If It Ain’t Broke, Break It

At some point people will begin to seriously distrust the point and purpose of community boards. First there’s Community Board 1 in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, where they dislike outdoor patios. Then there is Manhattan’s Community Board 2, which apparently has a thing against Montreal Smoked Meat. And now you have Manhattan’s Community Board 10 in Harlem, where board members are looking to snuff out a burgeoning nightlife scene before it really even takes off:

Central Harlem community board is considering a plan to require all new bars and restaurants to stop serving liquor at 2 a.m., two hours earlier than normal.

The proposal has divided Community Board 10 down the middle. Some members believe the requirement would put new businesses at a competitive disadvantage to established businesses that can serve alcohol until 4 a.m. Others want to get a grip on Harlem’s bar boom before things get out of hand as in the East Village and Lower East Side, where a near tripling of DWI arrests was blamed on growing nightlife in the area.

. . .

[The CB 10 chair] said bar owners should be able to know the board’s preference because it will impact where they decide to open.

That last part doesn’t sound all that threatening, until you realize that it’s absolutely supposed to sound threatening.