FINALLY
someone at the city of lowell board of health has both a clue and the balls to act. this just made my day. and, no, not because some person or persons are potentially losing their livelihood at this particular bar. but because someone is finally being held accountable for all the livelihoods that they jeopardize through their irresponsibility, and are lost every day down the street because of injury and job loss. i had to step over a pile of puke on merrimack on my way to palmer and middle to take this photo, but i'll spare you the nauseating one and just give you the good one.
i'm reserving judgment on the license commission to see what they will choose to do in the wake of the melee and police injuries. i hope they take initiative to act with a strong and revitalized policy of zero tolerance on the license violations reported as part of the incident. (capacity violations, patron age violations, overserving violations, etc.)
more of the same will no longer do.
here's kudos to our city department of health for taking the action that is within their responsibility and authority. if all city agencies, departments and boards would now do the same, downtown lowell would be a much better place for it.
posted by kad barma at 12:59 PM
5 Comments:
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Good. About time.
When you see stories like this popping up (http://www.leftinlowell.com/2012/02/10/and-then-theres-bayliss/), that is, talking about drastic and unfair measures like closing bars two hours early, it's good to see somebody has the balls to punish the establishments and individuals that are breaking existing laws. We need laws and regulations down here enforced instead of harassment of those who aren't the problem.
Get the Wagon on the corner of Middle and Palmer, get the cops in the DUI-trap out of the Thorndike St lot and into a revolving location downtown itself, check capacity and ages and give it teeth. Enforce our existing noise regulations. This shouldn't be rocket science. A few months of tough crackdowns, and these out-of-towners will move on and it'll be a good while before it pops up again. Otherwise, we're dealing with a very unfortunate snowball that's going to end up with dead people, destroyed property, and ruined nightlife for those of us with half a brain.
I'm surprised the city hasn't had a blitz of code enforcements to attempt an end-around on the LC. I'd like to see the Fire Dept., the Health Board, Inspectional Services, the Police and any other code-enforcement agencies in the city get out there on Friday and Saturday nights. Do a head count and match with max capacity, check the dining rooms and kitchens for violations, check elevator permits and victualers permits, check ID's of drinkers. Top-to-bottom sweep. And specifically go after those bars and restaurants who are suspected of violations. If the LC refuses to enforce the alcohol regulations at least have the rest of the regulations enforced! Oh, and one other thing... any violations found? CLOSE DOWN IMMEDIATELY!!! And don't allow them to re-open until ALL violations are corrected and re-inspected. Under-age drinkers found? Close down for minimum of three days and nights and not Mondays and Tuesdays either! If they find it on a Saturday? Close them for 3 consecutive Saturdays! And why not bring a breathalyzer down town and check a few drivers getting behind the wheel BEFORE they start driving! Over 0.08? Close down the bar where they got their last drink! Theres plenty that can be done to side-step the LC and their favoritism towards the business owners (who of course "pay more taxes" than us poor citizens of Lowell!)
Damn Paul... you go girl
Paul kind of says it all.The en run around the LC is a great idea and should be implemented immediately However the closing on 3 consecutive Saturdays can be appealed to the ABCC and a court injunction issued until there is a hearing. Rolling back the hours on an individual bar for X amount of time cannot be appealed.
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