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Councilor to try again to get more liquor licenses for Boston's outer neighborhoods - and large new shopping malls

City Councilor Ayanna Pressley (at large) wants to ask the state legislature to give Boston the ability to issue 153 new liquor licenses, mostly in neighborhoods not served by cash-rich outlets of national chain restaurants - and to issue "umbrella" licenses that would allow unlimited numbers of alcohol-serving eateries at really big developments in the city, such as the South Bay Town Center now opening up in Dorchester and the Seaport Square project under development in South Boston.

The city council tomorrow considers her request to take a detailed look at the idea before voting on the proposal, which would replace a similar request that the legislature took no action on.

Pressley, who in 2014 led a successful campaign to get 75 new liquor licenses for Boston to help spur restaurant entrepreneurs in under-served neighborhoods, wants the Boston Licensing Board to be able to dole out the new licenses over a three-year period. Unlike most of the city's current licenses, the new ones would be non-transferable - they would have to be returned to the city if the establishment closes and could not be resold on the open market.

Pressley specifically mentions Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan, Mission Hill and Roxbury as neighborhoods that could get the majority of the licenses - along with designated "main street districts" that would also include parts of neighborhoods such as Roslindale and West Roxbury.

Acknowledging that her earlier bill did not lead to any new liquor-serving restaurants in Mattapan, Pressley's new proposal would limit the total number of new licenses each of these neighborhoods or districts could get - so Mattapan would always have at least 6 beer-and-wine licenses and 9 all-alcohol licenses available to it.

In addition to the umbrella licenses, the proposal also calls for licenses for several specific locations: The Lawn on D near the South Boston convention center, the Boston Center for the Arts in the South End and the Bolling Building in Roxbury.

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Comments

The only person in there who appears to not be a doddering imbecile.

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As we head into the era of legalized marijuana, the idea that the state has such iron-fisted control over whether Boston can allow additional restaurants to serve alcohol is really unbelievable. Give the city carte blanche to do what it thinks is best and the citizens will be well-served (no pun intended) by that new authority.

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The state punished the city for electing Curley by taking away a bunch of authority from the city, in part to deprive the Curley machine of the revenue stream from bribes taken by the licensing agencies. Although nobody would call our government squeaky-clean, The era of gross, in-your-face corruption is long over and it's time to roll back some of those laws.

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Deleo and his people much prefer their corruption to be very far behind closed doors now.

See horse racing fund, casino licenses, pot licensing, the existence of the DCR, etc...

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...that moved the Brahmins to take away control once the Irish ran the city.

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