It's the Institution

On Monday night, the Cambridge City Council and Mayor Kenneth E. Reeves ’72 gave a long-awaited nudge to the Cambridge Licensing Commission (CLC) in favor of loosening its Puritanical rules. For the past two decades, the CLC and its ally-in-arms, the Harvard Square Defense Fund (HSDF), have implemented draconian policies toward restaurants’ closing hours and their ability to serve liquor. Thankfully, Reeves and the city councillors seem to have awoken to the damaging effect those policies have had on the Square’s atmosphere and liveliness.

Councillor Michael A. Sullivan told the roundtable discussion Monday, “We’ve eliminated the entertainment [in Harvard Square].” Reeves added, “If you’re hungry on a Wednesday night, you shouldn’t have to go to the Hong Kong.” We agree. Although the Kong’s dumplings sometimes hit that perfect spot at 3 a.m. on Saturday, the lack of options for late-night eateries is unacceptable. There seems to be no lack of demand for restaurants to remain open until 4 a.m. or even later, but the Licensing Commission still refuses to grants retailers’ requests.

We understand—in a very vague and theoretical way—the CLC and the HSDF’s worries about late-night rowdiness that might be created if restaurants never closed. But for that principle to prevent students from much-needed pancakes at 4:30 a.m. simply does not make sense. And no one is proposing a line of bars and restaurants on Garden St., on top of existing houses. Rather, it should be easier for establishments on main thoroughfares, such as Mt. Auburn St. and Mass. Ave, and side streets far from any residential areas, such as Eliot St., to serve liquor and stay open late.

The councillors also rightfully highlighted the ill effects of the Licensing Commission’s stinginess in doling out liquor licenses. Currently, a liquor license in Harvard Square costs $400,000 to buy. As any Ec 10 student knows, that type of entry cost is greatly inhibitive to attracting new (and not nationally branded) restaurants to the Square. If the HSDF. actually wants to make Harvard Square “something different” than the rest of the world (as then-HSDF president G. Pebble Gifford told The Crimson in 1996) then it must move past its archaic and irrational positions.

In the mean time, we thank the City Council for advocating more sensible policies. We hope that as Mayor Reeves and many councilors expressed on Monday night, the Licensing Commission will rethink its Byzantine rules in the months and years to come. The Square might be losing Toscanini’s in February, but it should not lose its spirit because of city bureaucrats.