Man, you’ve got to love the Early Voting system! Rather than fight the lines on Election Day, I was able to swing in during my lunch hour last week and registered my ballot within 5 minutes.
I thought it worth sharing some of my choices here, as Twitter & Facebook aren’t really great platforms for opening up such a discussion. As long as folks keep the commentary respectful, there’s much more room here to flesh out thoughts rather than fight the confines of a 140-character message.
This year, voters can decide on a referendum to allow packaged liquor sales here in Nolensville, basically allowing the creation of a wine & liquor store to serve our small but growing town. Right now, if you want to grab a bottle of wine you’ve got a 15-minute drive to the east, west or north to find the nearest store. So why not let that business stay here in Nolensville?
In what was the easiest decision to make on my ballot, I cast an emphatic YES on this one. It’s not like I’m a big drinker (I might have one or two drinks a month these days), but to my mind there are only two common arguments against this measure, neither of which hold water:
1 – Small Town Character
Some folks want to preserve the old-fashioned, small-town feel of Nolensville, and see a wine/liquor store as a step towards turning this into just another suburb. To that I’d say that growth is coming regardless of whether we have such a store, and the important thing is that such growth is managed in a way that preserves Nolensville’s character.
Towards that end, the major developments on that front were the design standards (PDF) put in place under Mayor Beth Lothers, and the recent extension of the Metro sewer system through the old historic section of town, allowing for the properties there to be properly served and maintained, rather than decline into decay.
2 – Demon Alcohol
Others will undoubtedly object to what is seen as an endorsement of alcohol consumption here in town, but that’s a perfect example of “if you don’t like it, don’t do it”. Some will express concern about an increase in drunk driving, but a much more productive step in that direction would be to attack things like Tennessee’s absurd open container law (only the driver is not allowed to possess an open container of alcohol in a car, so if you get pulled over, just pass your drink!) or the prevalence of gas stations which have tubs of ice and single beers ready for sale right next to the counter as you pay for gas.
Those instances are a far cry from being able to pick up a bottle of cabernet on the way home from work.
Hoist a Glass For Your Town!
As Nolensville’s population continues to grow, it’s important that we do our best to provide business opportunities so that residents can both spend and work locally. It’s a virtuous cycle in which residential and commercial growth can complement each other, and opening a nice, high quality wine & liquor store will be a tremendous boost to our community.
Next stop, getting wine in grocery stores! But hey, we’ve got to get a real grocery store back in town, first. A Trader Joe’s would sure look nice around here…
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A hearty A-FREAKING-MEN to that sentiment, neighbor! And I believe your argument about the growth that’s coming is perfectly valid, and is, in and of itself, reason enough for the asinine state ban on wine being sold in liquor stores to be done away with. The issue has much less to do with the will of the people than it does the hand that the state legislature has had the pockets of the Tennessee Wine & Spirits Retailers Association and their lobbying effort to keep things the way they are.
I might be just another trouble-makin’ yankee to that bunch, but the fact is, the ‘devil alcohol’ argument just doesn’t hold up any longer. The demographics of Nashville and all of Tennessee have changed. More than enough people have relocated here from other parts of the country where wine being sold in grocery stores isn’t an issue. Lawmakers need to wake up and realize that even though this is still the Bible Belt, it ain’t Petticoat Junction anymore.
It has nothing to do with faith, religion, or even safety; it’s all about the control and distribution money that the TWSRA will lose when the law is changed, which WILL happen, eventually.
Here’s hoping that Nolensville can help lead the rest of the state out of the dark ages.