Some towns and villages in New York towns state still have their post-Prohibition bans on alcohol sales… but they may be forced to lift such restrictions under a bill moving through the state legislature.
The bill would strike down a 1934 law allowing towns and cities to stay dry after Prohibition. It advanced out of committee last week, and it goes up for a vote in the state Senate.
Many U.S. communities have banned or restricted alcohol sales. Kentucky is known for its patchwork of alcohol laws, and 675 jurisdictions in Pennsylvania have some degree of restriction.
According to the New York State Liquor Authority, only seven communities in the Empire State have complete booze bans. The largest, Caneadea, in western New York, has about 2,000 residents.
The bill’s sponsor argues that it will save residents of dry counties from buying booze elsewhere.
“This ain’t the Prohibition era any longer. We live in New York in 2024, and this thing is kind of silly,” state Sen. James Skoufis, a Democrat, said according to the Associated Press.
Not everyone is on board.
Philip G. Stockin, Caneadea’s deputy town supervisor, cited alcohol abuse as a concern about the bill.
“It gets frustrating when the state hands down mandates, it takes more and more control away from the locals,” Stockin said.
“I can tell you just because the town is dry, the people in there are not,” one bar owner, just outside the dry town of Orwell, told the Associated Press. “A lot of people have talked about how they wish Orwell wasn’t a dry town because it would be one more spot to put a little pub or bar.”
The Associated Press contributed to this article.