Support late night food in Davis Square

[olszowka.livejournal.com]

I moved to Somerville 21 years ago and since that time appreciated the fact that the Golden Light restaurant was nearby and offered food late at night (1-2 am) when most of the Boston area closed down at 10pm.  I grew up in the Buffalo, NY area and there bar closing time is 4am and most popular bars have a restaurant nearby where the late night clientele go for a bite AFTER the bar closes.

Despite the fact that Golden Light has been keeping these hours for decades and has a huge sign in their storefront stating they stay open the latest in town, the Somerville Board of Aldermen has recently decided their license allows them to remain open only until midnight on weekdays and 1am on weekends.

If you want to tell these Puritans to stop trying to run our life, please support this restaurant's bid to remain open later.  You can sign a petition at the restaurant or come to a meeting at city hall, 93 Highland Ave., at 6:00pm, January  15, 2009.

Comments

[ron_newman]

Sure, I'd be happy to sign that. I see no good reason for the city to regulate business hours at all for non-alcohol-serving establishments.

[nathanjw]

Noise is a real issue. I think it's overrated and the current regulations go too far, but "no good reason" is a bit much.

[joyfulkel.livejournal.com]

man, I miss having more late-nite and 24 hour stores. And wegmans. I miss wegmans.

the big W!

[cthulhia]

of course, I still had to drive an hour (to Syracuse) for it.

They are trying to build one in westwood, (which would still end up being an hour, due to traffic).

[krazykarot.livejournal.com]

as another western ny transplant: I miss wegmans! ever so much.

Also, I'll sign the petition. I'm a little late to the game but I'm glad I know they're open so late for now.

[alphacygni]

Excellent Marv icon!
Wow, I didn't realize there were so many of us.

[pensivewombat.livejournal.com]

Wegman's! Oh man, how i miss Wegman's...

[smammy]

+1 Wegman's

[ralla-del-sol.livejournal.com]

I have to say, in moving up here from NYC it was the hugest shock to not have 24-hour diners where I could go in the wee hours to study or just get some coffee. And I really missed Duane Reade for a hot minute.

I thought Wegmans was petitioning to open a store in Massachusetts, though I haven't heard any more about it since. Why, oh, why can't there be a Wegman's nearby? :(

[karenjulip.livejournal.com]

Oh! Other people know of Wegmans!?! They have one at Penn State- the only thing great there. I miss it so much.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

I'll happily sign the petition, but this DID already come up on here.

[olszowka.livejournal.com]

Is there a way to search the contents of posts of an LJ community? I couldn't figure out how and wanted to do that before I posted.

[unferth.livejournal.com]

I dunno; while I would certainly support a general bid to keep food service available later in the evening, the Golden Light's history is apparently one of ignoring the law in hopes it would not be enforced. As far as I'm concerned, they should follow the same laws other businesses do; if they can stay open past 1:00 (and I think they should be allowed to do so if they think there's enough business to justify it) so should other area businesses.

In other words, petition to generally extend food service hours, yes; petition to give Golden Light special treatment, no.

[jodi.livejournal.com]

ignoring the law in hopes that it won't be enforced is what most people do on a daily basis. every time someone speeds in their car or crosses the street without waiting for the light, they are doing just that. i can't find fault in an institutional application of this practice.

that said, i am in agreement with your conclusion that late night food should be allowed and that special treatment is not the point, but a more reasonable system of repression by local gov't is desired.

[jodi.livejournal.com]

as a non-native of the boston area, can anyone speak to how somerville's puritanical seeming laws compare to other towns/suburbs around boston?

for example, do any other municipalities require such strict business hours, have no all-night businesses, and limit alcohol licenses with such an iron fist?

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Limiting alcohol licenses with an iron fist is a popular sport around here (see also: ridiculous flamewars on the Arlington list a few years ago about the, what? five? alcohol licenses, all beer-and-wine-only, allowed in a town with a major restaurant sector; the Wilkerson bribery case; the fact you couldn't even buy alcohol on Sundays until a few years ago; the lack of alcohol in most grocery stores -- alcohol licenses are site-specific so chains can only get them one location at a time, which makes them generally not worth the hassle). I can't speak to the others.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Yes, virtually all of them do. No one municipality wants to be the town that everyone can go to to buy liquor when the other cities in the area stop. It was a big deal recently when Cambridge finally repealed its ban on restaurants serving alcohol on the sidewalks in front of their establishments.

[ron_newman]

The number of alcohol licenses in a city is set by the state. Somerville's regulation of these seems similar to Cambridge's.

[moireach.livejournal.com]

A lot of the bribery scandals in the state government right now (Dianne Wilkerson, Chuck Turner) involve people trying to get liquor licenses. It's definitely a statewide issue.

[tfarrell.livejournal.com]

I inquired of an alderman about the lack of late night business in Somerville some years ago. What I was told in response was that the law in Somerville does not in fact require that businesses must close at night; rather, there is a civil servant who simply refuses to license them to do so.

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

Let's face it- there still remains a lot of the old Puritan fear that someone somewhere might be having FUN and we must stomp it out. Many people will say that there's no good reason for anyone to need Chinese food later than 1am and good gawd y'all "what about the children???" What will our precious snowflakes think if any person can willy-nilly indulge in the evil act of nom-noming chicken fingers and lo mein at 2am? This will cause hordes of drunken naked savages to descend upon the community at ungodly hours, causing rape, pillage, riot and mayhem, and depress property values and cause the police undue stress.

Woe. Misery. Pain.

[ron_newman]

I don't understand why people keep bringing Puritans into these discussions, since they consumed quite a bit of alcohol and were in no way against drinking.

It's not near my house.

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

So I'm happy to sign. If it were near MY house, I'd be first in line to have them close early.

Who is holding the meeting?

[tfarrell.livejournal.com]

Can you tell us please, what governmental body is holding the meeting on the 15th? The board of aldermen?

I will be unable to attend the meeting, and am unlikely to be getting to the restaurant beforehand, but would like to send my complaint on the subject (of the city preventing legitimate and helpful business from taking place at late hours) to the relevant people.

Re: Who is holding the meeting?

[olszowka.livejournal.com]

It is a licensing or zoning board, but I do not know which. I suggest communicating with members of the Board of Aldermen as they are the only members of Somerville government who are supposed to represent the citizens rather than enforce the law or just make decisions as they see fit.

[mycroft.livejournal.com]

While I certainly support having late night establishments of all sorts (hello, how about an actual convenience store!), Golden Light is one of the worst Chinese restaurants I have ever eaten at. Ye gods.

[olszowka.livejournal.com]

Think of it as fighting for the KKK's right to march in order to preserve freedom of speech.

If we can get Somerville to adopt a clear and fair policy permitting late night restaurants, conveniences stores, and other amenities, it might encourage businesses we'd actually want to patronize to stay open later.

Amazing as you might find it, the Dragon whatever near the Diesel is even worse.