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Consalvo: Keep Hyde Park sleepy
By adamg on Wed, 08/17/2011 - 1:10pm
City Councilor Rob Consalvo opposes a request from a Dominican restaurant on Fairmount Avenue to extend its closing hours from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Consalvo says there are no Hyde Park restaurants or bars open past 1 a.m. and he wants to keep it that way.
A later closing time "might be a fit downtown or in some other areas," but not in the southwestern corner of Boston, Consalvo told the Boston Licensing Board this morning on a request from Rincon Caribeno on Fairmount Avenue to extend its hours from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. In June, the board rejected a similar 2 a.m. request from Tony's Pizza next door.
Rincon Caribeno owner Javier Diaz says the later hours would help him better serve the area's Dominican population. He proposed keeping the kitchen open until midnight and the bar open until 2.
A representative from the mayor's office also opposed the later hours.
Diaz is also seeking permission to add hard liquor to his current alcohol license, currently limited to beer and wine. He said he has yet to see any profit from the beer-and-wine license, which he got last year.
The board votes on his requests tomorrow, but is likely to defer any action on them because Diaz has yet to meet with a Fairmount Hill residents association or Hyde Park Main Streets. Consalvo said he is willing to consider that request.
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Comments
Fenway wants City Councilor Rob Consalvo
gee, City Councilor Rob Consalvo - might you represent the Fenway, too? Fenway's current representation at City Hall favors rooftop drinking all up and down Boylston, just in case the 2 am bar crowd from Landsdowne isn't loud 'nuff.
Amazing
This is typical corruption. Consalvo is obviously making a decision that benefits the people who pay for his vote. Like one hour makes that much of a difference. This is the usual government control for no apparent reason other than for control and kickbacks - as stupid and useless ad blue laws. Consalvo the socialist needs to go.
Do you live anywhere near Hyde Park?
Who are these powerful forces paying for early closing hours in a neighborhood that really is a small, sleepy town that got annexed to a big city?
Sleepy town
Hyde Park is a sleepy town? Hyde Park has one of the highest population densities in the state? Where not talking western mass for godsakes where they roll up the sidewaks at dusk. We are talking within the city limits of Boston.
There's a point to be made
There's a point to be made there, but a small sleepy town? Hyperbole and all, but still. When I worked in a factory in Hyde Park - for the second time - we went three shifts of racket throughout the year.
OK, OK
A small sleepy mill town :-).
Fixed that for you
Consalvo is obviously making a decision that benefits the people who
payvote for hisvotepay.Who needs a 2 AM license in HP when we have Dot Ave?
Why can't HP Dominicans just drive over to
Peggy O'Neill's?er, never mind.Disagree but get the thought process
I disagree with Consalvo on this, but am not too bothered by his decision to oppose the later closing. As a district counselor, one of his more important roles is constituent service/representation. If his constituents mostly don't want this sort of thing, he should speak on their behalf unless he has a principled reason not to do so.
As for my own opinion (and speaking as a constituent), I see nothing wrong with the proposal to close the kitchen at midnight and the bar at 2:00. 2:00 is the usual closing time for bars in Boston. Whether it's Hyde Park or Allston, a licensed public house should be able to stay open until then.
Not chickens
I disagree with Rob (my district councilor) on some things, like whether we should let people have a small number of hens (he's agin it). This one makes sense though.
Logan Square, where Rincon sits, is pretty sleepy. The only thing like traffic there is the successful, but discreet Townsend's Restaurant. Otherwise, it's the occasionally used, low-key community theater and on Sunday mornings, several storefront churches. Oh, and Rob's office, where he rarely appears is there.
Rincon has good food, but it's tiny and barely has a DJ area on one side. It's not a bar per se and would be hard to turn into one. Also, that section of Fairmount is so quiet, most restaurants can't last long there.
There's no parking lot, a wee restaurant, and little ped traffic. I can see why the locals don't want to turn it into a whiskey/dance joint. Now, chickens on the other hand...
What about in ten years?
When the Fairmount Line is running as an almost-subway and those death-trap buildings next to the fire station and down by the train station are torn down and replaced by fancy new apartments/condos and yuppies or hipsters or whatever they'll call the upwardly mobile then actually begin looking at buying along River/Fairmount because of its authentic ethnic qualities (which they will, of course, promptly price out of the neighborhood)?
Hipsters and Hyde Park???? In
Hipsters and Hyde Park????
In the same sentence (kinda)?
Now I've seen everything.
The first fixie on Fairmount sighting will be a harbinger like the first robin of spring.
I have seen an actual hipster daddy on Fairmount
Granted, it was only once and it was a two or three years ago: In the coffeehouse next to Townsend's (is the cafe still open?), but he was dressed mostly in black, had a scruffy beard, those sort of squarish little glasses back before everybody started wearing them (except for us old fuddy-duddies who hope our old aviator frames don't break), and a little baby. His friend was similarly attired, only hipster skinny.
It was kind of a magical moment, because, like you said, hipsters on Fairmount? I didn't get up the nerve to ask them how they wound up there, because for all I knew, they were regulars (I was an interloper myself, taking a break from the Albanian men's club/hipster mama's circle over at Cafe Select in Roslindale).
Trust fund hipster from
Trust fund hipster from Milton slumming.
Outriders. That's how it
Outriders.
That's how it started in Brooklyn, too.
Won't be able to swing a cat soon w/o hitting a pair of skinny jeans.
Hipster Prospecters
There's cheap rent, I tells ya, cheap rent in them thar hills.
PBR too
I hear tell that the mighty Neponset flows fast and clear and cold with Pabst Blue Ribbon.
Indie vinyl as far as a man can see- there for the taking.
And they make it easy to haul it home
Unlimited supply of shopping carts (do bring some paper towels to dry them off, though).
Need the tricked out kiddie
Need the tricked out kiddie race car shopping cart for the hipsters.
Metal ones just not ironic enough.
If it's sleepy, shouldn't it be livened up?
This proposal sounds like a good way to do that. And perhaps attract customers to other nearby businesses on the way to or from this restaurant.
There's a public parking lot
There's a public parking lot around the corner.
So Much for . . .
staying in business on Fairmont Ave. So much for making that commercial strip safe at night. So much for an independant Main Streets program in the Mayor's back yard. I hope the neighbors in this part of HP will support this businessman. Sleepy is OK for Readville but not Fairmont Ave.
Is it possible to unannex?
Seriously, can we kick off all the suburban wanna-be gray areas?