Last Call For Bushwick Bars?
Bushwick, a neighborhood where it is basically never not happy hour, might have to slow down its bar scene. Bushwick’s Community Board 4 is attempting to stop additional liquor licenses from being granted, now that the area’s bar scene has exploded.
The latest crackdown attempt is part of a larger ongoing trend in the area. In March 2013, the community board instated a curfew for booze and started sharing liquor license applicants and decisions with the public. According to the curfew rules, bars must stop selling alcohol by midnight on Sundays. The curfew was instituted in response to noise complaints from residents of the blocks now littered with late-night establishments, but it doesn’t account for the fact that most of these businesses make much of their sales after midnight. Even after the curfew went into effect, an influx of new businesses filed for licenses, and the community board had to accommodate for the deluge with additional monthly meetings dedicated to the requests.
According to DNAInfo, district manager of Brooklyn Community Board 4 Nadine Whitted said at a meeting last week, “People are having real concerns about that kind of activity going on at night … seven days a week, oftentimes beyond midnight.” If all goes according to some board members’ plans, no new liquor licenses would be granted during a five-year moratorium, but it’s not likely. Similar attempts have been made by Williamsburg and Greenpoint’s community board, but they failed to pass through the State Liquor Authority. Regardless of a potential decrease of unwanted noise, a five-year moratorium would also slow down economic growth in Bushwick.