SEATTLE - It's the toast of the Seattle bar scene right now - a proposal to allow bars in the city to remain open 24 hours a day.
Supporters say eliminating last call would mean less binging right before people hit the streets.
"Just before you leave a bar it's like, last call, let's get a few more drinks," said Michael Minnis, who was enjoying a lunchtime Bloody Mary at The 5 Point Cafe near the city's Belltown neighborhood.
In turn, supporters say there would be fewer problems for police because there would be fewer highly intoxicated people spilling out into the streets at 2 a.m. as they do now.
"It's a 'you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here' kind of a thing," said Michael Couet throwing back a midday Coors Light. "And of course, they all pile into the streets and it's mayhem."
At Seattle City Hall today, nightclub owners met with both the city attorney and representatives from the mayor's office. Both of those offices indicated they are open to the idea of 24-hour bars.
"In other cities where you can serve liquor 24 hours like London, or until 4 a.m. like New York and Chicago, those are lawful cities," said Crocodile Cafe co-owner David Meinert who attended the meeting. "We're not talking about chaos in Chicago every night."
But opponents don't want Seattle to be New York or Chicago, let alone New Orleans or Las Vegas.
"It'll be a 24-hour party," said Belltown resident Ariel Sanderson.
She likes to enjoy a drink at a neighborhood bar now and then, but worries that things would get out of hand in a neighborhood already dealing with serious drug and crime problems. In her mind, 24-hour drinking would inevitably lead to more noise, more garbage in the street, more drunks in the alleyways and more violence.
"Instead of having an influx of people on the streets between 2 and 3 in the morning, now we suddenly have all these people on the streets for maybe 5 or 6 hours with aggression, too much alcohol and there's a real public safety concern there as well," she said.
Supporters are working on a proposal that would package new noise ordinances, tougher disorderly conduct regulations and more to present to the city council. The council would then have to approve it and present it to the state liquor control board which would then consider a one-year pilot program for Seattle.
Supporters hope to have that ready within a year.
