The problems at bar closing time in LoDo, highlighted in a Denver Post report over the weekend, are neither new nor terribly complex.
At 2 a.m., thousands of drunken patrons are turned out onto the streets of Lower Downtown Denver and .
The difficulty is finding a solution that improves safety but isn’t overly burdensome to bar and club owners, or a nuisance to residents.
A group of city officials has been meeting for months to come up with ways to lessen the crush of liquored-up revelers.
The effort is prompted by the routine fights in LoDo and sporadic tragedy. The most recent happened in July, when Airman 1st Class Shaquille Hargrove, 19, a satellite systems operator at Buckley Air Force Base, was . A gunman had opened fire on a crowd in the entertainment district shortly after the bars closed.
The city’s chief aim, we think, should be to try to dilute the crowds by changing policy wherever practical. One solution would be to change city ordinance to allow clubs with “cabaret” licenses to offer live music or other entertainment — a DJ, for instance — past the current 2 a.m. cutoff. Now, that wouldn’t affect liquor sales, which cease at 2 a.m. per state law. And perhaps not every establishment would take advantage of the ability to offer entertainment after 2 a.m. because they wouldn’t make money on liquor. But if some did, it would help.
Another potential solution would be to better regulate the small army of late-night food vendors that descends on the district.
The problem is that instead of going home right after closing hour, the people who’ve been booted from bars then congregate on the streets around the vendors. And then the fights start.
Another trouble spot is the parking lots where people — some of whom haven’t even patronized the lot — gather and get into confrontations.
As City Council member rightly points out to us, LoDo is also a neighborhood. Any effort to extend hours, even if they are alcohol-free hours, impacts those who have chosen to live in this vibrant part of town.
However, we think an overall lessening of the trouble would be of benefit to residents, too. And let’s face it, bar patrons aren’t going home right away as it is.
There are ways for the city to tweak its existing ordinances to ease the problems in LoDo, and we hope they seriously consider doing so.
