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Bushwick's Surge of Liquor License Applications Prompts Extra Meetings

 Bushwick's community board will hold monthly meetings that focus only on liquor license applications.
Bushwick's community board will hold monthly meetings that focus only on liquor license applications.
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BUSHWICK — Bushwick has been so slammed with liquor license applicants that the local community board will start holding dedicated monthly meetings about the booze bids this fall, members said.

Until now, the board's public safety committee has handled liquor license applications, but now the liquor license meetings will stand on their own.

"We've been receiving applications in a great number, thus we'll hold two meetings a month," Community Board 4 chairwoman Nadine Whitted said.

Just one bar applied for a license in May, while four applied in March, seven in February and five in January.

The board has been spending an increasing amount of time handling the applications and also recently made big changes to its policies.

Earlier this year the board instituted a Sunday midnight curfew for bars, and also began sharing information about liquor licenses with the public, after the state ruled the board's lack of disclosure illegal.

"We need to address other safety issues in the community," Whitted said. "It's unfortunate we've been concentrating all our efforts on one issue."