Council Roundup: 4 a.m. liquor licenses

At-large councilman Eric Turner moved to extend 4 a.m. liquor licenses for a one-year trial period to only two businesses — Club Apollo and Club Excalibur — rather than an area of downtown as was proposed by other council members and the police department. Second district councilwoman Barbara Van Auken moved to divide the question — that is, to vote on each location separately.

Extending a 4 a.m. license to the Club Apollo location passed with 9 ayes, 1 nay (Sandberg), and 1 abstention (Jacob). The Club Excalibur location, however, failed with only 2 ayes (Gulley, Turner), 8 nays, and 1 abstention (Jacob).

One interesting point: City attorney Randy Ray mentioned that extending the 4 a.m. license to a satellite location is only legal because it’s a temporary one-year trial. If the council decides that this works, they will have to create a district to make it permanent.

7 thoughts on “Council Roundup: 4 a.m. liquor licenses”

  1. I don’t think this was the solution. Quite frankly if the people who wanted to enter the clubs really wanted to, they’d change their clothes. In designing experiments, single case design studies offer the poorest statistically ability for demonstrating hypothesis. If the Club Apollo has a dress code as well, nothing has been gained. I am greatly surprised that the Warehouse District didn’t get a 4am license….

  2. I’ve got a radical idea for those people who “need someplace to go” when the 2:00 a.m. bar closes. How about going home and going to bed? That’s where most of us, who have to go to work on a regular basis, so we can pay the taxes to fund the police department that has to keep track of these lazy bums in the middle of the night, are.

  3. You’ve never, ever been out when the bars close, having a great time, and wanting to extend the evening?

    You’re talking like there’s only two kinds of people, drunken louts who routinely drink past 2 a.m. and hardworking taxpayers with jobs who go to bed at a Ben-Franklin-approved time.

    Why SHOULDN’T I be able to drink and dance until 4 a.m.? Does it make me an automatic lazy bum?

  4. No, Eyebrows, I have never been out drinking till 4:00 am., and, no, I am not a teetotaller, and nobody ever accused me of being Ben Franklin. There may hard-working people who once in a blue moon are out at the bar at 4:00am, but 98% of these people are irresponsible bums, and you know it.

  5. The 98% that The Mouse is referring to is also the people who do this night after night. These are not people who once in a blue moon do this kind of thing. Go downtown and take pictures and date them and see how often you see the same faces night after night after night. Now if these people are not lazy drunken bums I don’t know what they are. But if I were employing them I can guarantee that they would be fired as they would not be working up to the 100% I was hiring them for. Nobody can drink day after day well into the wee hours of the morning and go to work everyday and do the job with 100% of their thoughts and energy.

  6. Last April I was out with my wife until 3:30 after a fun late night event downtown. I quite didn’t make it until 4, but is that close enough that I can join EyeBrows as an irresponsible bum or do I have to stay out all the way until closing time?

  7. I used to play in a band, and we would frequently play at 4 a.m. bars downtown. I saw everyone from state’s attorney’s office employees to on-air news personalities to yes, lazy bums, too. So, I guess it’s hard to generalize.

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