Photo: Jared Brosnan/WBZ NewsRadio
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Massachusetts Governor Maura Healy was joined by other elected officials including Boston Mayor Michelle Wu on Wednesday for a ceremonial bill signing at the State House to authorize the increase in the number of Boston liquor licenses.
Members of the Boston City Council have been supporting the state legislation that is designed to help bolster economic and cultural activity by making more liquor licenses available to a diverse range of small businesses operating in city neighborhoods.
Mattapan business owner Jay Howard was at the signing ceremony and said the licenses are all about creating opportunity. "This provides an opportunity for more restaurants, more spaces, for people to be able to gather and build," he said. "I think that's what community is all about."
For its size, Mattapan has very few liquor licenses.
Howard said this bill creates the opportunity for people like him to start a business in his own neighborhood that serves the people who live in that same neighborhood so they don't have to travel far to gather and socialize. "Whether you are coming after work, or coming from church, or you just want to have a night out."
225 new liquor licenses are to be awarded over the next three years.
WBZ News Radio's Carl Stevens (@CarlWBZ) reports.
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