The Mayors newsletter reports that Newton’s Licensing Commission on Monday passed a ban on the sale of alcoholic beverages by retail establishments in containers less than or equal to 100 milliliters (also known as nips), effective next June. The delay allows retailers time to sell their inventory.
I look forward to seeing whether our streets switch to being littered with (far fewer) 1/2 pint bottles or does the liquor industry take a page out of the tobacco industry’s play book and come out with 101 milliliter nip bottles.
The City Council is very good at banning consumer products. Not so good at addressing the issues that really matter in Newton. There was a time when a city-wide rat infestation would have gotten the full attention of this board. But it’s so much easier to ban shopping bags and nip bottles, than it is to tackle real problems.
None of us like the litter caused by nips. But does anyone not believe this will only drive sales away from our local merchants to neighboring communities, with many little bottles still ending up on our streets and parks anyway?
As with so many of these things, we need statewide solutions, not local ordnances that mainly harm our local business owners. There’s two pending state proposals, including one from Sen. Cindy Creem, that would be a better and fairer solution.
Sen. Creem’s bill would add nips and other containers to the bottle bill and increase the deposit from 5c to 10c per container.
The problem I have with this proposal is that even with a deposit, nips are not recyclable. So even with the deposit they would be trash.
Secondly, there was a statewide referendum on expanding the bottle bill back in 2014 which failed by a wide margin, fueled by a massive spending campaign by the business community. It’s really rich to hear from that same business community that the solution to this problem now is to expand a law that they have staunchly opposed from the beginning.
Here’s a link to a Globe article about the bill that Greg refers to.
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2021/09/28/massachusetts-bottle-bill-nips-deposits/
In fact I would suspect that if this proposal were to pass into law (unlikely), the very next thing that would happen is that businesses would begin a referendum campaign to repeal it.
Whatever. If businesses were interested in solving this problem they would have tried to be part of the solution before now. Instead, they have been the main obstacle.
My fear is that people will just buy the next size up, and because there drinking and driving they will throw those empties out.
So what we will end up with is people driving while more drunk,and more deaths.
If you want to stop the litter problem but a 50 cent deposit on nips .
Greg, there is a piece of MA Legislation H. 869 by Rep. Michelle Ciccolo that would do exactly that, regulate nips at the state level. Hoping MA residents will support that bill in 2022 to eliminate some of the top littered items from our streets and waterways. With respect.
Greg – These are overwhelmingly being consumed by underage drinkers and provided to them illegally. That’s why they’re being consumed (and then throw away) in parks. We wouldn’t be talking about this litter problem if people were consuming them at home. If the liquor store industry (one of the most powerful lobbies in the state) depends on those sales to straw purchasers and people with fake IDs, say so.
Humphrey, can you cite your source on underage overwhelmingly drinking them in parks?
Or, like everything else, are you just speaking out of your Humphrey?
The City Council didn’t have anything to do with this issue, Mike. We don’t control the Licensing Commission. Moreover, we have indeed had our full attention on the rats issue and had vigorous discussions and presentations on it in Council Committee meetings.
Also in the newsletter: Fuller announced the return of the overnight parking ban. For God’s sake, just be done with it. For all the “progressive” chatter that comes from our council -YIMBYism, equity…let’s see them make a real change for people in Newton who have lower income brackets and can’t park their car in front of their home. We have the technology to alert people. It worked fine last year.
Great point. Much of the
City Council (Humphrey, Bowman, Noel, Baker) don’t really care about anything but themselves.
They do a great job pretending, though. The overnight parking ban doesn’t have enough juice on their people for them to care. Notice how they’re all about diversity, and yelling questioning everyone else’s racial makeup, but then supported the white guy over Tarik Lucas. “We need more people of color.— “no, he’s not our type of black guy”
“The overnight parking ban doesn’t have enough juice on their people for them to care.”
Nope! We essentially have a poor tax in place. It’s an equity issue.
Yes it is. Exactly my point. Humphrey, Noel, and Bowman rich kid crew don’t care, it’s not a hit issue on Twitter.
I’ve tweeted about it 5 times in the last 2 years and discussed it in 4 separate newsletters. I discuss it with people all the time when going door-to-door.
