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Attitudes about drinking are changing, for the worse, bar owner says

Less respect, fueled by more competition

A long-time Mankato bar owner says competition drove them to offer specials, but the drinkers have less respect for police, property and owners.

2008-01-24
By Dan Nienaber, Free Press staff writer [third in a series published in The Free Press, Mankato, MN, 1/22/2008]

With 45 years of being in the bar business under his belt, Ron Doty can count on one hand the number of times he’s faced a lawsuit.

It takes just one finger to count the times his insurance company actually had to pay anyone anything. It was that 2004 threat of legal action, though, which resulted in a settlement before any legal paperwork was filed, that played a role in his decision to sell T.J. Finnegan’s Pub a few years early.

“It wasn’t on a drink special night, but it was one of those birthday things where people were going out for their birthday and drinking way more than they should,” he said, adding that he realized then he no longer had the control over his bar he once did. “I wasn’t in control of my own destiny. It got to the point where I didn’t like being a part of it anymore.”

Doty has been in the bar business since 1971, when he bought the former Pappy’s Bar. He changed the name of the bar to the Hurdy Gurdy Saloon in 1973 and drew large crowds by catering to college students.

Many things have changed in the bar business since then, he said. The popularity of live rock bands has fizzled, disco dancing came and went, and the consistent draw of a good comedian isn’t what it used to be. But one of the biggest changes Doty noticed during the past decade or so was the growing lack of respect he was getting from the customers he’s been serving on a nightly basis.

There are too many young people who don’t respect bar owners, bar employees, the potential dangers of the liquor they’re consuming or the police officers who eventually have to deal with them when they’ve finally pushed the limits, Doty said.

“The majority of the people want to have a couple drinks and have a good time,” he said. “But there are a certain number who are just out to get drunk. They’ve always been there, but it’s a crowd that seems to be growing.”

Doty isn’t the only person who has noticed the change.

“There does seem to be a righteous attitude from some students, an attitude that they have a right to drink,” said Wendy Schuh, Minnesota State University assistant director of student health services.

The university is working to change that by changing the perception of some students that you have to drink to have fun. She said statistics show it to be working because more students are choosing to not drink at all, or drink responsibly if they do occasionally choose to use alcohol. But statistics also show the relatively small number of students who are high-risk drinkers also has been growing for several years.

College students between the ages of 18 and 24 are more likely to drink than other young people in the same age group, according to national statistics, Schuh added. She said that might have something to do with the fact college students tend to be around people of the same age group more often, and they have more opportunity to drink than young people with full-time jobs and, possibly, a family to feed.

Heavy drinking has contributed to a late-night downtown atmosphere that has become a strain for the Mankato Police Department. Deputy Director of Public Safety Matt Westermayer has estimated it costs the city about $75,000 annually to provide the extra patrols needed to control downtown partiers during bar hours, then disperse the crowds of young people after bars close at 2 a.m.

The cost of late-night patrols is minimal to the overall costs of high-risk drinking, Westermayer said. It doesn’t include the costs of the many trips made to detoxification centers or a hospital emergency room, the property damage done by drunks during a busy night downtown, or treatment costs for those who eventually decide they need help to quit drinking.

“I think it would just be incredibly shocking to see the total cost if you sat down and figured in everything,” Westermayer said. “It’s a community problem, a societal problem, and we bear a large share of those hands-on costs.”

Doty said there seemed to be a notable change in the drinking behavior of young people who were coming downtown in the middle 1990s. That’s when other bar owners started offering drinks at a deep discount. The practice evolved into the all-you-can-drink specials that were eventually outlawed by the city.

Doty said he avoided offering those specials until 2001. He only started offering a “cup night” then to remain competitive with other downtown bars. He charged a dollar more per cup than the going rate but extended the special an hour hoping to keep customers from thinking they had to drink a lot in a short period of time to get their money’s worth.

“I didn’t think it was good for me, I didn’t think it was good for the clientele,” he said. “But competition was to the point that I couldn’t get anybody to come in if I didn’t do the same thing everybody else was doing — and do it in our fashion. It got to the point where six nights a week you could go out and find a drink special.”

That was the wrong message to be sending college students, Doty said. Together, the downtown bars were basically telling students they could drop their homework and other activities any night of the week to go get loaded with a small amount of cash.

City leaders should take some responsibility for the increase in alcohol-related problems downtown as well, Doty said, because of the “entertainment district” that has evolved around the city-owned civic center.

He sees a situation where bar owners are forced to compete solely on the price of their drinks because people can bounce from bar to bar looking for who has the best drink special. If a bar tries to draw customers in with a band, people won’t pay the cover charge. If the cover charge is waived, they’ll drink somewhere else before coming in to watch the band.

When Doty left the bar business in South Dakota and started doing business downtown in 1971, there were 19 bars and service clubs in all of Mankato, he said. Now there are that many businesses serving liquor in the immediate downtown area, and more have recently acquired liquor licenses.

The long-term plan for the city is to create a downtown entertainment district that isn’t focused on bars alone, said City Manager Pat Hentges. Incentives already have been provided to businesses offering upscale dining options and second-run movies. An arts center is taking shape in a former downtown church, anchored by the main offices for the Twin Rivers Center for the Arts.

Hentges said high-risk drinking by young people is a nationwide problem, so the problem isn’t exclusive to downtown Mankato. But Doty also pointed out that serious alcohol-related problems seem to be more prevalent in college towns with bar districts, such as LaCrosse and Madison, Wis., Ames, Iowa, and St. Cloud.

There are downtown bars that have remained competitive without focusing on drawing large crowds of heavy-drinking, late-night college-age customers, Hentges said. Lunch and dinner menus at Blue Bricks and Pub 500 bring in as many people looking for a meal throughout the day and evening as people looking for drink specials late at night.

The city’s overall plan is to create a strong daytime business atmosphere downtown so businesses serving both food and liquor don’t have to depend on late-night bar activity to stay in business. Retail businesses help, but that goal also can be reached with a variety of service businesses that also bring employees and customers downtown during the day, Hentges said.

“I think there are a few bars that have focused on cheap drinks and the 11 o’clock rush,” Hentges said. “But there are some other people who have put a major investment into their business and are looking for a more diverse crowd. They’re not in drink-special mode and they’ve done well.”

Any bars receiving a new liquor license for a downtown location will be required to garner a minimum of 40 percent of their income from food, according to new liquor license regulations recently adopted by the city. They will be required to have their liquor and food receipts validated annually by a certified public accountant.

Hentges also has seen the attitude some young people have about their “right” to go downtown and drink heavily at night — with little concern about the cost or consequences.

During one City Council meeting in October, more than a few Minnesota State University students turned out to protest the city’s move to regulate drink specials through liquor licenses. It was their right to enjoy drink specials and the bar owners’ right to offer them, the students told the council.

“This isn’t a matter of rights, this is a matter of responsibility,” Hentges said. “The city has a responsibility to do what’s right, bars have a responsibility to serve responsibly, and drinkers have a responsibility to drink responsibly. This isn’t, ‘my right,’ it’s about responsibility all across the board.”

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