New Guitar Center on Boylston St

More like that was the number already paying kickbacks prior to the legislation. A full service liquor license was going for a little over $200,000 about five years ago.
 
All or virtually all cities and towns have the number of liquor licenses based on a percent of population. Boston is the exception, the state sets the number. This may not make sense now but I'm sure it did in the past. A lot of people on this forum have no idea how bad things were in Boston in the past. During urban renewal the BRA bought a lot of bars and put them out of business. I know there were several on St Botolph St near the Arena that they bought, and I think tore down the building. This was 'before my time' if any one can elaborate. When I moved there in 1977 the bars were gone but it was still a red light district, lots of prostitutes along St Botolph every night, and on occasion in the morning. I was told a pimp had been murdered behind my building a few years earlier.

The current system may not work but I wouldn't be too quick to trust the city either.

I think it was when I was living near Kenmore Sq. in 1980 that I read there were more liquor licenses in that area than any area of Manhattan
 
And was that a bad thing? Kenmore Square in 1980 was a much more lively and urban place than it is today.
 
Ron Newman said:
And was that a bad thing? Kenmore Square in 1980 was a much more lively and urban place than it is today.
Click to expand...

Not at all. I wonder if the changing demographics has something to do with these changes, aren't there fewer young people in Massachusetts than in the 80's.
 
As a state yes, however Boston now has the largest student population ever.

St.Botolph Street used to be a ghetto version of Bay Village meets Harlem, dangerous yet 'interesting' to say the least.

I wonder if the opening of the Guitar Center and further expansion of Berklee on Bolyston Street is going to lead to more venues offering live music. Fenway could use an incarnation of BeeHive and maybe someone could bankroll 'Return of the Rat'.
 
So much of the urban youth culture in metro Boston has become bottled up in parts of Somerville and Cambridge beyond the pale of the T. Without density, it's been sapped of its potential for liveliness.

To a lesser extent, the same has happened in New York. There's a lot lost by moving much of that vibe from SoHo and Chelsea (where it was in the 80s) to somewhere in light industrial North Brooklyn. It and Somerville could be Anycities.
 
Walked by the building today, no change. Why hasnt this opened yet?
 
Morrarity did the Base Building renovation for the Landlord. Shawmut is now in the process of doing the Tennant Fit out work.
 
I was just at Guitar Center over the weekend, and they said they'll be moving in March.
 
THIS is how you do a guitar store facade:

ampgrate.jpg
 
That's sick, especially since it looks like my twin reverb.
 
The ADA sure knows how to clutter a perfectly attractive streetwall.
 
I like the idea of places 'sharing' a ramp - might reduce the clutter a bit.
 
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