Sponsor of bill to let cities extend last call now urges fellow legislators to vote it down

It's beyond mind boggling that allowing cities and towns to set their own rules is now considered too broad. That's pure insanity. We're aren't talking about some gigantic collective action problem; it's restaurant/bar closing times.

That is why we have asinine laws or have had asinine laws in the past like Boston could not appoint its own police commissioner. Boston has to have state members on various boards, etc.

The natives got scared of us bogtrotters ruining the state in the late 19th and early 20th century and imposed their will on us Papists. Curley almost proved them right in their actions but you are right. When some moron like Sen. Fattman of Webster or proven out and out anti-Irish American like Rep. Ellen Story of Amherst has sway over the minutiae of local government actions in a Mother May I fashion, it begs change.

First, what's a "normal person" in this context?

Secondly, you've put the cart before the horse. Put it on the ballot and nobody votes for it. Probably true. But your assumption as to why is that they don't "want" it. You may not want it, but that's not why it wouldn't be voted into action. It's because many people (especially the people that vote the most regularly) won't *use* it. It's not that they don't want it. I'm sure if they live close enough to a bar and they're having disrupted sleep already, it's because closing time is at 2 AM. It wouldn't matter if it's 4 AM when they were disturbed. Those are the people who don't "want" it.

Also, they'd be wrong. There are fewer patrons that will stay until 3 AM than will stay until 2 AM now and even fewer that will stay until 4 AM and so on. Instead of all of those same people leaving at 2 AM together and waking any neighbors that get bothered regularly, they'll trickle out in much smaller and quieter numbers.

Also, there are already rules in place to deal with people who are too drunk to control themselves and their noise in public. Enforce them. If people are too drunk to control themselves at 2 AM, they may even be more sober by 4 AM as they hit their limit at an earlier hour.

Finally, we act like Boston is SO mixed commercial/residential that we're a special snowflake. We're not. Cities across the globe have late night drinking and good qualities of life in highly mixed zoning. Let's stop the act that this will create havoc and hell throughout the hills.

So, no, we shouldn't vote on it. No, many people won't *use* it which disqualifies whether they want it or not. And no, it's not like we need to test it. We're not special and the world moves on just fine without rolling up the sidewalks at 2 AM in every city in the world.