Jeremy M. Barker

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 16:19:53 -0800

You know, it's funny--this issue of noise outside bars and clubs explodes once cities ban smoking. Unfortunately here in this state, the state law has it's stupid 25-foot rule. Now, I'm not trying to thrust smokers in everyone's way again, but technically, virtually no bar or club in Seattle has an outdoor space on its property that meets that requirement, meaning that they could be fined if they allow people to smoke on their patio or deck. The result is that drinkers are constantly leaving the bar where bar owners and bouncers have control over them to go smoke--this seems directly correlated to complaints of fighting, litter, and yelling at late hours. If the city was given the right to pass exceptions to the 25-foot rule in order to allow smoking on outdoor areas on bar premises, we wouldn't be having the same discussion we are, where the mayor wants bouncers and bar keeps to police the streets. An additional idea would be to close later. While the jury's still out, a lot of people (and this comes up not only here but in Britain, where the government is struggling with drunken hooliganism on a wide scale) believe that closing later or leaving closing up to the establishment such as in cities like New York helps address the problem. The reason is two-fold: First, large amounts of the loud Friday and Saturday night crowds show up after ten and race to drink as much as possible before 1:30 last call. The argument is that this encourages drunkeness, whereas the elimination of last call until a point so late that most people would have left of their own accord doesn't race people's alcohol consumption. Second, when people can drink more or less as late as they want, most will drift away of their own accord at various times, thus eliminating the explosive effect of dumping hundreds of drunken revellers on the street at the same time, as happens around two in Fremont or Belltown or along Pike/Pine.

Seattlest: Another Post About the Nightlife Ordinance

Jeremy M. Barker