Denver’s LoDo neighborhood may very well be, as they say, overserved. The 30-block neighborhood has close to 70 bars and nightclubs, according to one source, and they attract a diverse and usually chemically emboldened crowd of people.
Often that leads to physical disputes. Occasionally the fights involve weapons. Rarely — very rarely, thank goodness — the violence turns deadly.
When the milling crowd includes a murderer, as it did last Sunday, people all over town sober up. The shooting of eight people, one fatally, has raised questions about the safety of the Lower Downtown area and what can be done to prevent such outbursts in the future.
Actually, LoDo’s crime problem is not nearly as bad as the publicity would suggest. It doesn’t even rank in the top 10 neighborhoods for crime rates.
But its popularity puts it in the glare of the spotlight, where problems get exaggerated.
Lower Downtown has blossomed over the past three or four years into a place where people really want to go. It draws huge crowds, especially on weekends. And a lot of that crowd sticks around until 2 a.m., when it’s unleashed as a virtual mob upon the streets.
Club owners in the neighborhood have a keen interest in seeing that the safety questions don’t overshadow the area’s reputation for lively entertainment and a good time.
Other entertainment venues, such as sports arenas, handle the problem by cutting off alcohol sales late in the game. That probably doesn’t hold much appeal for nightclubs.
One possible answer is suggested by David Clamage, former owner of the Rock Island bar. Allow clubs to stay open after the 2 a.m. cutoff time the state has set for selling alcohol, Clamage says. Then everyone won’t be pouring out into the streets at the same time, making noise and trouble.
The state revenue department says it has no problem with bars staying open after the closing times mandated by state law, as long as they stop serving alcohol. As far as the state is concerned, the patrons can stick around and dance, or play darts or pool or whatever. They just can’t buy any more beer, wine or liquor.
But nightclubs in Denver must have cabaret licenses, which are issued by the city, not the state. And those rules are different. Jenny Morris of the Department of Excise and Licenses says the dancing and the music must stop, too, when the alcohol is put away.
Some holders of those licenses have suggested changing the rules, so the entertainment could continue.
But others say, what’s the point? They don’t make a big profit from coffee or orange juice, and they would still have to pay their servers. And the servers would rather call it a night, especially since the tipping is likely to fall off precipitously.
LoDo clubs should band together to address this problem and urge a rewriting of state and city liquor laws. That way they can leave their doors open just a little later, so the 2 a.m. exodus becomes more of an orderly return to sober reality.
