Downtown bars could begin to stay open until 4 am

[Ray1936]

I don't like casinos. That's why I moved to Las Vegas. Mountains and desert, y'know.

[G-DDT]

Nope. I stand by what I say on them. I saw first hand how they hurt others. One of my favorite hang-outs that I liked to support was a late night cafe on Beubien. The brothers who ran it said that there was quite clearly an upswing in violent incidents in their business, that more cocaine was plaguing folks, and that hookers from the casinos showing up with their johns were ruining things for them. After being solidly open, respectable, and busy for over seven years [[at least), they closed down. Just another thing I loved about my city taken away from me and never replaced with anything near to quality.

[G-DDT]

Culture, was indeed, being de-valuated from those things. They were brought near every major city, hyped, then folks learned you never win against the house, people developed gambling habits, and the powers that be tried to re-establish a better rapport with folks by putting out shows geared towards "Celebrity Poker". I saw the processes. They were laid-out and a sad and epitomized way.
We may've been ineloquent and surly in the '90s, but our instinct for knowing what was wrong was spot on and justified. We hated genre-ism [[Ffft, yeah "Alternative"-whatever), we mistrusted corporations, the media, and cops [[even though there were more insidious powers in the shadows-probably why folks looked to "aliens" as a figurative archetype to define the methodically inhuman way we were being engineered by the powers that be-at least cops,corporations, and the medis represented the visible hands coming out of those shadows that touched us personally), we defended our right to be pissed off and have a dark [[but healthy) sense of skepticism without having someone stand over us and say "ooo are we depressed? Maybe you should ask your doctor about....", and we didn't resort to the now prevalent bisexual college-boy end times porn d-bag humor [[Jonah Hill, Rogen and the such) that finds cops [["Let's be-Superbad-Neighborhood Watch-Super Troopers"), "Hungover-Casino Royale-Ocean's Eleven" casinos [[I seem to recall no one in the '90s, not Tim Burton, not Scorsese, not Terry Gilliam, ever painted casinos out as cool.), and donkey-punches as "incredibly fun-ny".
I know, I know. I sound like a cranky, washed-up ex-SubG pissing and moaning for a pointless decade long buried [[and no, just because that Diablo gal had a terrible time in the '90s as a single mom lapdancing for a living doesn't mean she has to personify the '90s as horrible with Jason Bateman in that stinko flick "Juno". I rather liked Sonic Youth and the noise culture we developed in the Detroit Indie scene. Kevin Smith may've had two good movies, but his iconocadre don't speak for me.). Just because a new decade is ushered in with new things to learn doesn't mean we have to throw out everything good or bad from the table of the previous decade [[yeah, the '70s were too loose and sloppy, but did we have to lose our vigilant activism or what good pocket of music there was for the Calvin Kleinish Bauhausian materialist '80s with Reaganomics and Phil Collins electro-drumming?). It seems to me a developed society would extrapolate, hold onto, and utilize the finer points from each decade to create a better situation. Yet, this is a culture of um...what was I saying...oh, yeah...amnesia.

[G-DDT]

Would be shortsighted, however, for me to entirely blame "culture turning like bad milk" on the casinos. If I thought not like a Christian, I'd acquire a time-machine-NOT to kill Hitler, but to take out the guys responsible for creating "MTV's the Real World". It was the establishment of the TV reality show that's been a continuing scourge to us all.
Yet, I digress....back on point: regarding drinking -how would "Cheers" have played out if it were a show about a Beacon Street Boston bar open to 4a.? How funny would the crank calls [[ala Tube Bar) be made to a bar open to 4a.? I like my afterhours spots, but having worked at clubs, bars, techno events, and afterhours alike, I always found fun and pickings for hook-ups grew slimmer and slimmer after Cinderella's Prius turned into a pumpkin.

[Thruster315]

I'm curious as to which bars downtown will pony up the $10K fee now. And is it financially worth it for them? Do we have that many people in this town that want to hang out [[and spend) until 4:00AM? Okay I get that it's pretty much gonna be a touch over $190 a weekend for the fee but the added expense of paying their staff might even spook some bars away from this sort of headache. I know if I were to own a bar- I'm not so sure I'd wander down this path just because of the added headache + expense.

[Cliffy]

You're going to get the lowlife power drinkers and a lot of bad stuff will happen but what does Boston and LA know.

[G-DDT]

You're going to get the lowlife power drinkers and a lot of bad stuff will happen but what does Boston and LA know.

Still can't forget the Beantown "Bra'" who got ripped on opening night of Fenway Park in 2011 and thought he could jump the skylight at a rooftop party. He's lucky he's still alive.

[sumas]

Insulting casinos is comparable to insulting Bingo at churches which have some big pots and better odds. No interest in either but like penny ante poker. Haven''t played that in years. Win five bucks lose five bucks. Cheap evening of entertainment.

[Benedict]

I think that an application of logic here is missing. Nobody - or almost nobody - is going to say, "Hey, bars are open until 4 AM now - let's go out!" They are already out. I admit that it may attract a very few more out, but I also would say that it will keep a few more home. Me? I don't go out even until 2. Heck, I am rarely ever out until midnight, but I am 51 so I am hardly a representative sample of the bar-going crowd. I do any drinking at home where I stay, or at friends' homes... where I stay. If you agree with me so far, then the next logical conclusion is that the same number of drinkers will be spread out over a longer period of time. That makes it easier to police up the drunk drivers because there is not a giant exodus of plastered drivers on the road at 0205 every morning. It spreads the "busy period" for law enforcement from 0130-0300 to 0130-0500 with what I would believe is a very similar number of drunks. And besides a few 20 something chicks who want to dance all night [[and I have known several of those), we all know who is going to be patronizing those joints - folks who already have downed a few and are going to down a few more. And law enforcement knows that. I submit that it will make the job of policing drunk drivers easier, not harder. Personally, I have no issue with someone who wants to tie on a buzz of titanic proportions after 0200 and then get in a cab; I make no moral judgments. I will have been in bed for hours long before that. I also don't think bars staying open will increase the numbers of drunks out there - it will just spread them out and make them easier to apprehend. and if it brings more much-needed revenue to the coffers? All the better. Just my opinion, of course.

[Victor04]

Yeah I agree with Cliffy!! We just need to wait until a drunk driver kills someone and then I am sure after that law will change restricting opening of bars till 4 AM. You know my uncle is a well-known Los Angeles DUI attorney and often share with me how drunk driving can ruin lives.

[SpartanDawg]

Yeah I agree with Cliffy!! We just need to wait until a drunk driver kills someone and then I am sure after that law will change restricting opening of bars till 4 AM. You know my uncle is a well-known Los Angeles DUI attorney and often share with me how drunk driving can ruin lives.

i mean.. driving drunk is a terrible move by anybody, no matter what time they do it at. you think if people have to leave bars at 2 am they're not gonna drive drunk? i don't get the point you're trying to make lol.