After years of debate, lawmakers finally came to an agreement on a heady expansion of available alcohol licenses in Boston.
There are 225 new licenses authorized in a compromise bill ( H 5039) filed by House and Senate negotiators Tuesday afternoon, including 195 “restricted” licenses specifically marked for neighborhoods encompassed in 13 city ZIP codes. Five would be added to each ZIP code annually during a three-year phase-in period, according to the lead conferees.
The agreement also adds 12 unrestricted licenses to the city’s supply, three specifically for Oak Square in Brighton, and 15 “community licenses” for nonprofits, small theaters, and outdoor spaces.
In a joint statement, Senate President Pro Tempore Will Brownsberger of Belmont and House Majority Leader Michael Moran of Brighton said they see the bill “dramatically expanding equity for restaurant owners in neighborhoods across the city, and increasing economic opportunity in communities of color that have been left out for too long.”
The House bill (H 4696) had called for 205 new licenses, while the Senate’s version (S 2903) would have authorized 260.
The branches were “very close, if not done” with the negotiations on Aug. 1, Moran said at the time, but the four-page deal took weeks to finalize.
The conference report (H 5039) was filed shortly after 2 p.m. Tuesday in the House clerk’s office. Moran and Brownsberger said that the goal is to send it to Gov. Maura Healey “by the end of the week.” Both branches will meet next on Thursday.
According to Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, who along with the Boston City Council sponsored the original petition, the city currently has a total of 2,200 licenses — but they aren’t spread evenly across the city.
About an hour before the bill was filed, but after legislative leadership had announced they had come to a compromise, Sen. Liz Miranda of Boston told Spark FM’s Jacquetta Van Zandt on radio show “Politics and Prosecco” that the bill would allow for more equitable investment in Black and brown communities in the city.
“A street like Blue Hill Ave., which runs throughout my whole district, 4.4 miles, has maybe two or three licenses. And in some neighborhoods, Mattapan, for example, just got one liquor license,” she said. “And Newbury Street, which is a mile long, has 15-plus. Right? So this is an issue of racial equity, but also economic equity.”
Miranda’s 2nd Suffolk district includes large chunks of Dorchester, Roxbury, Mattapan and Jamaica Plain, which she’s called “the blackest district in the state.”
She said she remembers a time when, growing up, people used to be able to go into restaurants and bars in those neighborhoods where getting dinner and a drink was more accessible. But with a state-imposed cap on liquor licenses, if a restaurant or bar closes, its license may be transferred to a new restaurant in a different neighborhood of the city.
“Almost all the licenses in our neighborhoods went to other communities,” Miranda told the News Service. “When I was growing up there wasn’t anything in the Seaport. Then the ICA came, now it’s the number one community for tourists and there’s hundreds of restaurants. The prices of liquor licenses go up and when a restaurant closes in Roxbury, and it costs $500,000, it’s private equity firms or developers who are buying it, not a family pouring their savings into it.”
The bill that negotiators filed on Thursday, however, designates that licenses for certain low-income ZIP codes are “non transferable” and “neighborhood restricted.”
“This is about making dreams a reality,” Miranda said in the interview. “Thriving businesses make communities safer and cleaner. And other Boston residents get to come down from their apartments and walk to a bar or restaurant and be part of their community, my constituents should too.”
Wu also appeared on the “Politics and Prosecco” program following Miranda. Wu has repeatedly hit hurdles trying to get municipal priorities over the finish line on Beacon Hill this session, and the expanded liquor licenses would be one of the first major wins her administration brings home from the State House during the 2023-2024 session.
“Restaurants are really part of the underpinning,” Wu said. “It’s not only jobs, it’s not only economic opportunity for the restaurant owner and the workers who are working there. It’s community. If you think about what makes you feel at home, most of the time when you ask someone, they’ll point to their favorite local neighborhood restaurant, place they go hang out.”
Miranda told Van Zandt the Senate plans to vote on the bill on Thursday, where, she said, “it will pass, and then it’ll be on the governor’s desk.”
This is the third major agreement that the Legislature has crossed off its thick docket of unresolved business following the close of formal lawmaking on Aug. 1. Omnibus bills addressing maternal health and nursing homes were approved during sparsely attended sessions last month after six-person conference committees came to agreements.
