Dear Neighbors, To issues of importance to the Mid Cambridge Neighborhood will be before the License Commission Tuesday. Nautical Tours (Duck Tours) is seeking permission to operate its oversize amphibious tour vehicles in our neighborhood, and there is also a proposal to increase the number of liquor licenses in Harvard Square. We are emailing you the following information so that you may participate if you wish--send the Commission an email, write a letter, or attend the hearing in person. The information comes from Harvard Square Defense Fund. There is also a note in favor of non-transferable beer and wine licenses from Councilor Craig Kelley. Liquor License Cap After the first hearing, the License Commission ruled that the Cap would stay in place for all Cap areas in the City except Harvard Square and that another hearing would be held on that Cap Area on 9/26 (Tues at 6 pm) in the Lombardi Building on Mass Ave. next to City Hall. Nautical Tours Jinny Nathans [617 492-3735], pres of Harvard Sq Defense Fund [HSDF] group, explains that anyone who wants to oppose (or for that matter support) the proposed nautical tours through Harvard can still do so until September 26 when the License Commission will makes its decision (for the fourth time) concerning this company's request to bring tours through Cambridge. Elizabeth Lint, the administrative person at the Lic. Comm. will be delighted to take additional emails on Nautical Tours up to the decision hearing on Sept. 28. Her email is elint@cambridgema.gov and her phone number is 617 349-6140. Pebble Gifford's letter is below: "For the 3rd year in a row, Nautical Tours (see attached), is seeking a license to run tours in oversized amphibious vehicles through parts of Cambridge. These vehicles resemble the Duck Boats in Boston. They have been denied a license in the past because of strong opposition from residents on the proposed tour route which included Mass Ave, Brattle, Mt. Auburn, Aberdeen and numerous other streets between Kendall, Central and Harvard Squares. This time around, the Tour co. has shortened the route (see attached) so it runs from Kendall Sq through Central Sq, up Mass Ave to Harvard Sq, around the Yard, through the underpass to Broadway, right on Quincy St., back on Mass Ave to Main St and ending at Kendall Sq. At some point they go in and out of the water, but we can't determine where, because their application is so incomplete. The HSDF's position is as follows: There is no need for these tours. There are already 2 trolley car companies operating in Camb. No revenue will be generated for Camb. businesses, because there are no stops in Cambridge except at the pick up and drop off location in Kendall Sq. The route goes through high traffic main streets, which in the case of Mass Ave., are residential. The impact of the route would be primarily on Mid Cambridge. The streets of Cambridge are basically "old cow paths" and, unlike Boston, are too narrow to permit vehicles of this size. This gets compounded by the fact that most commercial buildings lack adequate loading docks and delivery trucks have to double park in the traffic lanes. We are trying to encourage tourists to see Cambridge on foot and to use the centrally located Red Line to get from one Square to the other. Also, this is probably the only visit a tourist coming from Boston will make to Camb., they will not see the City at it's best. If you agree with us, we urge you send an e-mail to Elizabeth Lint, the Exec. Dir. of the LC. elint@cambridgema.gov. with a copy to Pebble or Jinny Nathans, jinnyn@mindspring.com, and any other City official you should hear your views on this "perennial" application. We would like this to be Nautical Tour's last attempt to operate in Camb. If you can get to the hearing, that, of course, would be best." Cambridge Liquor License Cap By Pebble Gifford Here is the Harvard Square Defense Fund [HSDF] statement on the Cap Policy with a brief history. State laws regulating liquor licenses imposes a quota on the number of licenses a town, city etc can have, and it is based on the number of residents. i.e. for every 1000 persons there can be one "pouring license" which is one where alcohol is consumed vs. a package store where it is purchased. There are 2 types of this kind of license: wine and beer and all alcoholic. The state law allows for a municipality by vote of its legislative body to remove to waive the quota system and allow unlimited licenses. The Camb. City Council voted in the early 80's to waive quota. They thought they were doing it for one license (then CC Sandra Graham had a friend who wanted to open a bar and there were no more licenses available under quota). Subsequent to the vote, it was determined by the Mass Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission (ABCC), which is the regulator of the state liquor laws, that the CC could not vote to waive quota for only one license and that, in fact, they had waved quota in general and that there was no longer any limit on the number that could be issued in Cambridge. This led to a proliferation of licenses through out the City. The streets of Cambridge became unsafe, especially at night, because of the number of bars and restaurants spilling out drunks. They got in fights, vandalized