By Bob Harris
At the request of civic association members who are annoyed by establishments which sell liquor, Queens Borough President Claire Shulman has proposed that New York City be given the power to do inspections, grant licenses and enforce the liquor laws to maintain the quality of life in the neighborhoods. For years neighborhood groups, community boards and police precincts have complained that the State Liquor Authority has not provided enough enforcement and grants liquor licenses too easily.
Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer has introduced legislation to create a City Liquor Authority. Civic groups throughout New York City have been complaining that the State Liquor Authority authorizes too few inspectors to police the establishments which disrupt our residential communities when they irresponsibly sell alcohol to miners. In Fresh Meadows the officers of the 107th Precinct have worked very hard to gather evidence against the bars and night clubs along Union Turnpike which sell alcohol to under-age patrons.
Some of the irresponsible bars along Union Turnpike near Utopia Parkway have been closed. This has been a long and hard activity because the SLA looks upon establishments which sell alcohol as places where there is economic development and they have not provided enough inspectors to gather evidence against bars which have bad incidents week after week.
It is interesting that hearings about Assemblywoman Pheffer’s City Liquor Authority bill are taking place at the Assembly Standing Committee on Economic Development, Job Creation, Commerce and Industry. This means that the thinking of our state government is that bars, night clubs, bodegas and stores in gasoline stations selling beer and liquor is considered “economic development” and is good for our society. What do our government officials consider it when teenagers or young adults become drunk and urinate on lawns or drive around throwing beer and whisky bottles out of the windows of their cars, not to mention the mayhem caused by drunken drivers?
We are interested in a City Liquor Authority because we want an agency that will consider our wants, needs and our quality of life. When I walk along 75th Avenue near 188th Street on a Sunday or Monday morning at 7:30, I often see beer or liquor bottles thrown on the mall. Other people don’t usually see them on the 75th Avenue mall because I and other walkers pick them up. We need a City Liquor Authority which will close those stores which sells beer to people who throw the bottles on our streets.
Bernie Diamond is chairman of the Community Board 8 Liquor License Committee. He works with the community to maintain our quality of life. Many other community boards in Queens want stricter enforcement of establishments which sell alcohol. Queens hearings will be held in the fall on Assemblywoman Feffer's bill: A.4226.
GOOD AND BAD NEWS OF THE WEEK
Renovation of ballfields in College Point has started. It is sad that it took four years to fix these fields after construction debris was dumped there. Inspectors had ordered the area closed in 1997 but the city only began removing the debris now. It will probably cost $10 million to remove 210 tons of bad landfill. I wonder what will happen to those who dumped the debris on the area slated to be baseball fields?
Fire Department investigators have concluded that the fire which caused an explosion in Astoria and killed three firefighters was an accident. It seems that two boys knocked over a can of gasoline which leaked into the basement of the hardware store and was ignited by the pilot light of a water heater. There are no answers yet as to how or where there was an open gasoline can and what the boys were doing in the backyard of the hardware store. Reports say the boys were doing graffiti. Was it with paint or were they using gasoline to burn their tags into the building? Is this a new way to do graffiti? Several years ago State Senator Frank Padavan issued a report saying that doing graffiti tags were criminal actions. He may have been all too correct. A number of civic activists cover the graffiti in Fresh Meadows so that in some areas there is almost none.