Incidentally, it’s novel for me to be described as a “rich kid.” Not everyone who lives here is rich, as many of the comments above on the parking ban are quick to note. I’m fairly well known for my policy and political focus on serving the needs of the non-rich (indeed very poor) population of Newton. This stems from the fact that I didn’t grow up rich and never have been. Always a treat to read about people’s wild imaginations about me online.
@ Bill, Then why not propose an official change to the overnight parking ban? It quite literally is a restriction that hits people who do not live in single family homes the hardest. I am willing to believe you that you support eliminating the ban, now lets see you on the record proposing an official change. Please and thank you.
MMQC-
I was thinking the same thing- we aren’t in the dark ages where we have NO idea about incoming snow. Unless there’s some secret road cleaning I’ve never heard of happening in the dead of night (ha!) there’s just no good reason to maintain the winter parking ban. And the ban is always superseded anyway when we get a bad storm so not sure I see the point of it.
Exactly! We get robocalls, emails, and texts during snow emergencies to remove our cars from the street. There’s nothing magic about only having one hour parking from 2-6 AM.
This week we literally had a neighbor park ON OUR LAWN to avoid an overnight parking ticket. I think they were hoping to avoid a ticket and thinking they’d move the car early and hoping we wouldn’t notice. And I sympathize, because we do the overnight parking ban shuffle and have done it for over 15 years. @Bill, I know you are a councilor of progressive values, so I hope we have an ally and an advocate in you on this matter.
Great point. Can the City of Newton actually justify the need for a Winter Overnight Parking Ban, outside of Snow Emergencies (or narrow roadways with a deep snowpack) and the occasional (almost never announced) street cleaning?
This is exactly what the city could and should be doing here. It’s not difficult.
Technology to alert people works fine, if people are able to respond to it in a timely manner—but that’s not guaranteed.
Sometimes folks go out of town and leave their cars at home. Or they are otherwise unavailable (working, hospitalized, whatever) to shuffle cars around on an hour’s notice.
I would guess that if the ban weren’t in place, folks who had the option to park on the street would do that, and there would certainly be folks who couldn’t move on short notice.
I do think the city should actually start towing people who don’t move their cars during a snow emergency FWIW.
Garry-good points. Someone is always the first to start a new program and if Newton’s ban inspires other towns or the State to adopt a similar ban or add the nips to the recycle program, than progress will be made. Thank you.
MMQC: hear, hear!
However, we need to get our city councillors on board with rescinding the overnight parking ban, as it can’t be done by executive fiat.
I vaguely remember that Andrea Kelley and Emily Norton had been working on this as well as former councilors Barbara Brousal Glaser and Jim Cote. Maybe with the ban back in place this can be brought back in the spotlight.
For 7 of the last 8 years, I’ve been scooping up the nip bottles on the grassy knoll at the Newton entrance to Hemlock Gorge on Ellis Street during our spring and fall cleanup programs of the entire reservation. I’ve averaged around 50 empty nip bottles, but there was one time when I picked up close to 100 of the little critters. This past year was a washout because another civic group beat me to the punch with a cleanup the week before our scheduled turn. Still, I have another two shots coming up in 2022 and it will be interesting to see if there is any sharp decline in the number of nip bottles because of a ban coming from Newton. I suspect that adults or young guys with cars are the main culprits because almost all the nips are dropped pretty close to the roadway. I’ve found almost none further in from Ellis Street and none in the vicinity of the recently renovated sluice water control bypass.
“Two shots.” I see what you did there, Bob!
That said, I’m interested to hear from you and others what you see in the months after a ban takes effect.
I’m also pretty certain that a goodly number of nip bottles I’ve picked up over the years were tossed by people who, for whatever reason, were drinking alone and didn’t want others to know they were doing it. Flipping them onto the reservation washes away the evidence and perhaps subconsciously the guilt as well. These folks aren’t likely to hold the empties till they can collect a refund on the deposit. No, it’s more like out of sight, out of mind. I’ll change my mind on this if I start seeing empty fifths of Jack Daniels or other high priced brands at hemlock Gorge. Full caveat on whatever I say. I’ve never purchased or imbibed a nip.
I agree with Bob. From my anecdotal evidence around my neighborhood it would appear that the majority of nip bottles are from sneaking adult drinkers, drinking alone in cars, rather than underage drinkers.
