Bottoms Up in St. Paul

Bottoms Up in St. Paul - Saint Paul is granting bars permission to stay open until 2AM, after the legislature pushed the statewide closing time back an hour during the last session.

The law is, by the way, only of theoretical impact to me; I can't remember the last time I closed down a bar. It's been years.

Bars will have to pay a three-figure fee to the DPS to stay open late, with the money (so says the DPS) being used to hire more cops.

Inevitably in Saint Paul, "Neighborhood Activists" came out to oppose the change:

Pleas from several homeowners to forbid neighborhood bars from staying open later went unheeded during the council debate. Council Member Kathy Lantry said problems with bars in residential areas should not keep law-abiding establishments from staying open later.

"This issue isn't about what time a bar closes," she said. "If we have a problem at 1 o'clock, we have a problem at 2 o'clock. So we should address the problems, regardless of what time they're happening."

Now that council members have approved later hours citywide, they must make good on their promises to combat nuisance bars, said Ramsey Hill homeowner Chris Yerkes.

"There needs to be an effective way for neighbors to get effective action from the city against bars," said Yerkes, who was among those urging the council to restrict the 2 a.m. closing to downtown and other commercial areas.

I used to work in bars - I was a nightclub DJ for three wretched years. And the biggest problem with bars is that they surge a mass of drunken people out into the parking lot (and their cars) at 1AM (or 2AM, or whenever). The following 45 minutes are an orgy of swerving cars, late-night fights, drunken people wandering neighborhoods piddling on shrubs, and cops racking up fines. if I were the dictator of Minnesota, I'd abolish the mandatory closing time. I'd let bars stay open all night, even 24/7 if they wanted. But they'd have to stop serving liquor at some point.

Posted by Mitch at July 3, 2003 10:10 AM