New Haven Independent

Posted by: i live downtown | November 14, 2007 9:27 AM

I'm happy for Patil & his business. It's a great shop that I frequent whenever the wallet doesn't feel like visiting the Wine Thief. The guys working there are super nice and they know their stuff too.

Posted by: William Doriss | November 14, 2007 10:30 AM

Just another example of how business-unfriendly New Haven can be. The city and the mayor have not the foggiest idea about private enterprise, private initiative, how to run a business, integrity or honesty. New Haven is divided into two fiefdoms: Yale University and the city political machine, both of which think they know what is best for you. You, the citizens, get the crumbs off the table. Can U say, Bye, bye? Thanks, but no thanks!

No, no, no! New Haven continues to be one of the most egregious armpits of Corrupticut. The other being Hartford. (There is no "there there"!) At least New Haven has Crown St. and Cafe 9. Catch my YouTube debut: Search Bill Doriss and related links. Say hi to your Green Monster Mayor: "It's for the children!" Puhleeese!

Posted by: New Haven Tea Party | November 14, 2007 10:47 AM

That's a lot silly restrictions - the guy is trying to stay in business not promoting drunks on the town green. (which hang out there anyway, I might add). What's wrong with cigs, and lotto tickets, an ATM in case somebody would rather pay cash than use a credit card? I understand the single bottles and cans, nips and the like - but these other items can help improve cash flow and allow him to upsell his customers.

This is another example of small thinkers who don't understand small business but still demand high taxes to support more small thinking.

Posted by: robn | November 14, 2007 11:35 AM

NHTP,

business is business?? if so why stop there...lets allow loosies, nips, single cigarettes to minors, porn, maybe even spray paint and brown paper bags for huffers.

Posted by: charlie | November 14, 2007 11:41 AM

Don't be ridiculous. The sale of "nips" and single bottles should be banned, not just here but from all of downtown. If people want to sell them, they can rent cheap storefronts in local strip malls on the outskirts or in West Haven. Also, I hope that this is the last liquor store to open downtown.

Posted by: New Haven Tea Party | November 14, 2007 1:00 PM

Folks...you really need to read closer...I said I understand banning nips, single bottles - but cigs, lotto tickets and atm machines? How is that a negative?

Posted by: i live downtown | November 14, 2007 1:18 PM

well charlie, it's not like it's a NEW liquor store opening downtown. their current location is what, a block, block and a half away? i do agree that nips should be banned though.

Posted by: robn | November 14, 2007 2:13 PM

no seriously...
the character of our city's downtown is obviously unimportant compared with unihibited commerce so why don't we just generally allow the over-the-counter sale of :

loosies, nips, single cigarettes to minors, porn, spray paint and brown paper bags for huffers, meth factory supplies, carbon credits for polluting companies, assault weapons, depleted uranium ammo, child slaves, "bad" choleserol, pthalate laden baby pacifiers, voting vouchers for the deceased, original and replica corvairs, gang color bandannas....am I forgetting anything?

Posted by: Nan | November 14, 2007 2:55 PM

I agree with ROBN and CHARLIE. The sale of "nips" and single bottles should be banned downtown and in New Haven. As someone who cleans up in the public parks, I find "nips", single bottle, and brown paper bag debris to be one of my biggest problems. Nips should no longer be sold in New Haven anywhere, and all bottles and cans that are sold should be charged a refundable deposit fee. That way, even if some careless people throw their bottles on the street or on the ground in the parks, others will come and clean up after them for a slight profit.
New Haven officials and State Reps, please take notice.

Posted by: New Haven Tea Party | November 14, 2007 4:29 PM

oh..now we're going to have a charcter test to open a business in downtown? I'd love to see what bonafides you need. What are you saying - you'd rather have people getting their noses and nipples pierced downtown, but you'd rather not see an ATM machine? By the way, a block or two away from this location is a news store - selling cigs, lotto and papers. No nips though.

Posted by: just a girl | November 14, 2007 4:50 PM

Posted by: charlie | November 14, 2007 11:41 AM

"If people want to sell them, they can rent cheap storefronts in local strip malls on the outskirts or in West Haven."

West Haven...send you drunks here! As a life long New Haven resident, I am offended by that remark. If selling nips is wrong for New Haven, why is it okay for other towns? Maybe they could put all the tatoo palors and porn stores in West Haven too, and while we are at it, how about the homeless. That way they won't mess up the looks of the green!