Underage drinkers in more secluded spots do indeed leave behind trash as evidence, but not typically nip bottles – much more often beer cans.
Bob’s musings on this issue suggest a whole new field of possible study. I think we should dub it “Sociorefusology” – the study of the development, structure, and functioning of human society via the crap people leave behind 😉
It’s very clear from where nips are found that they are thrown out of moving cars.
@Jerry. There’s got to be a grant out there we can apply for starting with a pilot program during the spring cleanup at Hemlock Gorge. First local, then statewide and onto national and international. I’m not making light of this because anyone who is tossing nips out of a car to keep things secret is probably a very unhappy and lonely person. Not fun.
They’re also (obviously) drinking while driving and likely DUI (driving under the influence). I spent years on projects to figure out how to effectively mitigate DUI. (But that was quite some time before nips.) The simple solution seems to be to make nip sales illegal. Enforcement is another matter.
as i take my daily walk
around west newton
i”ve noticed
cars zooming down lexington st
from waltham
turning onto river st
and throwing nips out the window
plus assorted trash
so you would have to tell the powers to be in waltham
to also put a ban on nips
to do any good!!!!
I knew it!
Yes, in our neighborhood it’s those people coming off Rt 9 East from Wellesley. Don’t get me started on the Needhamites, the Dedham’ers,the Brookliners, and the Brightonians too. We’re surrounded by nip swilling neighbors.
That said our Newton neighbors can certainly hold their own in any nip swilling match with our suburban neighbors 😉
BTW Joe, I loved the formatting on your comment. It read like a free verse poem.
@Jerry
Nips have never been available for retail sale in Wellesley!
The town was completely dry until about 10 years ago, now it’s just beer and (fine) wine.
My apologies for tarring my Wellesley neighbors with nippiness.
Perhaps those eastbound nip throwers were returning Newtonians … Or Natick nipsters 😉
Haiku in honor of @Joe
The nips are falling.
Empty dream vessels flying
Bounce bounce bounce now rest
It may not be relevant, but the town of Dover was always proud that they refused to permit “liquor stores”, but it did allow the sale of alcohol in the town’s only drug store for “medicinal purposes” only. That said, you didn’t need a doctor’s prescription for any alcohol in the store and the store’s inventory looked pretty similar to what you’d find in a typical liquor store.
Nip bottles are like being out after 2am, “nothing good can happen while out after 2am.”
As for winter parking bans…I’m torn on the issue. Is it needed when there is not a snow emergency declared? Perhaps not.
At the same time, while Newton’s elected pats themselves on the back for pushing for a lower ratio of parking per developments approved, it only means these people will all park on the streets. Managing street parking and ticketing is the only way to keep developers from profiting from Newton’s wokeness.
….yet the ban is only for 4 months out of the year.
Those of us affected shuffle our cars around, use municipal lots, make arrangements with friends or local businesses, or rent spots for 4 months out of the year.
Your argument has nothing to do with weather like the ban claims to be about. Your argument has to do with development.
Truly the ban exists to create revenue for the city….off people who can afford it the least.
@MMQC – for the record I am neither for nor against the ban. So long as ppl remove their cars for snow emergencies so the plows can get thru, not sure if a seasonal ban is even needed. That said, yes I have concerns related to development and parking.
That said, I’ve always been curious about something… as a kid growing up in Brookline, I am fully aware of the cons of an overnight parking ban. While we did not have a driveway, we lived on a dead end street that was somehow exempt. Occasionally we had a neighboring interloper that parked on our street. Other friends has to rent monthly spaces. My cousins who live nearby had a large driveway and rented out some spaces.
I always vowed, “when I grow up” I’m never buying a place without parking! Newton’s parking ban is inconvenient if not detrimental to many. I get it! But hasn’t it also been around forever?
Sort of. Until about 6 years ago, the fine was only $5 and seldom enforced. Then it went up to $25 and became regularly enforced. This happened around the same time as surrounding communities did away with their bans.
Since this is a “nips” post I’ll keep this last comment in this separate thread:
in the Mayor’s last email, she invited residents to weigh in on the winter parking ban, and copy the Councilors. I did just that (as I do every dang year).
In past email exchanges, I have gotten positive responses from Mayor Fuller and Councilors Kelley and Norton in particular supporting a lift of the ban (frustrating to note that in Councilor Norton’s latest email, she now favors keeping the ban).
