...for now. A breakdown of the 2 a.m. bar permit proposal.
The late-night bar permit ordinance. It’s the issue that has divided the service industry, Five Points community, UofSC officials + students and downtown neighborhoods. We first wrote about it in our Jan. 9 newsletter – Last Call for Late Nights – when City Councilman Howard Duvall first presented a proposal to put an end to the permits allowing alcohol sales in bars past 2 a.m.

We asked you for feedback, and received a number of opinions, both for + against the initial proposal.

The glow of the lights from Bar None. | Photo by COLAtoday

Photo by @onemachbitchacho

Pro-proposal (shut ‘em down):

“75% of those bars are in 5 points, and those bars are overwhelmingly patronized by USC students. A very large percentage of those students are under the legal drinking age of 21. I totally agree with shutting down the alcohol after 2am!” – Andrew

“I think it ought to be a statewide law that you cannot purchase alcohol anywhere in the state between the hours of 2am and 8 am. People need to sober up before they go to work and they need to be ready to work,not drunk, or just got out of a bar. It’s ridiculous. People need to go home and sleep if you want to party after 2am, plan ahead and purchase enough alcohol and take it home and party at home.” – Sandy

“As a graduating senior at USC I can barely stay up past midnight anymore so the 2 am change doesn’t change anything for me. However, it’s quite annoying whenever lawmakers use the “260 people have been hospitalized” excuse. When I know for a fact they say to students that get caught underage drinking that are pretty drunk they can go to jail or go to the hospital. Who would go to jail over the hospital? It’s just a way to raise a stat and help out their own agenda.” – Nicole

Anti-proposal (keep ‘em open):

“I’m all for keeping students safer, but I don’t think that responsibility falls on the businesses of Columbia. I think the permit should be denied to businesses that have more incidents than others. Kind of like three strikes your out kind of deal. After so many penalties a bar should have to close its doors at 2 a.m. Not just to protect students, but also to hold the businesses to a certain standard if they chose to be open late.” – Delaney

“This negatively affects service industry and anyone who works second, third shift, also business owners just trying to make an honest living. Has little to no effect on 9 to 5ers. So BE INCLUSIVE! Be appreciative of those who work those jobs bc someone has to!” – @validatemyexistence

“If they force bars to close at 2 a.m. we’re all going to have to endure EXPONENTIALLY more drunk renditions of “Closing Time” by Semisonic. And I, for one, refuse to deal with that in 2018.” – Bob

What’s happened since then?

A few recent issues have sparked renewed interest in the proposal:

In the early morning hours of Sunday, March 16 – following St. Pat’s in Five Points – a gang-related shooting occurred, leaving three injured and guman Arthur Jones behind bars. The shooting took place at 2 a.m., moments after bars were closing (all S.C. bars must close at 2 a.m. on Sunday mornings, late-night permit or not).
The Roost – a bar in Five Points formally known as Carolina Pour House – lost its liquor license due to “not [being] primarily and substantially engaged in the preparation and serving of meals” – a state law requirement.

The proposal has embattled our community at several public hearings at City Hall as Mayor Steve Benjamin and city councilmen grapple to present a solution that in no way can possibly make all parties happy.

For those of you who haven’t sat through the public hearings, City Council is tasked with alleviating the UofSC binge drinking problem (and the drunken debauchery in neighborhoods surrounding Five Points that comes with it), which many in favor of the late-night bar permit bill’s repeal argued as a public health issue – similar to when cigarette smoking was banned in bars.
But they must also address this in a way that does not punish law abiding bars and their patrons – many of whom work irregular hours or are service industry members themselves – and like most of us, enjoy a beer, burger and company after work (even if their happy hour falls at 4 a.m. in Bar None).

City Council held two public hearings last Tuesday, April 17, on a revised proposal that was presented in late March by the City Council public safety committee – in which Columbia bars would still be allowed late-night permits, but with new, stricter rules + regulations to obtain and keep this permit, including:

🍺The after-hours permit will be raised to $2,500 (currently $50) – plus an $100 application fee. For a bar with no legal citations, the annual renewal fee would be an additional $1,000. Bars with legal citations recorded could be forced to pay up to $10,000 annually.
🍺Before bars could become eligible to apply for the after-hours permit, they must be in business for a minimum of two years.
🍺Bars would be required to provide a copy of their food menu when applying for the after-hours permit.
🍺Bars would not be allowed to offer drink deals past 2 a.m. – in addition to the current state law of not being able to sell liquor after 2 a.m., just beer + wine.
🍺Permits could not be transferred with bar ownership.

So, what happened? The council unanimously voted to pass the revised permit’s first reading, after final pleas from the president of the University Hill neighborhood, the co-owner of The Whig, a UofSC representative and more (all narrated via a hilarious live tweet stream by Free Times’ @ChrisTrainorSC).

This means the proposed changes are moving forward, but will be further discussed + tweaked by the council in the upcoming month before a final vote is taken.

Stay tuned on @COLAtoday, where you know we’ll be covering the next meeting on our Instagram stories.

So, do you think that businesses who thrive on sales to college students could survive under this new proposed ordinance? (Mayor Steve doesn’t.) Reply to this email with your feedback.

– Beth