Wilkinsburg ready for a glass of wine? (Turtle Creek, Penn: taxes, live in)

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Copanut

I can only picture what Wilkensburg would become if bars started popping up.

Can you imagine? People paying to drink a variety of alcoholic beverages inside, rather than picking up cheap beer from the distributor and drinking it outside, like God intended?

The horror, the horror.

[Copanut]

Say what you want, but Wilkensburg would be worse if bars are allowed.

[BrianTH]

By the way, I don't know how many people watched the Kitchen Nightmares episode set in a Wilkinsburg soul food restaurant, but I was not at all surprised to see it had a pretty diverse clientele. If you spend some time in downtown Wilkinsburg, that is what you will see.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Copanut

Say what you want, but Wilkensburg would be worse if bars are allowed.

Well, as an actual resident of Wilkinsburg, I very much hope they put your confidence in the reliability of your imagination to the test.

Of course maybe you are actually talking about Wilkensburg, in which case for all I know you may be right, since I have never heard of it.

[robrobrob]

I used to interact frequently with the Wilkinsburg Police and they told me that Wilkinsburg is much different at night. Maybe things have changed since that was a few years ago.

One thing to remember is that it only takes one bad bar to ruin a neighborhood.

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Well, as an actual resident of Wilkinsburg, I very much hope they put your confidence in the reliability of your imagination to the test.

Of course maybe you are actually talking about Wilkensburg, in which case for all I know you may be right, since I have never heard of it.

Gee, sorry, I made a mistake.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by robrobrob

I used to interact frequently with the Wilkinsburg Police and they told me that Wilkinsburg is much different at night. Maybe things have changed since that was a few years ago.

There is certainly WAY less general activity at night, which is not good for a commercial district, particularly one in a still-distressed area.

This is among the many things that having lawful evening-oriented businesses could change for the better.

One thing to remember is that it only takes one bad bar to ruin a neighborhood.

But as I noted, having no lawful evening-oriented establishments isn't good either. It is basically conceding the entire district to unlawful activities after dark.

Of course nuisance bars are a real problem, but it is throwing the baby out with the bathwater to deal with the nuisance bar problem by allowing no bars and alcohol-serving restaurants at all. And there is help available for communities to deal directly with nuisance bars:

http://www.phila.gov/districtattorne...cNuisance.html

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Copanut

Gee, sorry, I made a mistake.

You sure did, but the spelling was the least of it. Treating the citizens of Wilkinsburg like some primitive tribe incapable of handling their firewater is a bit more serious of a mistake.

[squarian]

There is one possibility - perhaps it will be possible legally for Wilkinsburg Council to modify its bylaws in such a way as to allow "nice people" restaurants to apply for R licenses while prohibiting "bad people" bars.

Obviously, this will pose a legislative challenge, since while we all understand the difference, there is no legal definition of "nice people". But a very clever borough councillor (or, more likely, the borough solicitor) may be able to frame the rule in such a way as to achieve the same thing.

At the very least, this should certainly be discussed and examined by council and public both: is it possible to frame a new bylaw to achieve the desired result without opening the door to undesirable unintended consequences?

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by squarian

At the very least, this should certainly be discussed and examined by council and public both: is it possible to frame a new bylaw to achieve the desired result without opening the door to undesirable unintended consequences?

I suspect the PLCB and associated state statutes regarding liquor licenses would trump any local bylaws attempting to restrict licensing to locally-favored entities.

Again, though, there are a variety of state programs a community can use to deal with an actual nuisance bar.