The addresses are (and I only post email addresses as they are public Newtonma.gov emails):
[email protected]
[email protected]
(ETA: Last I saw one, a ticket for blocking plows was $20. That’s $5 less than the ticket for parking during any night of the ban)
@Doug
Surprise, surprise. Emily Norton magically supports the ban now that she can tie it into her anti-development stances. Her opposition is nothing about weather or snow removal.
I typically see nips scattered under the Riverside Station bridge on the sidewalk throughout warm-weather months (April – October) when I frequently hop the Green Line. Then turn a few feet to the right to the main sidewalk entry to Riverside to see numerous beer bottles and beer cans and litter and Dunkin cups tossed on both sides of the lawn. Some things never change as I’ve seen that litter the two decades living in the neighborhood. So, two years ago I contacted two superb staffers at the MBTA via e-mail. Trash can placed in that area. And overgrowth of bushes and vines and small trees cleared away. Talking up unsightly trash is one thing. Acting to end or contain it all is another.
Likewise, 200 volunteers of The Esplanade gather every Autumn and Spring to pick up all manner of trash and garbage including car tires and worse to keep clean a gem of an urban oasis in Boston. I know several of the volunteers and they never clamor for a ban on nips or plastic bags or plastic straws or anything. They recognize they’ve bigger fish to fry and pick their battles accordingly. Tree pruning and cut-downs along with tree replanting are a big focus for them. Their earnest efforts make for a clean and welcoming vast outdoor park to enjoy!
Since the pandemic, I see more facemasks than nips or beer cans/bottles/Dunkin’ cups. I loathe seeing facemasks on the ground! And that item occurs EVERYWHERE! No street or sidewalk or neighborhood is immune from facemask littering. Perhaps littering of facemasks commands a fee as such items could contain a deadly disease.
For years, I’ve reminded City Councilors and a few Mayors to ‘hang your hats’ on substantive issues impacting thousands of homeowners in Newton: PROPERTY. TAX. RELIEF. Drumming the beat to exclude plastic straws, plastic bags, nips, and various litter fail to meet the all-out alarmist bell that exorbitant property taxes do.
Peace.
People who live in Newton will buy their nip bottles in neighboring towns. They will bring them home to Newton, consume them here and dispose of them here. This law is unfair to the businesses in Newton. The entire city council is very short sighted when drafting this law. Rescind it before everyone sees the ridiculous results.
While the restriction may or may not prove effective, I don’t know what “ridiculous results” might ensue.
Mike, have you spoken to owners of stores who sell nips? Several say 40% of their sales are nips. If this law causes anyone to lose revenue then this would be a ridiculous result.
How about banning masks? I see far more masks in parking lots, on streets, sidewalks and in carriages than I do nips.
Nips are overwhelming consumed by people addicted to alcohol to get them through the day.
Overnight parking hits people without driveways. Less affluent then fellow citizens who have places to park.
This isn’t rocket science folks.
The Winter parking ban is an old remnant of the days when people couldn’t see instant weather, and we had no way of alerting residents about snow emergencies. As your former City Councilor, I worked with many to eliminate the ban, and we succeeded somewhat, but only in shortening the time by about one month. Councilor Kelley, representing West Newton, has been pushing for this change to happen even if on a trial basis. Though last winter, with the ban suspended, created a great trial program as there were no unsurmountable complaints about street parking interrupting clean-up operations.
The previous naysayers were the Councilors in the Wards that have college campuses, note Boston College and Lasell University. They conveniently use the parking ban to keep college students from having cars on campus and using the streets. Now the Anti-groups against outsiders, use the ban as some weird science about preventing development. Meanwhile those that don’t use off street parking simply cannot relate to those that need the parking. Think elderly and accessibility reasons, and try being nice to your neighbors!!
That’s exactly what it’s turning into. Emily Norton had been advocating for the removal of the ban for years and called it a poor tax until she realized she could tie it into her anti-development beliefs. Then she did an about face. It’s sad.
Got a message from Andreae Downs last week saying essentially the same thing. Apples and oranges issues. Beyond disappointing.
About masks, please remember to make a cut in the loops before discarding yours. It will prevent birds and other animals to be trapped and choke.