The Peoria City Council tonight voted in favor of expanding the 4 a.m. liquor license area downtown, 8-2 (Nichting, Manning voting against; Jacob abstaining):
Ironically, according to the language of the ordinance, Excalibur would not be included in the 4 a.m. zone, even though that bar and Club Apollo were the two bars the council specifically wanted to provide with 4 a.m. liquor licenses. Whoops. When Councilman Sandberg brought this up, he was chastised by Mayor Ardis for being “unproductive,” and told he should have brought that information to staff sooner, not “when the cameras are rolling.” Sandberg retorted that he had just read the council communication tonight and had just noticed it, and that in any case the legal department is getting paid to double-check these types of things. The motion was amended to include Excalibur.
Coalition of Concerned Citizens representative Sandra Fritz was given the privilege of the floor and spoke in opposition to the expansion. She said her organization had collected 1500 signatures of residents in favor of getting rid of the 4 a.m. area completely and requiring all bars to close by 2 a.m.
Well you can kiss having any police patrols anywhere else in the city after midnight. They will all be responding to calls in the much expanded 4am district. Nothing good happens after 2am when people have been drinking. Chicago does not even have a 4am district.
I wonder if Sullivan will keep his place open until 4am now? He has been wanting a 24/7 downtown.
Ditto, peoriafan! Why does ANYONE need to be out drinking in a bar at 4 a.m. ? In another hour, it will be sunrise. Then, several of those leaving will be drunk drivers. Peoria caved in to the downtown bar interests for the sake of maintaining ” nightlife ” attractions.
Many of those bars were successful, a few years ago, in all but eliminating the requirement that a certain percentage of ” happy hour ” sales had to be for food. Now, Peoria bar owners have more influence with the City Council than the city’s liquor commission!
So, if I understand you guys correctly, Peoriafan objects to the 4 a.m. liquor license extension because he thinks it will draw too many police resources, even though Chief Settingsgaard signed off on the plan; and PEORIA is against it because he believes it will lead to more drunk drivers being on the road in the wee hours of the morning, even though there are no statistics to back up that belief.
Funny that the district takes into the ELM office of the mayor, Post office Ameren/cilco, ADM and other industrial sites why? Unless ADM want’s to open a tavern for ther products and employees.
Mayor Ardis says Sandberg is unproductive???
Don’t criticize the clock workings of of our city government… don’t criticize our economy, don’t criticize our schools, don’t criticize anything… dammit… this is America!!!!!
I am confused. CJ you need to look into this. It said in the JS this morning that Water St was excluded from the new 4am zone. The old district was all the way to the river including Water St. and stopped around the Walnut St area. The JS made it sound like all of Water St. was excluded. Which is it?
Peoriafan — Here’s what the ordinance states (note that the council did amend it last night to include the properties on the south side of South Street, but that’s not pertinent to your question):
I drew my map above based on these specifications. Notice at the end that we’re at the intersection of South Street and the Illinois River, and the line is then drawn from that point to “the point of commencement,” which is the intersection of the extended centerline of Fayette and the Illinois River. I don’t see how, based on that legal description, Water Street could be excluded. If the Journal Star is correct, there must be some other ordinance or some exception that supercedes this legal description.
Peoriafan — I checked with city attorney Randy Ray and he confirmed that the Journal Star is incorrect. Water Street and the riverfront are included in the 4 a.m. zone.
thanks for looking into that and clearing things up. Suppose the Journal Star will correct themselves? ya right.
Actually, I talked to John Sharp and he is going to run a correction.