John makes fun of an idea that’s slightly crazy, but only slightly. I think people everywhere in this city have gotten so used to the status quo under a regime of heavy liquor license restriction that they aren’t aware how much of a damper it is on the general cultural vibrancy. When you have to pay over $100,000 for a liquor license – and when the approval is subject to a bunch of ad-hoc approvals and vetoes from neighborhood groups – then what you aren’t going to get are a) either many restaurants and bars per capita or b) dynamic change in what restaurants and bars are around. So we don’t.
Or, to look at it another way, one neighborhood that has developed an exciting, dynamic restaurant scene drawing people as destination consumers is the North End, which for historical reasons (no doubt, involving the well-connected pulling some strings) has many, many more liquor licenses than the much larger Jamaica Plain.
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