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Elks can no longer migrate between their bar and private functions at their Brighton lodge
By adamg on Tue, 05/02/2023 - 12:56pm
Members of the Benevolent and Protective Order Of Elks lodge in Brighton Center have been told they can no longer freely move from their bar into private parties at the lodge's function room after police detectives on a snap inspection found too many people stuffed into the function room.
Curt Bletzer, attorney for the Washington Street fraternal organization, said the lodge manager has alerted members to stay out of private functions unless they have an invite following an incident on Feb. 18, in which two BPD licensing detectives found 187 people in the function room, which has a licensed capacity of 143.
Bletzer said the problem was that whatever was happening at the private party seemed attractive enough to lodge members that some walked from their bar into the function room. He did not specify what made the event so appealing to Elks.
Lt. Det. William Gallagher said he and his partner had not planned to visit the lodge that night, but decided to take a look after hearing a radio call around 10:30 p.m. that somebody needed to be transported away in an ambulance.
Bletzer said that was due to a minor, if unfortunate, accident in the function room: A woman was being twirled around when her face made contact with "somebody's wristwatch or something." She was taken to nearby St. Elizabeth for care.
The licensing board decides Thursday what action, if any, to take.
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Comments
Freed from traffic
Freed from traffic enforcement BPD finds important things to do.
Have you considered a career in comedy?
I keep bringing this up, but out of Boston's roughly 2,000 police officers, exactly 3 are assigned fulltime to the licensing division.
So still 3 more than traffic
So still 3 more than traffic patrol
Its honestly puzzling
There is a speed reporting sign on Cambridge St, usually reporting numbers well above the posted 25 mph limit.
Its maybe 2-3 blocks from the BPD station? Never seen any enforcement.
Priorities
Until I see the Boston Police get the rampant traffic infractions under better control, I would rather see any and all officers assigned to the licensing division reassigned to traffic.
When I start seeing misuse of liquor licenses as a grave threat to the good people of Boston, maybe I'll reassess. Meanwhile, drivers keep driving into buildings....
liquor license isn't the problem
Those occupancy limits are in case of fire, so the people inside would be able to evacuate. Too many people in too small a space would be risky even if everyone was completely sober and there was no alcohol on the premises.
BUT
The police are checking for misuse of the liquor license, not checking every place that has an occupancy limit. The comment was about whether we should have police doing that.
If you want to talk about gov't employees dedicated to enforcing occupancy limits (regardless of whether there is a liquor license), that's a different conversation.
It boggles my mind why so
It boggles my mind why so many people on here put so much stock in traffic enforcement. It's the most expensive and least effective method of traffic calming. People generally drive the speed that feels comfortable regardless of what the posted speed limit is. So if you want to slow down traffic, it needs to be done via things like narrower lanes, curb bump outs, chicanes, speed bumps, removing slip lanes, etc.
But
No one said that traffic enforcement was the best way to calm traffic. If we have X police, what should they be doing?
(I'm fine with axing the police force too)
A few reasons
Because putting in a separate bike lane AND separate BRT lane on Brighton Ave isn't feasible. So we instead get a painted bus/bike lane in the second travel lane...which then invites all sorts of food delivery drivers to double park it.
There's no traffic calming for that. It just needs regular enforcement.
Because no sort of traffic calming is going to stop people from running red lights.
There are plenty of infractions that aren't just about speeding that traffic calming measures won't change and just a bit of enforcement leaves mental reminders not to screw up in peoples' heads.
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