Photo by army.arch.

Are you ready for Georgetown to become “a party scene late at night with the streets overrun with cars, parking problems and people roaming around”? Me too! Wait….what?

The Georgetown Dish tipped us off that the D.C. Council addressed a moratorium on alcohol licenses in Georgetown this morning. The Committee on Public Works and Transportation has suggested extending the ban, which has existed for for over two decades, for another five years. This stretches beyond the three-year moratorium that the city’s Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration recommended — and it seems that everyone in the neighborhood, with or without clout, is on board.

While ANC Commissioners Tom Birch and Bill Starrels are striving to create a balance of businesses and not just a thriving party scene, markets often speak for themselves — and in a time of unemployment and economic downturn, this may not be wisest move. Denying a singular type of business is blatant NIMBYism— especially in an area that has potential for much more than just college-themed dens of iniquity. The Alcoholic Beverage Control committee would be beter served by focusing on building a open dialog and relationship with neighborhood restaurants and pubs in order to address the issue of “kiddie bars” and not alienate potenial business from the area. Short of the exploding manhole covers actually being CHUDS working on the secret underground Georgetown Metro stop, it’s not like the congestion and “roaming people” that is rampant through Georgetown is going to go away with or without the moratorium.