The idea brought by a group of Morgan Hill business owners and
downtown residents to force bar owners to stop selling alcohol at
midnight and not begin until 11 a.m. is a bad idea.
Bad idea to force bars to stop selling alcohol at midnight
The idea brought by a group of Morgan Hill business owners and downtown residents to force bar owners to stop selling alcohol at midnight and not begin until 11 a.m. is a bad idea.
The establishments targeted, namely Legends Bar and Grill and the M & H Tavern, both were granted permits by the city and ABC allowing them to sell alcohol until 2 a.m. Other suggestions to keep the downtown rowdiness toned down include prohibiting overnight parking in lots behind the bars, hiring as many as two off-duty officers to patrol the area at closing time, to hire an on-call taxi service and to research what other cities in California have done to curb the effects of public drunkenness.
Slew of problems led downtown association to ask for the city’s help
The Morgan Hill Downtown Association – which sent a letter to the city outlining the problems and suggesting ways to alleviate those problems – has the interests of downtown residents in mind, some of whom have voiced their concerns with loud noise, damage to private property, public urination and fighting that is associated with alcohol consumption. Police regularly respond to fights in public areas near bars during late nights on the weekends, and they routinely cite people for public drunkenness. Business owners often come to work to find their front entrances covered in vomit. Early one Sunday morning in late August, police received a call about a fight that reportedly involved 30 people near the intersection of Main Avenue and Monterey Road. By the time officers arrived the crowd had mostly dispersed, but they arrested two males for being drunk in public.
Just this month, police have cited at least 11 people for public intoxication charges, mostly in the downtown area or Tennant Station where the popular bar StriXe Lounge is located.
There are other ways to curb excessive drinking, rowdiness
But there are other ways to combat the problems. If it is truly a public nuisance that affects public safety, then with that should come certain assessments. Perhaps the Property Based Improvement District and merchants could contribute to hire an officer to patrol the area on foot from, say, 11 p.m. to 3 a.m.
Maybe bar owners – who say they try to curb excessive drinking – could raise the price of drinks by $1 from midnight to 2 a.m. to help offset the cost. If the downtown is going to become a hub of economic activity with people visiting the establishments to shop and dine, then something needs to be done. But penalizing all businesses for the problems a few rowdy residents or out-of-towners create is not a good idea.
