Let bars/taverns in Seattle determine their own closing time!
I think it’s high time (pun intended) that bars and taverns in Seattle be allowed to determine their own time for last call rather than be forced to close at 2AM as is currently the case. I firmly believe this will lead to less problems with crime/drunkenness. Currently what happens at 2AM? A large number of drunks are forced out onto the streets at 2AM at the same time. What happens when large numbers of drunks congregate in one space with nothing to do? They cause trouble! Many of these people would just as soon stay in the bar and keep drinking/socializing, something that stimulates the economy.
To the people who say this will cause more drunk driving, the stats don’t bear this out. If you compare drunk driving stats with bar closing times in different states, you find that they really don’t seem to correlate. Many states that allow a later closing (or even 24 hr) do not in fact have a high rate of drunk driving (look at TN and AK). The state to watch on this will be Nebraska, which has a low level of drunk driving, and until this year, bar closing times of 1AM. They have just voted to allow local jurisdictions to go to 2AM, if desired. We’ll see what happens there.
Let the market determine the closing times for bars/taverns. Ones that find it profitable will stay open later, and ones that don’t will close as usual. Far from causing more problems with drunkenness, this will alleviate problems caused by crowds of drunks being forced together at the same time. It would also spread problems that will still occur over a larger span of time, thus not taxing police resources at 2AM every night.