Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt

[deeann mikula hartmann]

On Tue, 21 Oct 2003, Joey wrote:

> I'm of course concerned about some of the laws in pgh.  I have a meeting
> with a pgh liquor atty. tomorrow to discuss purchasing a liquor license and

heh...good luck with that.  i hear that there are even fewer licenses
granted in the past few years than ever, requiring lots of "sharing"
and creative paperwork.  you'll have to let us know how that
mysterious end of club-owning works out.  i once heard the cost of a
liquor license in pgh, and i was postively floored by the amount of
money.  of course, i was probably making $5/hr at the time...

> I'll definitely be addressing the 18+ issue with him to see if there's any
> interest in the industry to change the current laws.

unlikely.  pa is a large state, i think it's rather like california,
where you have a few resonable people (thousands, more likely) in the
cities, but far, far, far more rednecks in the country to skew any
kind of voting ratios.  "make it easier for the kids to get liquor by easing the physical divider?" "help concert promoters?"  i don't think so.

i don't mean to be a total pessimist, but i woke up in a bad mood, and
i'm not feeling optimistic about pgh. quickly losing it's grasp on
anything focused on youth.  half of me wants to say, "you go!  be the
one-man army against this decade long trend!" and the other part of me
is just saying "that poor kid, how many times have i seen perfectly
great business plans for great new bars fail because of pgh's crushing
laws?"

good luck, and i don't mean that sarcastically this time like i did
above :)  please do keep us informed!

deeann mikula hartmann

"the limits of my language mean the limits of my world."
   --ludwig wittgenstein, tractatus logico-hilosophicus