Don't you love it when capitalists beg for the government to step in and prevent competition?

And Bill Spaeda is worthless. Why are we driving him traffic?

I support this change.
The current laws discriminate against minorities & working class whites ,making it IMPOSSIBLE to open pubs/bar-restaurants in their communities. This is the reason you DON'T see minority owned bars - restaurants . 98% of Newarkers cannot afford $300-700k for a liquor license!

Liquor sales make up at least 55% of all revenue in serving restaurants. The margin is razor thin on food sales.

All these people opposing are defending the monopoly bc THEY have interests!

The author talks about "mom & pop pubs/taverns", but then goes on to list all these major or "favorite "bar-restaurants "that will be affected".

I guarantee 90% of those businesses are owned by millionaires!

NJ builds thousands of homes yearly, I don't see home prices dropping! Why should liquor licenses in Tom's River, Belmar ,Ewing be affected by expanding the number Licenses for more Bar/Grill businesses in Newark, for example?

It's not a ZERO sum game!

It's the awkward moment capitalists are socialists. Lol

Great move if it can be passed. Will really open up competition and allows more mew players to innovate

"In this country we have socialism for the rich and rugged individualism for the poor." -MLK Jr

In Newark there are a few failed business that hold the license but lack the creativity to succeed. The government shouldn’t be protecting a few people who have already benefit for years of this liquor license policies. Mom and Pop’s places are failing anyway and it is investors who actually own the license and have the money to back up new restaurants.

Spaeda was never really a capitalist, he’s more of a libertarian unless it doesn’t put him at an advantage.. so basically, he’s an asshole

I’m still not following what exactly this bill will do. Can someone explain please?

If Bill Spadea is against something it is probably a good thing for the average NJ resident. Guy is a total clown.

Ahh Bill Spaeda, the committed libertarian, arguing for Big Government to continue to over-regulate the free market by artificially constraining the supply of liquor licenses.

I wonder if his take would be any different at all if Murphy had an R next to his name.

Are we best friends? I’ve been shouting this from atop my soap box for years now. It’s absurd that the highest population density areas of the state are limited to so few licenses.

E: Shouting NOT shooting

Well it wouldn’t be Phil Murphy unless he was destroying businesses

Before anyone says “What businesses has he destroyed?”

I would point you to 2020 where his policies, which have proven to be the incorrect and least beneficial way of handling COVID, closed 1/3 of nj small businesses.

Then leading up to Memorial Day weekend, when every other state in the country was opening, restaraunts were expecting huge sales and bought food and staf to prepare, this jackass decides that “we just can’t open outdoor dining yet” one day before the weekend.

This is an unbelievably bafoonish op-ed.

got my support.

So your solution to covid would have been open everything and get thousands more infected in the name of the almighty dollar.

The liquor license racket needed to be ended in NJ decades ago. The only people who love the current system are long time holders or recent buyers that overpaid

The people in this article sound selfish and like the people that were fighting to keep horse-drawn buggies when cars came out.

Good change. Good job Murphy as honestly, this isn't a change you need to fight for // be progressive on in order to win favor from both sides of the aisle.

We're used to getting screwed over.

So, a capitalist.

I glad I didn't have to die for the economy.

Was thinking this same thing…

“Please continue to artificially inflate the value of my business with your regulatory scheme!” cries the anti-regulation Republican.

Oh if this was Florida and Ron DeSantis was doing it the GOPers would be cheering on his deregulation, and how he’s lowering the barriers to entry for small businesses.

Yes and it’s demonstrable: look at the New York / New Jersey state line. Is Warwick or Greenwood Lake any worse than West Milford or Vernon? No! Exactly the opposite

The liquor authority is in bed with restaurants in this state. We have tons of great breweries in this state and the liquor authority does everything possible to make this state unappealing for them

That’s a perversion of capitalism

Bill spaeda whole bit is he disagrees with everything the Left likes if the left switched and started wanting what the right wanted. I would bet money he would switch his opinion

Fuck NJ101.5

Can't stand Spadea

Spadea is a buffoon.

This is about as ridiculous as the people criticizing any attempt to make housing affordable because it hurts people who treated a house as an investment.

Spadea reminds me of Paul Mulshine.

I Thought he was "miserable type" conservative till he attacked everything GWBush & Trump did.

Then realized he's not conservative at all, but a media plant playing controlled opposition to Democrat NJ Governors to sell more Newark Star Ledgers in Red NJ counties.

But he reveals his Democrat colors soon as a GOP becomes president!

Who Spadea? He's a Trump Lackey and praises Ras. .

Correct. Under current NJ liquor regulations , Newark can NEVER be the 24 hour live city NYC is in terms of nightlife & restaurants.

Imagine if NYC was in NJ, where annexation was restricted, then denied by "home rule". Liquor laws arranged in zero sum game determined by a set finite number that can only be sold ortransferred, but never added on to.

You get Newark! A city sabotaged by its host state.

NJ Gov Murphy DESTROYED what remained of Downtown Newark retail with COVID Lockdowns.

Ferry St is now the place to shop for your family & kids. Broad is just dollar stores/ripoff dated electronics & stores ripping off HipHop kids.

I teach in Newark. All of my students hate Ras Baraka.

No, this is the inevitable conclusion of capitalism: the capture of government by private interests.

Interesting. Why?

To be honest, I'm not 100% sure. From what I can gather, they feel like he's dishonest and doesn't actually do anything that helps them. I'm not informed enough to have a good opinion on the matter, but I do know enough to be suspicious of the city government and its...competence.

I know he was a former teacher and school principal, so he has to care at least a little bit, ya know? You don't do that kind of work to get rich.

I think he cares, I'm just not sure he's up to it and the myriad of facets it entails. But thats interesting. I guess all politicians eventually get that rep

That’s the conclusion of libertarianism and incomplete Austrian economics (before Hayek realized his ideas as a younger man were bullshit).

The conclusion of capitalism is more or less a highly productive workforce that gets plenty of leisure time, amenities and financial safety nets provided by the state through pooled capital. Oh, and most taxes are levied against the value of land, not income.

Too bad they weren't around for Sharpe James dynasty. He kept Newark a violent wasteland for like 2 decades in order to cover up his and his cronies criminal behavior. They'd be praying for a Mayor like Ras Baraka that actually cares about this city and the people in it like we were back then.

We talked about that in class actually in the context of Cory Bookers first run for mayor in 2002. They have no idea about so much of this history, up to and including the 1967 revolt.

You’re operating under the assumption that more people would’ve died, we have data on locations both in this country and internationally that nothing would’ve changed

If you didn’t die, then you wouldn’t have died if we did nothing genius.