Sunday, October 08, 2006

Moratorium Loopholes

Let's hope that the NY Times' editorial writers don't get to read today's NY Post story on the effort of license applicants to find loopholes to the SLA moratorium. They'd probably have a fit that some businesses were not going to sit back and lose tens of thousands of dollars because of bureaucratic inanity.

All of which illustrates that the entire licensing stoppage was ill-conceived in the first place. What we do need from the city and the state is a discussion of a sensible nightlife policy. This discussion inevitably needs to include an evaluation of the 500 foot law and the exceptions to it that should be allowed.

The one useful aspect of the ignorance on this rule , so eloquently expressed in the Grey Lady this morning, is that we should finally be able to get a reasonable evaluation of the efficacy of this 500 foot rule and the danger that would be created if it were, as the Times would like, enforced literally.