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I am glad that ABRA reform has cropped up on Greater Greater Washington's radar screen. Vibrant streets often require bars and restaurants with hours and facilities that can serve everyone from seniors and families out for an early dinner, to young people who like a dynamic social environment to meet new people.

From my own observations, my main complaint is that the Board is not consistent in applying rules, precedence or even reason in their decisions. Too often, they take King Solomon's approach and simply decree that the baby should be split.

The Mount Pleasant Responsible Hospitality Initiative, that was funded by a grant from ABRA that Council Member Jim Graham secured, recommended something similar to what David suggests: that the neighborhood come together and establish a uniform code of conduct for an area so that existing business owners and new entrepreneurs have a level playing field as well as understand the rules of the game in advance.

In Harriet Tregoning's testimony on the Mount Pleasant Small Area Revitalization Plan, she indicated that OP included that recommendation in their plan and that OP was willing to "roll up its sleeves" to try and make something like that work. Chairman Vincent Gray who conducted the hearing expressed great interest in seeing the progress of such an initiative.

I believe very strongly that our approach to liquor licensing in this city ignores opportunities to build stronger neighborhoods and commercial distrincts. There needs to be greater inter-agency cooperation, so that we can avoid problems like what Madam's Organ or Bobby Lew's went through; so that we can avoid putting good, struggling businesses through the ringer, like Hank's Oyster Bar, or the old Red Bean in Mt. Pleasant; and so that we move away from "gotcha" regulations towards a more cooperative and collaborative approach to integrating such an important industry into our residential and commercial fabric.

by Phil Lepanto on Nov 30, 2010 1:37 pm • link • report