. Unreal!!!

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The real crime here is that they don't have enough chilled Sauvignon Blancs

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Two cases of Cheese Whiz should solve the problem. It has a shelf life longer than uranium. Twinkies are also good for at least a month, but the dopers will probably actually buy them. Come to think of it, they might snort the gas in the Cheese Whiz cans. Forget it. We need a City Ordinance to ban Cheese Whiz and Twinkies. Get the City Council on it. Call the Licensing Board.

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