UPDATED: A new riverfront district designation approved by the Noblesville city council allows the city to expand the number of liquor licenses it can currently issue in its downtown area substantially. The number of liquor licenses will grow from 10 to 30, tripling the current number of businesses licensed to sell alcohol. The Gannett-owned Star in a report today calls it economic development. The head of the local chamber of commerce tells the Star he has no worries the explosion in liquor licenses will cause the city's downtown to become more like Broad Ripple and transform the city's family-friendly atmosphere. Gannett is just happy that more people will have the opportunity to get too drunk to see what's happening to their country.
UPDATE: The Star popped another story online from its alcohol reporter, Amy Haneline, recommending five of her favorite cocktails to consume at local bars. While she's at it, why doesn't she start sampling all of Indy's sex clubs and reviewing them for us. Perhaps she can also check out online escorts and recommend the best to her readers.
ReplyDeleteGannett's rotting fish wrap known as The Indianapolis Star again shows its utter ignorance in all things. If this is economic development, it is economic development for the Republican controlled Hamilton County corrupt attorneys and adult beverage vendors. We are former retail liquor store owners who long ago sold and retired; we can tell you this liquor licensure game is rigged. In fact, we would go so far as to say most of the local and state industry is rigged and the attorney politicians make the big bucks because they control the process. Connected, corrupt greasy-palmed attorneys will make more bucks in Ham County so I guess in that sense it is economic development for scurrilous attorneys. Businesses will pay dearly for these licenses- which were ostensibly established to control age-appropriate purchasing. But heck, will wine, beer, and spirits available in groceries and soon it will be cold beer at gas stations... we are sure to see underage purchases skyrocket. I am not against having a drink now and then but politicians are using licensure to line their pockets and the pockets of their "friends" willing to pay for the privilege.
It was Indianapolis attorney and GOP big wig Keith Bulen back in the day who was the rockstar of rewarding to favored friends and business Marion County liquor licenses and making hay in the process; one of Bulen's very connected friends now has a string of retail outlets, produced a wine that carried his store's name, a now has ranch in the Dominican Republic and a private plane to take him and his wife and entourage at their whim.
"Economic development"... hah! what a joke
Your last line is one of the best I have ever read.
ReplyDeleteOnce upon a time economic development was factories and the job shops that supported them. No more along with NAFTA and other trade schemes American Factories are an endangered species and maybe extinct if TPP is approved. So economic development these days is bars, restaurants paying minimum wage or near minimum wage.
ReplyDeleteANON 8:16 your description of the liquor license scenario here in Indiana reminds me of friend of mine who bought a restaurant-bar in Chicago back in the late 1960's. In order to have the liquor license transferred to his name he had to make a series of cash payments to the connected.
The Star is desperate to make central Indiana appear to be the "in place". The article in the Star was just an infommercial. I am no teetotaler but I would question the need to triple the number of licenses.
It appears to me that the entire regulatory apparatus surrounding the sale of alcohol is arcane and needing updated. Why, in this reddest of midwest states, are we ceding command and control power with respect to the sale of alcohol? If a locale wants more alcohol sales, shouldn't they be entitled to as much? Similarly, if a locale has no taste for alcohol, wouldn't the purveyors of alcoholic beverages go out of business? Am I missing something?
ReplyDeleteWhy is it that the people of Noblesville, Broad Ripple, Speedway, Downtown, Greenwood, etc., can't "vote with their pocketbooks" as to how much alcohol sales they want? Why do we need a nanny state government to tell us how many establishments can sell alcohol? Do we do that with flowers? Oil changes? Chocolate? French fries? Law firms? Roofing Companies? Locksmiths? Veterinarians? Rock bands? Am I missing something here? What ever happened to limited government and letting the market decide how much of a particular product or service should be available for purchase?
how about some context...i realize the number 'tripled', but going from 4 to 12 or 50 to 150 all means the same. if licenses went from 10 to 30, how does that compare to surrounding areas and the number of licenses available? a good author of any article would have included this, unless they were simply trying to run a scary headline without much substance to back it
ReplyDeleteTTJ - it all goes back to the days of and immediately following prohibition. Some states still have wet and dry counties and cities. Don't think because a county is dry there's no alcohol to be found. No sir - the well connected people are your bootleggers or are skimming the cash from a bootlegger and looking the other way and probably giving a heads up when the state's ABC comes snooping around.
ReplyDeleteIndiana just figured out that by limiting the number of available liquor licenses the politically connected can profit from a restricted quantity item. Sort of like those taxi cab medallions found in major cities, which services such as Uber and Lyft are attempting to bypass the medallion system. The Politically Connected make millions off handling cab medallions.
Indiana won't dispose of its current system of liquor license allocation - too much $$$$$$ in it for those who write the laws in the first place. Why slaughter the cash cow?
Dick Cady wrote in his book, Deadline: Indianapolis, about how former Marion Co. GOP Chairman Keith Bulen, controlled the issuance of all of the new liquor licenses made available in Marion Co. after Uni-Gov went into effect. Nobody could get one of the new licenses without going through his law firm and satisfying his demands. This is the same guy who got fired as a deputy prosecutor for his role in fixing criminal cases. It's a disgrace to think that Ball State has a symposium on politics named after him given all of the corrupt insider deals associated with him during his tenure as county chairman. He capped off his career as a state lawmaker by getting drunk one night after session and smashing his car into a parked police car on the way home. You have to be a crooked self-dealer in Indiana to be feted for your civic leadership.
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