- *Audiophiliac "The Other Steve Guttenberg"
- *Involuntary Slacker
- *LostRemote
- *Media Nation - Dan Kennedy
- *Universalhub
I’m looking forward to it.
Speaking of new places, does anyone know what that other new place on Oxford is? It looks like it could open any day now. It has small tables and a little bar in back. There are mirrors on the walls. Anyone?
http://www.itemlive.com/articles/2007/11/19/news/news09.txt
Revere wants to follow our lead that so they are not receiving Lynners after our last call.
Meanwhile, Somerville is in the process of granting a limited number of 2am licenses:
http://www.wickedlocal.com/somerville/archive/x10208924
The substance of the debate, especially on the side of those favoring the rollbacks, seems to be more about whether alcohol-serving establishments should even exist in the first place. The complaints are on issues related more to drunken behavior and noise and less about what difference 1 or 2am closings will really have. Listening to some of them, one would think they’d even vote in favor of going dry. Sometimes the emotional arguments they make come from tragic events. I sympathize, but they take the discussion off-topic. We’re debating the mere difference of an hour, and for that, it may as well be 2am. To prevent what happened to us and what Revere is afraid of, we should at least make 2am closings a statewide policy.
I’m going to get a little more controversial, though.
The biggest problem we have here is from full establishments pushing everyone out at once. There’s no way that can be quiet and peaceful. One way to solve that is to keep bars open later than 2am. People will leave when they’re ready to, and at more of at trickle than a stampede. It
keeps the ruckus inside the ruckus rooms and therefore there are fewer noise complaints. I may even further offend people by suggesting the T should stay open at least as late as bars and clubs do in order to reduce drunk driving. I don’t know why people are angry at that idea. (shrug) Yes. In speaking with some people about the T running later, I have had some angry responses. Go figure - but that’s another issue.
Alcohol licenses should be granted based on very careful consideration,
but the time should have nothing to do with it. I don’t follow that
logic. Then again, I grew up just outside the city that never sleeps
and in a suburb full of 24 hour establishments. Somehow, we did not
have the noise and public safety issues that people experience or fear
here. In fact, my home town is full of 24 hour diners, some that can
serve liquor as well as bars, yet it is frequently ranked among the
safest towns in the nation. As kids, we spent many late nights in those
diners. Kids still do. They’re safe places. Wayne, NJ. Look it up. Why can’t we do that here? Maybe I shouldn’t try to answer that question.
I first saw this in Downcity Providence. Empty storefronts were displaying works of art. I don’t know if this was in cooperation with the city or directly with property owners, but it sure helped that section of Providence along the away to its infamous revival.
Lynn is no Providence, but that’s not reason to dismiss the idea. I have no doubt that most spaces will eventually be leased to new business, but in the meantime, I think it’s really important that we do something to spruce them up. Some of them look awful and do nothing but perpetuate a bad and undeserved reputation.
Between Lynn Arts, Raw Arts and others I’m sure we can find plenty of work to go up in these windows. Curtains can be placed behind them to hide the empty space behind and lighting can be used at night to illuminate the work in the evening hours. Imagine people coming to downtown Lynn to browse window displays in the evening! That’s the foot traffic we need! Why not? What are the obstacles we face in implementing the idea? I think everyone wins. The city. The residents. The commercial space owners. The Police. The current businesses.
Does someone just have to take charge of this project? I have no experience, but I’m starting to slowly raise my hand.
When I lived in Boston I had enough info on just about anyone running for any sort of office due to the amount of papers, blogs, public access tv coverage, etc. going on. I voted in each local election.
Now that I live in Lynn, I’m finding that being an informed voter is much more difficult. Both local papers are guilty of not providing enough insight into issues and where each candidate stands on them. Or if they did, they didn’t have it online. The Lynn Journal has a very poor excuse for a web site, so I don’t get to read it as often. Perhaps I missed a few good articles. It’s time for them to get a real website if they want to compete with the Item.
I’m partly to blame for not making it to at least one candidates’ forum that I was aware of. I’ve also only been here since March. But, I’m frustrated. I didn’t vote because I didn’t know who to vote for. One can not go by campaign slogans and how many giant lawn signs someone has on 129. Was I supposed to just pick the prettiest sounding names? Ok, I’m feeling guilty for not voting. But not terribly guilty. Oh, well. Next time, I hope to know enough to make informed choices.
[edit] I just checked in on the Journal. There is a decent article on an election event that was co-sponsored by LynnCam. I’m slightly more informed. It’s a start. But, I still think the Journal can provide a better web site so that I might want to check back more often! 
Perhaps because I live near the Item (who knows), paper copies of the Lynn Journal are hard to come by when I’m heading to work at 7am.
Hello. I’m a guy named Seth who lives in Central Square, Lynn. “The Other Central Square.” I’ll be sure to post on a semi-irregular basis. Here’s a pretty picture: