Dan Savage has a piece over on Slog that really piqued my liver! Seattle’s city attorney has agreed to study—just study, mind you—the idea of granting 24-hour liquor licenses to bars and clubs in Seattle. READ:

The Seattle Nightlife and Music Association (SNMA) has, according to local promoter and SNMA member David Meinert, approached the Washington State Liquor Control Board (WSLCB) in the past about extending and staggering bar closing times. “Their attitude seems to be they don’t care what that time [bars and clubs close],” said Meinert, “so long as the city supports it.”

Bar closing times are a rule set by the LCB, not by the legislature.

Later closing time for some bars would paradoxically mean more nightlife—something [city attorney] Holmes and [new mayor] McGinn said they were in favor of during their campaign—while lessening nightlife’s negative impact. “The 2 AM closing time can be a noise issue,” says Meinert. “There’s one bulk pushout,” and the streets fill as the bars all empty at once. “And a 2 AM closing time encourages binging. And it can be hard to get a cab at 2 AM, when demand spikes, and that can encourage drunk driving.”

Obviously this idea has a loooooong way to go and many rivers to cross before becoming anything close to reality in Seattle—HOWEVER, DON’T YOU AGREE THAT THIS IDEA WOULD ALSO BE AWESOME IN PORTLAND? Or don’t you? Pretend it’s even a possibility and answer the following question:

DO YOU THINK GRANTING SOME OR ALL OF PORTLAND BARS A 24-HOUR LIQUOR LICENSE IS A RIGHTEOUS IDEA?

Such a contentious issue! Weigh the many pros and cons in our handy comments section!

Bang bang, choo-choo train, let me see you shake that thang. Wm. Steven Humphrey is the editor-in-chief of the Portland Mercury and has held the job since 2000. (So don’t get any funny ideas.)

9 replies on “24-Hour Liquor Licenses for Portland Bars: A Beautiful Dream?”

  1. Effing maybe! There are places in this city that this would work and places it wouldn’t. I live on Stumble Alley (49th & Hawthorne) and the noise, stink, and violence that pours nightly into my nieghborhood is a real problem. I can’t imagine what it would be like if it continued all night long. It would not, however, be such a problem in a lower density area. Hell, I would join in once and a while.

  2. Isn’t the whole point that if the bars aren’t all closing at 2am there wouldn’t be a huge din of drunken assholes bombarding your neighborhood at once?

    It would continue all night but you wouldn’t notice because it a steady trickle and not a dam break.

  3. That argument does not hold up to reality. It’s not a dam break situation, it is all night, and it is VERY noticeable. A group of drunk idiots having a fist fight in front of your house is a group of drunk idiots having a fist fight in front of your house whether it’s 11pm or 2am.

  4. I’ve lived in a medium-sized city that allowed 24-hour bars on New Year’s Eve. It didn’t make finding a taxi any easier– from midnight to 5am, all the companies were booked solid.

    If anything’s going to curb drunk driving in Portland, it’s night-owl bus service. How come there’s no federal subsidies to fund something like that?

  5. Hey all – keep in mind that along with 24 hour service will come some other things. Possibly closing down streets to cars in certain neighborhoods where there is a high concentration of live music venues (so E Pike St on Capitol Hill, Ballard Ave in Ballard, 1st Ave in Pioneer Square, etc), creating a public disturbance law that would allow cops to ticket (not arrest) people being loud and disorderly on the streets at night, a new, tougher noise ordinance that along with better regulating the sound coming from clubs would also require stronger sound insulation rules in our building code, more police on foot on the street in dense neighborhoods, and possibly others.

    The larger idea is that we can make night time business successful and safe in Seattle, creating a better, funner cultural landscape, raising more revenue for the City and State, employing more people, supporting small businesses (bands, clubs, bars, restaurants, street vendors, taxis and the daytime businesses that support nightlife – clothing stores, hair salons, etc, etc), while also making it work for most residents in high traffic neighborhoods (some people should just move back to the ‘burbs).

    And chances are we’ll get this done this year. Then we just need to allow drinking in the strip clubs and y’all are going to be moving back here.

  6. @EliyahuPDX: There’s one problem bar that if removed would fix 90% of the douche-bro behaviour in the area. Almost all of the other bars are pretty good at controlling their patrons and not over-serving too badly.

    On the actual topic: I’m totally in favor of removing last call rules. And selling booze in grocery stores. The OLCC needs better things to do with their time. Like policing problem establishments.

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