The less desirable results of downtown revelling in St. John's - namely vandalism and all-hours peace disturbances - have brought a long-standing debate back on tap.

Namely, should the city and the province look at rolling back the hours during which bars can remain open?
The issue is starting to gain momentum and it crept into proceedings at St. John's City Hall Tuesday night by way of a letter from a citizen of Queen's Road.

The citizen, tired of vandalism and similar crimes in the wee hours downtown, proposed that bar closing hours be rolled back from 3 a.m. to 1 a.m.

Many, like Scott Cluney of the Downtown Development Commission, figure 2 a.m. might be a more sensible benchmark.
Either way, it looks like the topic is gaining support from all corners.

"I think 1 a.m. is a bit early, but if they went back to the way it was before, I think 2 a.m. is a respectable time and people then would be out of the bars and gone at 3 a.m.," Cluney said, adding that it would be up to bar owners to delegate a stance.

"We would support anything that reduces the amount of crime, vandalism and that sort of thing - as long as it doesn't impact the businesses who could fall victim to a time difference," Cluney said. While some members of city council have expressed support for the idea, it appears the final say ultimately rests with the province.

According to spokesman Lloyd Penney with the Newfoundland Liquor Corp. (NLC), reducing bar hours would require a proposal from the NLC and the approval of the provincial government.

Penney said there has, however, been talk surrounding the idea of limiting the times people can be in bars. The law dictates nobody can consume alcohol in a bar after 3:30 a.m., but there is nothing that says they have to leave.

That loophole has resulted in the proliferation of after-hours bars in St. John's.
"Right now, there can be people inside the building until 6 a.m.," Penney said. "There has been some discussions ongoing about, if the bars close at 3 a.m., make it mandatory for people to be out a half-hour later, 45 minutes later, or whatever - but there's been no final decision made on this yet."

Well-known Newfoundland musician Glenn Simmons, of Wonderful Grand Band and The Fables fame, plays a regular gig at the Martini Bar above Peddler's with his band The Accessories.

Most people in his line of work were against the idea of moving bar hours up to 3 a.m. and hopes the move will, at some point soon, be reversed.

If it were, he insists it would benefit people working the bars, the bar owners, the clientele and the industry as a whole.

"I hope they've learned the error of their ways," Simmons told The Telegram. "It never did make any sense to me, the later hours. It's not doing anybody any good."

Simmons doesn't buy that rolling back the hours would hurt bar business, because, in his estimation, people only have a certain amount of time and money and it won't matter to them what time they use it.

"Nobody goes out to drink for eight hours, most people have two-and-a-half or three hours and that's their evening - they don't go out for a donnybrook every night," Simmons said.

In fact, he believes the hold-off on last call has served to alienate a sizable chunk of the nine-to-five working public.

"Anybody who's working nine to five or going to school have to get up the next morning so it kills any Monday to Thursday stuff," he said. "And it's difficult on the weekend for working people to get out when the band doesn't start until 11 p.m. or whatever it is.

"By pushing ahead to 3 a.m. they've killed all the working people." Simmons said the current bar hours, combined with the city law preventing cars from being on George Street after 12 p.m., also means performers have to play all night, then get up before noon and get their gear out of the clubs.

"It's like a 24-hour ordeal," he said. "It's ludicrous - I don't get it."
Cluney said any move to roll back bar hours would require equal parts of planning and common sense - like, for example, rolling back the corner store alcohol selling hours to correspond with bar hours. The hours for selling at corner stores have advanced in step with the bar hours - when bar hours jumped from 2 a.m. to 3 a.m. in the mid-1990s, store hours went from 1 a.m. to 2 a.m.

Cluney figures they would have to also fall back if the bars were forced to do so.
"In order for it to work the way it's supposed to, they need to stop selling alcohol at corner stores an hour sooner, as well," Cluney said.

Other cities with downtown bar scenes have gone as far as to arrange ways to get people out of the area once bars close.

"If you have large groups of people hanging around, generally, that's when the mischievous activity, the fights and so on occur," he said.

Excerpt from the Telegram, Thursday, March 22/07

A business development plan for a pair of older addresses got a green light during Tuesday's council meeting. BDG Enterprises Corp. had submitted a discretionary use application to open a 12-room hotel and 42-seat restaurant and bar at 329-331 Duckworth Street. The development would be 550 square meters in size and the subsequent business is expected to employ 17 to 22 people.

Excerpt from The Telegram, Wed, March 21/07