Madison’s alcohol policy coordinator delivered his annual review of the controversial Alcohol License Density Ordinance to a city board Thursday afternoon.
Alcohol Policy Coordinator Mark Woulf’s report to the Central Business Improvement District board focused on data gathered over the past year that will be crucial to city policymakers’ decision to renew the ordinance, which limits the expansion of bars, taverns and liquor stores in the downtown area, before it expires Aug. 1.
According to the report, Madison’s City Council passed ALDO in 2007 to reduce incidents of alcohol-related crimes, ease strain on public resources that result from such crime and create economic opportunities for retail businesses, restaurants and entertainment venues. ALDO would accomplish these goals by restricting the total number of bars and liquor stores that operate in downtown Madison.
Woulf’s presentation counted the number of venues with liquor licenses and occurrence of alcohol-related incidents. These incidents included assaults, noise complaints and reports of underage drinking, Woulf said.
Woulf said a few trends were noticeable, the most important being a decrease in the number of alcohol-related incidents following ALDO’s introduction. According to the report, in 2007, 3,141 incidents were reported to police. This number fell to 2,706 incidents for 2012.
Ald. Scott Resnick, District 8, said it is unlikely the city will
renew ALDO before the ordinance expires.
“After several years of ALDO, we have not seen benefits of a safer
campus,” Resnick said. “Many of the outcomes we have seen have been
because many bad operators (businesses that serve alcohol) are now no
longer in operation. So I would rather focus on bad operators than just
banning liquor establishments.”
Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, noted the numbers presented in the report are going to play a substantial role in the arguments from both proponents and detractors of the ordinance.
Verveer said he feels it is too early to tell whether or not ALDO will be sacked.
The proponents of ALDO will likely argue ALDO should continue because it is serving its purpose in reducing alcohol-related incidents downtown, he said.
For detractors, he said ALDO’s effectiveness is not as clear as the data would suggest.
“An argument might be made by ALDO opponents that the downtown crime statistics are just a natural reflection of national, state and local statistics that generally show that crime is trending downward in the country, in the state and Madison as a whole,” Verveer said.
Data reported in the Madison Police Department’s 2011 annual report indicates the annual number of all reported crimes, including alcohol-related incidents, declined between the years 1991, when 15,053 offenses occurred, and 1999, when 9,635 offenses occurred.
To provide an example of other factors that might account for these trends, Woulf pointed to the Downtown Safety Initiative, also passed in 2007. The DSI increases the number of police officers stationed in the downtown area during peak bar hours.
Woulf and city staff will publish recommendations concerning ALDO’s future, funding and strategies for reducing alcohol-related incidents in the downtown area in June.
“I think we realize … that ALDO is merely one piece of the puzzle and we have to address the issue in a variety of different ways,” Woulf said.
