Later bar hours in the Twin Cities?

I'm not a late night partier, but I still applauded Minnesota's move a couple years back to allow local municipalities to choose whether to have a 2:00 AM bar closing time instead of the previous statewide 1:00 AM closing. If you want to be seen as a fun and vibrant place in our world today, you can't be closing bars at 1:00 AM.


With the GOP convention looming in Minneapolis-St. Paul, state lawmakers are debating whether to temporarily allow even later bar closing times (until 4:00 AM!) and allow Sunday liquor sales around the time of the convention.

At first I was dismissive. Yeah, get the Republicans even more drunk and rowdy! That's just what we need. St. Paul City Council Member, David Thune, echoed this attitude by claiming his downtown constituents "don't want a bunch of puking Republican lobbyists on the streets at four in the morning."

Upon further reflection, I don't think it's a big deal. First, we have to remember that it's not just going to be Republicans and Republican lobbyists that will flood town around the convention. You'll have media reps from around the world, activists, bloggers, volunteers, etc. The puke will likely be bipartisan.

I wonder how many bars will really see an increase. Certainly, the downtown ones Thune is concerned with will probably fill up; but it's not like the neighborhood bar on the corner is going to be invaded by the Republican delegation from Louisiana or anything. They'll have their share of private events to go to at the University Club and all the hotels.

So downtown St. Paul might be a mess with more drinking, but it's going to be a mess anyways during the convention. Frankly, my guess is that a sizable number of the downtown St. Paul residents with the opportunity will find another place to be during the convention. Is the rest of the Twin Cities really going to have much of an impact from two more hours of drinking except for higher revenues? The Minneapolis downtown city council member, Lisa Goodman, sees this differently than Thune. She said, "We can be a cold Omaha or we can stand up and be a 24-hour city." Ouch! Take that Omaha!

To fellow Minnesotans I ask: Do you want to be seen as prudes by the rest of the country/world? Or do we want to be seen as a fun, festive place, and make some money off these visitors? I'll take a couple weeks of bipartisan puke. It's worth it.

And while they are at it, legislators should make the provision allowing Sunday sales permanent rather than temporary. Sometimes you run out of beer during the Sunday afternoon BBQ and need to restock. We shouldn't give the puritans even one day to mandate our habits.