Hochul vows to bring back
alcohol-to-go program in NY
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
Governor Kathy Hochul
wants to reinstate the “alcohol
to-go” program that permits
restaurants and bars to
sell boozy beverages to-go, she
announced during her State of
the State address Wednesday,
Jan. 5.
The governor plans to introduce
legislation to permanently
legalize a temporary
pandemic-era measure that
let businesses sell booze from
their storefronts and for delivery
across the state, which expired
last June.
“We’re also going to do
something our bars and restaurants
have been asking for
to once again allow the sale of
to go drinks a critical revenue
stream during the lean times
last year,” Hochul said during
her address in Albany. “So
cheers New York.”
Former Governor Andrew
Cuomo allowed state liquor
license holders to sell alcohol
for off-premises consumption
in a March 2020 executive order
under New York’s Temporary
Disaster Emergency,
which expired on June 24.
COURIER L 22 IFE, JAN. 14–20, 2022
Legislators have pushed
to make the program permanent
since May 2020, but the
proposal did not progress and
faced some backlash from the
liquor store industry, reported
Gothamist.
The program was highly
popular and could once again
come to the rescue as new
variants like Omicron have
thrown off the industry’s recovery,
according to the head
of a trade group.
“These are diffi cult times
that are not letting up. The restaurant
industry is being battered
once again by another
wave of COVID-19, colder
weather restricting dining options
and widespread staffi ng
challenges,” said the president
of the New York State Restaurant
Association Melissa
Fleischut in a statement. “New
York State must fi nd ways to
support the industry and 78%
of New Yorkers want alcoholto
go to become permanent.”
The change will have to
pass the state Senate and the
Assembly, which returned
The governor is vowing to bring back to-go alcohol, a service bars like Park Slope’s High Dive opened a walkthrough
window for to boost sales in 2022. File photo
for their six month sessions
Thursday.
Hochul’s announcement
was praised by the head of the
industry group the New York
City Hospitality Alliance as
a lifeline to keep eateries and
alehouses going.
“Cheers to Governor
Hochul for announcing her
support to permanently bring
back drinks to go at restaurants
and bars,” said Andrew
Rigie in a statement. “The
drinks to go policy provides
critically important revenue
streams to struggling restaurants
and bars and is extraordinarily
popular with the public,
unsurprisingly.”
“We commend Governor
Hochul for her leadership, and
we look forward to toasting
her administration and the
state legislature once this important
policy is reinstated,”
Rigie added.
BY AIDAN GRAHAM
Several branches of the
Brooklyn Public Library have
closed amid widespread staffing
shortages, leaving the borough’s
bookworms with fewer
options to check out their favorite
literary titles.
Due to COVID-related staff
shortages, some BPL locations
may not open or have altered
hours of service. Please check
the location map for current
hours and status before visiting
our branches. https://t.co/
T8cQS2BAcK
— BKLYN Library (@
BKLYNlibrary) January 10,
2022
Of the library system’s
58 branches around Kings
County, 10 are completely
shuttered for a lack of present
employees, and one has seen
signifi cant reductions in services.
The 10 book emporiums
closed due to staff shortages
are:
The Bay Ridge Library
The Canarsie Library
The Clarendon Library
The Cortelyou Library
The Fort Hamilton Library
The Homecrest Library
The Leonard Library
The Midwood Library
The Red Hook Library
The Sheepshead Bay Library
An additional handful of
branches are closed as well for
other reasons, such as renovations.
The closures come as the
Omicron variant of COVID-19
continues to rage across the
city, causing signifi cant staffing
problems for businesses
and government entities to
fi nd enough workers.
The Five Boroughs have
seen an average of 30,449 new
COVID cases each day for the
past seven days, including
8,956 per day in Brooklyn, according
to city data — setting
a new record, since testing became
widely available.
Hospitalizations, however,
are lower than previous
pre-vaccine numbers, as 514
people are being hospitalized
each day in New York City, including
152 in Brooklyn.
Those looking to check out
a book, or utilize one of the library’s
many other services
can head to a nearby, stillopen
branch, or check here to
fi nd more information about
Bottoms up
Brooklyn Public Library shutters
10 branches amid staff shortages
BROOKLYN
Closing the book
A map shows the library branches that are open (green) and closed
(grey). Brooklyn Public Library
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