Neighborhoods moving to block restaurants

The curse of gentrification — the loud nightlife, the pedestrian congestion — has driven community boards in the East Village, the Lower East Side, and other once-not-now-hot neighborhoods to more aggressively use their power to block or delay liquor licenses for new restaurants. The aggression is so pervasive in some neighborhoods that restaurateurs are thinking twice about trying to open in these locales. more [NYT]