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City bar ban clears first hurdle

JEFF SCHORFHEIDE/Herald photo

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by Courtney Johnson

Friday, January 19, 2007

Plans to institute new limits on the number of bars and liquor stores in downtown Madison are progressing.

The Madison Common Council’s Public Safety Review Board approved a controversial plan by a 3-2 vote Jan. 9 that would restrict the number of new liquor licenses issued downtown. As currently written, the Alcohol Density Plan would not affect any existing bars or liquor stores.

George Twigg, spokesperson for Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, said the intention of the plan is to increase downtown safety after a recent upswing in assaults in the area. The mayor co-sponsored the proposal along with Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, and Ald. Judy Olson, District 6.

“The police will tell you that the vast majority of their calls on any given night are alcohol-related in one way or another,” Twigg said.

He added the mayor is concerned that these alcohol-related cases are unnecessarily drawing resources away from the Madison Police Department and the University of Wisconsin Police Department.

According to a 2003 report released by the MPD and cited in the Alcohol Density Plan proposal, 73 percent of police reports in the State Street and Langdon Street area included suspects who were believed to be intoxicated. The report also said that 77 percent of victims used alcohol.

But some Madison residents — including area bar owners — are not sure the proposal is the correct way to go about increasing downtown safety.

“You want people in bars, and you want them in bars because at least there’s some culpability and there’s some responsibility,” said Kelly Meuer, owner of State Street Brats, located at 603 State St. “The city of Madison just goes down the wrong road in how they try to solve these problems.”

Meuer also said he is concerned that, by preventing new bars from opening, the city government is trying to incrementally reinstate Prohibition.

Some city officials are also unsupportive of this proposal, such as Common Council President Austin King, who voted against the proposal Jan. 9. King, whose district includes a large portion of the affected downtown area, said he agrees with Meuer that the plan could actually make students less safe by pushing drinking out of regulated bars and into unregulated house parties.

“It certainly stifles new entrepreneurship,” said King, who is on the Public Safety Review Board.

But Twigg said the planning is still in its beginning stages, and the mayor is now interested in hearing from the community. Cieslewicz is open to new ideas, Twigg added, and the proposal could undergo changes before being enacted.

“We have done it the way we have so that we can sort of foster a discussion about this proposal itself, as well as any other ideas people may have,” Olson said.

The plan itself has drawn national attention, particularly as it moves closer to becoming a reality. The New York Times published a feature article about the plan Jan. 1.

The proposal will now go to another Common Council committee, and a final vote on the plan is expected early this year.

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Anonymous (January 22, 2007 @ 1:02am):

This policy is stupid.

Anonymous (January 22, 2007 @ 11:51am):

Dear Police, your job is to wrangle drunks. If your job gets easier from this new ordinance, you should get proportionately less pay. Madison should consider other laws to keep the donut-laden law enforcement tucked cozily within their cruisers, like: 1) banning all cars; no cars, no traffic accidents 2) banning hand guns 3) banning women; reduced sexual assults.

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