Make mine a double
I always have a hard time understanding how irrational fears manage to go public. We all have them, however reasonable people usually try to keep them in check so as to not muddle conventional wisdom by introducing baseless positions into public debate. Last Thursday we saw some of the best irrational fears Worcester has to offer at of all places a Parks and Recreation Commission meeting. The issue at hand? Serving beer and wine at Green Hill Park’s municipal golf course.
I talk quite a bit about drinking in public not because it’s a matter of huge importance, just the opposite, its of such little importance with such little reason for concern that any inclusion of alcohol into public events adds quite a bit of risk free value to otherwise boring social gatherings. I’m not just trying to stir the pot here; I truly believe the only way to make a city like Worcester interesting in the eyes of both the residential and visiting populations is to break down as many of the bizarre Puritanical hang-ups we have governing our social behavior. And we are talking Puritans here, good ‘ol fashioned Cromwell loving Puritans who find anything which could qualify as fun to be an aberration.
The names are the usual suspects. For anyone who followed the foolish attempt to limit alcohol sales on Shrewsbury St. Gary Vecchio should ring a bell. ‘Gary Vecchio Parks Commissioner’ is not going to sing 99 bottles of beer any differently than ‘Gary Vecchio head of the Shrewsbury St Neighborhood Association’. Our eternal public curmudgeon, Councilor Konnie Lukes finds something to be afraid of in anything involving change. You have a sky bridge? Konnie has giant, baby killing icicles falling from the sky. You have a huge redevelopment package modeled after successful urban centers nation wide? Konnie sees a replay of the Great Depression on the horizon. Every attempt at creating an interesting city falls flat with this crowd. Remember a year ago about this time when plans were being finalized for the rehabbed Worcester Common, it was Konnie who stated what we really need down there is a laser light show. Are you kidding me? That’s all you have? Lasers? Couldn’t they at least be attached to the heads of sharks? I’m not saying these are bad people, I’m just saying they have no clue as how best to bring life into Worcester. Simply, good people with a knack for horrible execution.
But this isn’t a bust Konnie and Gary’s chops piece; it’s a think before you open your yap piece. So how is it that City Councilor Phil Palmieri gets off asking ‘why the course would want to start selling beer and wine as early as 10 a.m’? Well Phil, I’m no elected official but MGL CH 138 states pretty clearly that “A pouring license can not be barred from serving alcohol between 11:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m. on any secular day. Local authorities may grant extended opening hours between 8:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.” Not so unreasonable a request when you consider we’re talking state law right? Who cares what time someone wants knock back a Pabst, Dr Phil?
And this brings us to the real point here, over 50 people showed up to this meeting. Only one to voice support for the course getting a license and that guy was from Auburn. The other crew appears to be of the concerned neighbor ilk. Do people really fail to see the protections in existing state and local statute designed to keep their neighborhoods from turning into the combat zone? Worcester actually has some great public nuisance laws on the books, from drunk and disorderly to noise pollution; if you’ve got pests, we’ve got laws. So any barring of alcohol from public spaces is simple duplicity in the legal structure. It offers no extra protection but instead offers many opportunities for lost revenue generation (or simple enjoyment of outdoor spaces). If some wacko blitzed on Night Train was running madly across the 6th hole green naked with a 5 Iron up his ass, Joe Neighbor could call the WPD, complain and the drunkard with the 5 Iron in his rectum would be arrested and charged with any number of things, no new restrictions needed. So the fears of neighbors, as Dr Phil put it stating we would effectively be ‘setting up a barroom at the end of a residential street’ are in fact as baseless as the arguments Mr. Vecchio made last year about Shrewsbury St.
I guess when you get right down to it much of this issue is generational. There are still quite a few people alive in Worcester who lived through and likely supported prohibition, hell, Mississippi was dry right up until 1966. You’re also sure to know plenty of otherwise normal people who don’t believe alcohol should be kept in the home and bars are merely dens of sin. Someday, these people will be dead and all their awkward little fears will die with them. But for the time being those of us who just shake our heads in awe at the public outrage that comes along with any mention of lightening restrictions on booze need to take part in these debates. In and of itself this isn’t a big issue but it’s a part of the larger societal weirdness that keeps Worcester from gracefully exiting the dark ages.
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