Posts about Bars

Closing time: A DC Council committee rejected longer bar hours in favor of a higher alcohol tax in order to raise revenue. The longer hours could come back into the bill later this month. (Post) (Comment)

Where the bars are: Ward 2 leads DC with 40% of all liquor licences, followed by Wards 1 and 6. ANC 2B near Dupont Circle has more liquor licenses than than five of the city's wards. (borderstan) (Comment)

Buy your own communion wine: If DC allowed alcohol to be sold on Sunday, it would bring in $710,000 to the city. Councilmember Graham proposed it as an alternative revenue source in place of keeping bars open until 4am. (Post) (Comment)

Last call: Even if Mayor Vince Gray succeeds in extending bar hours, 20% of bars would not be able to stay open later thanks to existing voluntary agreements. While this might ease community opposition, it will also limit extra tax revenue. (Post) (Comment)

The condo paradox: Following up on the U Street noise debate, Rob Pitingolo points out that many younger residents want to live in neighborhoods with bars, but generally lack enough savings or long-term job stability to buy a condo. Paradoxically, thanks to the greater developer profits on condos, new buildings right on nightlife streets like U Street are mostly condos rather than the rental apartments that many people who want to live right on U Street might be able to afford. (Extraordinary Observations) (Comment)

The people I used to be are ruining my neighborhood!: Some people on U Street are worrying about rising noise. Richard Layman points out the irony (scroll to the second half of his post) that often, people move to a neighborhood for its lively activity and bars, then get older, stop going to the bars, and start fighting against the same things they liked when they moved there in the first place. That said, I think it's fair for residents to specifically oppose outdoor bars with late hours. Bar patrons can go inside after a certain hour. (Post) (Comment)

Development

How does the drinking age affect community?

by David Alpert • August 19, 2008 3:18 pm

UMD College Park President C.D. Mote Jr. has joined the growing chorus of college presidents who support returning the drinking age to 18, DCist reports. I agree with this, both because it's rational public policy (it will probably reduce binge drinking) and because having an arbitrary line you cross in the middle of college (rather than before or after) is silly and unfair.

Photo by tupton on Flickr.

More relevant to this blog, though, I wonder what effect a change would have on our neighborhoods near residential colleges, like Foggy Bottom/West End, Georgetown, eastern Columbia Heights, or AU Park/Tenleytown. We've discussed how the West End lacks a strong sense of community, though that's clearly not a problem in Georgetown.

If students could legally drink, they'd probably patronize more bars near their campuses. Besides the inevitable tensions with neighbors, might it also lead to more participation in the community as a whole? Or, perhaps if neighborhood retail strips are flooded with students, it would drive others away and harm community? Or, since there are already lots of students who want to go to bars, would it not change much at all?