Board rejects Starbucks in City Point

but I think this is an asinine decision by the licensing board.

The liquor license should have been approved in the first place. The arbitrary liquor license laws make it next to impossible to get new locally-owned restaurants in the city, unless you want to be forced to locate it where it may not match your business plan.

Why on earth would you turn down a food license for any coffee shop? Is it zoned for a commercial business such as a coffee shop? If so, approve it!

Too many coffee shops? The board should have no say in the matter. That's for the market to decide.

The neighborhood doesn't want it? The people who show up at licensing board meetings are usually there to oppose something. 65 people opposed it? What about the other 30,000 people in the neighborhood who wanted it or don't care one way or another, but had better things to do than attend a licensing board meeting? If it weren't for Adam, how would we know about it until after the fact?

Too many Starbucks? The Seaport and Broadway Station are nowhere near City Point. Definitely not walking distance. Hop on the #9? Hop on the #7? Good luck finding a seat. There are no buses that even go to the Seaport besides the #7, which only runs down Summer Street.

Oh, they want people to get in a car and drive to the nearest Starbucks and double-park there. Ah, I get it.

And Mayor Walsh lobbied against the Starbucks? Further proof that he is completely out of touch. One term, indeed.

Idiots.

The last thing i want to do after sitting in traffic coming up L st from the tunnel (surrounded by suburanites cutting thru mind you) is to dodge even more swinging double parked car doors at the biggest intersection in City Point.

humanity.

If none of the competitors were able to present a study of what another coffee shop would have done to their business, then why did anything they had to say get noted with any credence?

I run Business A, a dry cleaners. I am the only dry cleaner in 1 mile. Another dry cleaner wants to open on the next block. I go complain about how it's going to "detract from my business". Well, no shit. I'm the only dry cleaners within a mile. Of course it's going to "detract from my business". And maybe they have economies of scale because they send the dry cleaning out to a central facility because they're a regional/national chain with resources. So, they can charge less than me. That might even put me out of business. But these are the risks of doing business! Using the licensing laws as protectionism is nanny state bullshit.

So now, let's say there are Businesses A through G, all dry cleaners. Business H arrives. Now, 7 businesses and their loyal patrons go shout about how Business H would be "one too many dry cleaners" in our neighborhood. It'll pull from all their businesses. The most fragile of which might die because they've been barely holding on among 7 and won't survive being 1 of 8 (even though that's not actually how market is directly shared among competing businesses).

Then you could do the study. You could ask if the A-G neighborhood is at "peak dry cleaners". Is that part of Southie at "peak coffee"? I doubt it. I bet people get Starbucks at the other end of their commute, or leave the neighborhood to sit at a Starbucks or other cafe, or go without, or just go home and brew some coffee with Starbucks beans they bought while they were out, and so on. But if you're company A-G, then why would you say anything other than "they're going to make me go out of business; you have to stop them from opening!" if given the choice?

PS - I don't want to hear one name from that meeting ever come up in the context of "where are my kids going to get a summer job?" or anything else. Because right now, you have a vacant store front. Starbucks was bringing jobs to fill that storefront and you told them to shove off.

How about a retail front to sell spot savers?