Our thanks to Alamance County’s commissioners this week for not joining the rush to expand the consumption of beer and wine in public places.
The commissioners were uniformly disinterested in a proposed ordinance that would have changed county policy to permit beer and wine sales at special events on the premises of county-owned facilities like Cedarock Park.
It’s rare these days to find any local public officials who haven’t joined the stampede for more public drinking.
On the same night while commissioners were turning down expanding drinking at county facilities, Gibsonville’s aldermen decided to expand their “social drinking district” in downtown – available since April for special events – to being every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday afternoon and night: 4:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays and 12:00 noon to 10:00 p.m. on Saturdays.
This newspaper’s publisher raised the question of whether it made sense to expand drinking hours to include days when there are large crowds present for “family-friendly” events in downtown, specifically mentioning the November Friday night for “Lighting of the Green” and the annual Christmas parade, which is usually on a Saturday afternoon in early to mid-December.
Gibsonville aldermen decided to go ahead with the drinking district now and “see how it goes” before deciding whether to curb the days or hours for future family events.
In our judgment, many of the municipalities that are adopting these “social drinking districts” are running the very strong risk of turning off, and thereby keeping away, families who do not want their children (especially the youngest children) exposed to potentially ill-mannered drinkers (or even outright drunks) on downtown sidewalks.
Gibsonville’s aldermen are apparently convinced – delusional may be a more accurate characterization – into thinking that somehow having public drinking on the sidewalks of downtown Gibsonville will help “revitalize” their downtown.
One of the key points cited by some proponents is that more drinking will provide “more revenue” for their municipality. (Although they’re rather schizophrenic about whether to acknowledge that these social drinking districts will encourage more drinking – or merely provide an opportunity for those who are already drinking in a bar to carry their alcoholic beverages onto the streets.)
We particularly want to quote to Gibsonville’s aldermen the insightful statement from county commissioner vice chairman Steve Carter: “We have a tendency for conservative bodies to approve things they’ve always opposed because it generates revenue, and we have to draw the line someplace. Just because it generates revenue is not the best reason to do something.”
Amen, brother Carter.
We hope Mebane’s city council will not go further than they already did earlier this year when they established a downtown drinking district along Clay Street – on a one-year trial basis.
They’ve been requested to decide next month whether to establish a second “social drinking district” at the Tanger Outlet near I-85/40.
This to accommodate the (one) bar currently in the outlet mall.
Same question as to the long-term impact: how many shoppers will decide to avoid that venue in order not to have to see, or be confronted by, drinkers strolling the commons areas of the popular shopping center?
Where will it end?
