Had the Alcohol License Density Ordinance appropriately expired this past October like it was originally slated to, aspiring tavern owners could now freely apply for alcohol licenses at new locations in downtown Madison. However, to allow for more “review time,” this ordinance, which limits the number of alcohol licenses available downtown, has been extended to March 2011.

I am glad some appropriate amendments to the ALDO were made in the process, like repealing the ridiculous 365-day rule, which required an owner of a closing bar to find a new bar to take its place within one year to not lose the space in the density plan. Yet I am still disappointed with how much tavern entrepreneurship continues to be limited downtown.

I like to think of Madison as a city that welcomes business ventures of all sorts. What other city can boast such diverse businesses as The Onion, Sconnie Nation or BadgerBites.com? And, even in tough economic times, one of the businesses that markedly still flourishes are establishments that sell alcohol. So it would only make sense to me that this city would encourage, rather than hinder, aspiring tavern owners to break ground downtown.

Since the ALDO passed in 2007, the crime and violence rates downtown appear to have decreased – but not by much. Ald. Mike Verveer, whose district lies entirely within the density plan boundaries, is quoted in the Wisconsin State Journal as saying, “There’s a sense … that three years hasn’t been long enough to fully digest the consequences positive and negative.”

This is true. Trying to determine ALDO’s effect on downtown Madison crime and violence in the past three years would be like me trying to use the weather statistics of the past three years to determine whether an increase in hybrid vehicle sales had a significant effect on global warming. Though it may be true that enough data does not yet exist to rule whether ALDO has any benefits, it is not sufficient reason to extend the ordinance.

Even if crime and violence rates had drastically plummeted in the past three years, I would still not be convinced that ALDO truly benefits this community. Ultimately, I think what dictates the state of affairs in the State Street area are the police officers and tavern owners. If the police officers were to better do their jobs and if we were to grant licenses to vigilant tavern owners who could hopefully outcompete some of the more reckless bars, I think we would have a more enjoyable downtown bar scene.

It seems that, although the original intention of ALDO may have been good, the Alcohol License Review Committee has been using it as their leverage to spit out refusals to hopeful requests. Rather than blatantly stating at their monthly meetings that they just do not want any more bars downtown, they get to whip out this document filled with silly regulations to defend their claim. Sorry, Troy Vosseller, owner of Sconnie Nation, but despite your amazing vision for a 500-person capacity Sconnie bar, you are limited by the 175 capacity of the previous bar on the location you were hoping to take over.

Maybe I am just a romantic, but I can’t help but become bothered when people’s visions and dreams are shattered by exhaustive regulations.

Of course, venturing owners have attempted to get around the regulations. As a result of ALDO, new downtown businesses have been striving towards labeling themselves as restaurants rather than bars to more easily obtain an alcohol license. What this means for the establishment is that they must have at least 51 percent of sales in food. That means 49 percent of sales can still be alcohol. And, for anyone in the business, the goal is to come as close to that 49 percent as possible – that is where the money lies. If the so-called restaurant is open past midnight, it is essentially a bar in restaurant’s clothing.

But, nonetheless, these bars in restaurant’s clothing still suffer at the hands of the true bars, the bars that can make 60 and upwards percent of their sales in booze because they obtained an alcohol license before 2007. Look at the flood of students that pour what money they have into Whiskey River and Wando’s. Up-and-coming businesses just can’t compete with that when they have to appear to be more of a restaurant than a bar.

What it comes down to is this: ALDO is both an unfair punishment to aspiring entrepreneurs and an unfair advantage to already-existing tavern owners. Students should begin the rally to eliminate its continuation well ahead of next March to force the city council to realize ALDO’s hindrances on the downtown Madison community.

Victoria Yakovleva ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in chemical engineering.