Bob CollinsHow to stop the chaos of bar closing time in Minneapolis? Maybe it’s music, the Star Tribune says.
It reports a proposal at City Hall would let some businesses keep offering entertainment after the booze stops flowing at 2 a.m.
The theory is it would prevent the en masse exodus into the streets, which often results in alcohol- and testosterone-fueled violence.
But the Strib says there’s a problem: Businesses don’t want to do it.
Just a dozen businesses already have the licenses that would be impacted by the change, and most of them aren’t downtown. The downtown list features the Saloon, Downtown Cabaret and Pizza Luce.
Council Member Lisa Goodman, whose ward covers part of downtown, was not convinced the list would grow much longer by allowing expanded entertainment. There would be a cost, after all, of keeping the entertainment and kitchen staff longer, she said.
“This is a problem that requires a bigger solution,” Goodman said during a recent committee meeting. “Two or three more places offering food is not going to so dramatically stagger the times that everybody’s not going to be on the street at that same time.”
Just staying opening to serve food doesn’t work.
“We have done a few experimental runs with it and it’s been totally unsuccessful,” Saloon co-owner Jim Anderson tells the paper. “People are pretty well trained to leave at a certain point in time. You can stay open, but nobody’s going to stay open with you.”
