For those who frequent the downtown area on weekends, it is a familiar sight at around 2 a.m. The doors are flung wide on all the bars in the LoDo area as patrons spill out of the bursting establishments. Nearly everyone is desperately searching for a cab or racing towards the last light rail, which departs Union Station at 2:12 a.m. In some situations, the sudden, mass influx of so many people, typically who have all been consuming alcohol, results in violence. The new bill HB-1132, currently being introduced in the legislature by Representative Crisanta Duran (D-Denver), proposes that bars should be allowed to serve alcohol up until 7 a.m. to curb the mass exodus from LoDo and prevent violence.
Recent violence in the LoDo area post-bar closures is significantly on the rise. In addition to one death in the summer of 2013, this past New Years Eve saw a few bouts of fighting that sent several people to the hospital. By allowing bars a more flexible closing time, the bill hopes to see bars closing at a variety of different times, so there are not as many people on the streets simultaneously.
This absolutely seems like a good idea for the prevention of violence, but there must also be several other changes to coincide with a 7 a.m. closing time. Public transportation hours would obviously need to be extended. These light rail and bus hour changes will work to prevent drunk driving, so patrons have a guaranteed ride home. In order to curb excessive expenses in public transportation, the city could do several things. Denver could immediately up the prices of monthly and yearly passes, in addition to individual ticket prices. Another idea would be keeping all prices relatively the same, but instead require a specific ticket for all rides between the hours of 2 and 7 a.m. Those who already have annual passes would have to add on an annual nightly pass or purchase individual night tickets.
Some other considerations must be taken into account, such as the profit that can be made by such extended hours. It is very likely that most bars will not really see an increase in patrons during the week, so it may make more sense for each individual bar to decide on their hours during the week versus on the weekend. Since extended bars times will probably mean an increase in police officers or other governmental forces at later hours where they are usually not needed, the bars that choose to extend their hours for profit might have to pay some sort of “extra hours tax”. Some bars will probably not want to have extra hours during the tax if they are not sure if they will make more money, so the Denver government should allow a week or two trial period for the bars to ascertain if they want extra hours or not.
Once all considerations are brought forth, the HB-1132 bill and some modifications can only be seen as a safer and better option than anything that is being done currently. Many different sides of the government seem to support this concept now, but only time will tell if the bill passes. For now, the local bar-goers will be forced to go to bed at the mere hour of 2 a.m.