property (cars, store fr ont windows, and houses), urinated and vomited on public and private property, caused accidents and generally terrorized other users of the Sq. In response to this situation, the HSDF undertook a 3-4 year campaign to get quota reinstated. This turned out to be impossible, because it required an act of the State legislature and the liquor lobby would have defeated it. The then head of the License Commission, Jim McDavitt, came up with the idea of putting a Cap on the number of licenses in existence at that time, and it was an action the LC could take on it's own without a CC vote. The first Cap was enacted just for the Harvard Sq area, but it was so popular that other neighborhoods came forward demanding one, and now there are 15 cap areas in the City. Every few years the property owners and businesses seeking new licenses try to undo the Cap Policy (CP) with the impetus coming from "their City Councilors" who order the LC to hold hearings. This is one of those years. Under the Cap the only way to get a license if you want to open a new restaurant is to buy an existing one from a place that is going out of business, and these licenses cost $100,000 and up depending on the location. This is how it works in every city and town in MA. Currently, there are a number of chain restaurants which want to come into the Square, and they don't want to pay. They pay big rents, so the land lords who want to lease to them want them to get the licenses. Recently, the Harvard Sq. Business Association received 2 grants: $200,000 from the Square property owners and $200,000 from Harvard Real Estate. The 2 groups control all the commercial real estate in Harvard Sq. With this money the HBA has expanded and renovated its offices hired 2 or 3 staff and embarked on a campaign to have the Cap Policy revoked. On August 25th of this year the LC held a hearing on whether or not to maintain the CP. They received testimony via e-mails and in person from dozens of individuals in favor of keeping it. Carl Barron, Chair of the Central Sq. Business Assoc. and one of the original advocates of the Policy, wrote a very strong letter urging that it be maintained. The only testimony in opposition came from John diGiovanni, President of the HSBA (and a large property owner), who said the Cap for HS should be "open and flexible", and that the LC should consider applications for new licenses on a "case by case basis", in other, eliminate the Cap for HS. I should mention that individual residents of Mid-Cambridge did send e-mails and attend in person, but those who came from the MCNA board made it very clear that they could not speak for the Board, "because the Board had not met and taken a vote on the issue". This was very disappointing. I have since learned that the MCNA only meets once a year and that is when such votes are taken. I would urge you to reconsider your procedures, because important issues come up weekly that your voice should be heard on. Mid-Camb is directly impacted by what happens in HS, and the return to the pre-cap days would have a very negative impact on that neighborhood. After the first hearing, the LC ruled that the Cap would stay in place for all Cap areas in the City except HS and that another hearing would be held on that Cap Area on 9/26 (Tues at 6 pm) which is next week. The HSDF will be sending out notices (see below) again to its members and members of other neighborhood organizations in hopes that we can generate as good a response as we did last time. In the meantime, we ask that the MCNA take up the issue and send to the hearing an official representative who can speak for the organization in strong support of maintaining the Cap in Harvard Sq. There are currently 50 liquor licenses (package and pouring) within the 10 block area of HS, making it the densest concentration of licenses in the state. City wide we have the highest number of licenses per capita in the State and twice as many as Boston per capita. Boston with a population of over 500,000 has 600 licenses and Cambridge with 100,000 people has close to 300. No one is going to go thirsty in Cambridge. Craig Kelley Here's my basic CAP rap: Thank you for your concerns about the CAP policy. I agree that the existing CAP has gone a long way towards making various areas of Cambridge more genteel and I wouldn't want to see a whole-scale removal of CAPs. In North Cambridge, however, which is the part of Cambridge with which I am most familiar, several restaurants and cafes have asked for non-transferable beer and wine licenses. Without exception, these applications have received wide neighborhood support. I hope that we can find some way that neighborhood-based restaurants in areas that are not as concerned about the CAP could get beer and wine licenses without having to jump through the hoops that they have to now, while at the s ame time not threatening to drown places like Harvard Square with too many cafes. If you have any ideas of how to do this, please let me know. Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts with me. Please feel free to stay in touch with me on this or any other issues that you are interested in. Craig Kelley Cambridge City Council 617-354-8353 (h) 6 St. Gerard Terrace Cambridge, MA 02140.