Posted by: robn | November 14, 2007 5:10 PM

... coal burning power plants, uncensored internet access for children, exceptionally coarse toilet paper, posterboard and tempera paint supplies for white power marchers, gas guzzling SUVs, nuclear weapon blueprints, fireworks for toddlers, pesticides, loud pipes for Harleys and Japanese compact cars, hormone injected chicken meat...

Posted by: robn | November 14, 2007 10:05 PM

...GHB laced Chinese toys, faulty wiring, marked cards, malt liquor, desk name plates that say "Big Kahuna", lock-pick tools, computer hacker manuals, electric ambulatory devices for the non-disabled, high VOC paints, two stroke leaf blowers, elevator music CDs, synthetic Christmas trees, loaded dice, static-y megaphones for panhandlers...

Posted by: B | November 14, 2007 11:01 PM

I too am offended by the comment of sending the tattoo parlors to West Haven. We should clearly send them to East Haven.

Posted by: Ned | November 15, 2007 9:33 AM

Why not just bring back Prohibition and get rid of the booze/drunk problem once and for all?

Posted by: robn | November 15, 2007 9:34 AM

...melamine laced dog food, silly string, William Shatner dramatic readings, canned saturated fat, postmodern architectural plans, bottled tap water, paperless voting machines, dioxin, Bill O'Rielly books on tape, cheap handguns, $1000 toilet seats, imitation crab meat, garbage barges, admission to exclusive clubs, fertilizer and fuel oil, surveillance cameras....

Posted by: dylan | November 15, 2007 10:34 AM

What's so bad about a tattoo parlor? Maybe one of the more prominent corners in town isn't appropriate, but I'd rather a parlor not go all the way to East or West Haven. A well run parlor, in conjunction with other neighboring uses, can add some spark to a neighborhood. Anybody really have a huge problem with places like Greenwich Village?

That said, package stores can be very problematic, and especially on such a prominent corner, it's understandable that the city wouldn't want to facilitate shady activity (clearly nips aren't a good idea. Lotto tickets shouldn't be sold anywhere either - to think that so much of our state funding comes from gambling addictions. Cigarettes and ATMs seem the least necessary to ban, but perhaps there's a corellation between them an unseemly activities - like like panhandlers knowing people go there to get and pay with cash.)

Frankly, it seems like they'd most like to see the Wine Thief move to the former Edge space, and College Wines move to the Thief's Crown Street location.

Posted by: robn | November 15, 2007 11:54 AM

...Al Caiola records, mops with no absorptive capacity, Donny and Marie Show boxed sets, expired white out, violent video games, Ford Pintos, short-life light bulbs, upside down bifocals, driftwood sculpture, software with profane autotype function, warmed-over raw shellfish, salacious innuendo handbooks, leaded gasoline, too tight sans-a-belt trousers, expired cheese, Patchouli oil, jagged edged drinking glasses...

Posted by: robn | November 15, 2007 1:11 PM

...monochrome Hawaiian shirts, leftover political campaign signs, surplus radiological supplies, colorized versions of Citizen Kane, bent-wheeled unicycles, scratched 45 rpm's of Innagaddadavida-continued on other side, road salt, electronic devices with unclear directions, leaky faucets, boneless fish with some bones still in it, vinyl siding, stick-your-head-through photo backdrops of places you can't afford to go to, Viagra antidotes, yard furniture which breaks as soon as you get home, mime recordings...

wouldn't it be nice???

Posted by: LikkerNGunz | November 15, 2007 3:55 PM

Robn wins.

I hate that nips exist and wouldn't mind seeing most of the people who drink them dead, but I don't think local government should make that decision for us.
Besides, I don't think I care for the clientèle of Richter's any more than the patrons of College Wine.

Posted by: mort | November 16, 2007 8:18 AM

By the time these developers are done building all their skyscrapers, there is not going to be any sunshine downtown, just dark urban canyons

Posted by: elmcitywino | November 28, 2007 6:09 AM

So they boot this guy to make way for more luxury condominiums. Hmm. That's what we need. More luxury condominiums. Wasn't the 9th Square project supposed to be luxury condos? And what is it now?

Selling alcohol so close to the Green is an issue? Was the extra block to College St or the old Chapel St too far for a local drunk to walk? Besides, anyone who has spent any amount of time on the Green knows it's crack, not liquor, being consumed. Maybe we should ban crack dealers from downtown. Oh wait, we do? Maybe we should try to enforce that ban and not worry about small business owners.

Besides, when did that block become "desirable"???