The Mankato City Council is contemplating changes to the liquor licensing system that seek to thread the needle between alcohol dispensers and consumers on one side, and neighborhood sensibilities on the other. The goal is to successfully maneuver between bar owners, who chafe at attempts by the city to tinker with their business practices, and with the city’s responsibility to protect public interests.
Alcoholic beverages can be abused, and that is where the city’s options to ban all-you-can-drink specials bear further scrutiny. In Mankato, police have to respond to ever more alcohol-related incidents, and the time has arrived for action to soothe neighborhood concerns, limit the time and expense associated with crimes and nuisances, and finally, to reiterate that binge drinking is irresponsible.
All-you-can-drink specials enable binge drinkers to abuse the drug, and it is proper for the city to consider an appropriate response. It may indeed be time to halt the practice while continuing education efforts already in place along with stepped-up enforcement and the holding of bars to an uncompromised standard.
Bars ought to be free to compete for business, so the city should consider a compromise on proposals to ban all specials after 9 p.m. There remains room for discussion on when drink specials should stop and start; the city remains committed to allowing special pricing to occur. Under the existing city-bar agreement, happy hour stops at midnight. The proposed new ordinance would stop it at 9 p.m., but there is room for some compromise.
City Manager Pat Hentges summed it up well when he told The Free Press on Tuesday, “Pricing is one issue. The manner at which drinks are served is another.”
A ban on all-you-can-drink specials appears very likely. The city believes the practice leads to over-serving. But eliminating the specials shouldn’t be considered a special burden to bars — a ban alone does not stall bars’ ability to compete if applied across the board.
Any revision to the liquor code will not end binge drinking by itself, or the challenges faced by the city with alcohol abuse. At Monday’s public hearing, some critics of the city’s latest proposals said that a ban would merely move the problem underground to party houses, thereby causing even more frustrations for downtown home owners. But there is ample reason to believe city ordinances already on the books can allow the city to respond adequately. Mankato has handled that problem fairly well since party houses were a particular problem in the 1980s, and there are some city leaders who believe the threat won’t notably increase anyway.
The Mankato City Council, then, is wise to consider changes, including one which would require all bar personnel to have server training. Rewards are to be offered for bars offering a significant food investment, and those who don’t can be rewarded for proving they are acting responsibly otherwise.
The city is also determined to provide compliance checks while continuing to encourage dialogue.
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