By Bob Harris
The sad thing is that some patrons from these establishments and from other bars in Queens are disrupting the local communities and lowering the quality of life.
Police do respond to these bars when residents call 911 about the noise and fights, and do issue summonses when appropriate, often to underage drinkers. Civic leaders do attend the 107th, 109th and other precinct community council meetings and do cmplain about trash, banging car doors at 2 a.m., beer bottles on laws, noise, shootings, knifings, people urinating in the streets and other disgusting actions by drunken people in the early morning hours.
One reason why this happens in normally quiet residential neighborhoods is that selling alcohol in bars or in all-night stores brings in sales tax revenues, and creates jobs for bartenders, waitresses and bouncers. Some bars hire promoters who stage events with big name entertainers to attract people from other areas to buy liquor, but who also get drunk and become violent.
The State Liquor Authority is an agency which is supposed to investigate the owners of bars prior to giving them a liquor license. The SLA takes in $24.5 million in annual license fees so it should do a credible job, but it only has about a dozen inspectors for Queens. Imagine, only a handful of inspectors to investigate all the places which are granted a license to sell liquor and beer in Queens.
The NYPD tries. It gathers statistics and issues summonses. They are hampered by the SLA which seems to do things in secret
Bernard Diamond, chairman of the Liquor License Committee of Community Board 8, reports what he saw when he attended SLA meetings in Manhattan. There was no agenda. The lawyers for the bars which were having their licenses renewed met privately with the SLA members before witnesses even arrived. It seemed that decisions had already been made when people arrived at the hearings of the SLA.
Remember that the SLA takes in $24.5 million annually in license fees. It also receives about $7.7. million in fines. Can
