Columbia City Councilman Howard Duvall is set to introduce an ordinance that would stop bars in the City of Columbia from selling alcohol after 2 a.m.
Duvall told Free Times Friday afternoon that he plans to introduce a measure that would end the city's extended hours permits for bars. Those permits allow for bars to sell alcohol beyond 2 a.m.
The at-large councilman says he will introduce his ordinance at the Jan. 9 meeting of City Council. He doesn't expect a vote on the the matter that night, as he wants to refer it to Council's public safety committee for debate and discussion.
City officials say 23 bars — the vast majority of which are in the popular Five Points nightlife and entertainment district — currently have permits to sell alcohol after 2 a.m.
"Many cities that have gotten into the extended hours have now repealed their ordinances because of the problems the extended hours create, the same type of problems they are creating almost every night in the Five Points area, in particular," Duvall says.
The councilman says he is concerned about alcohol-related medical transports and drunkenness that go on after hours.
"Then we have the constant stream of intoxicated young adults going back through the neighborhoods to either their homes or their dorms, most likely to their homes that are now in the neighborhoods [near Five Points]," Duvall says. "This is a big push for the neighborhoods that surround Five Points, to see if we can get another instrument that can be used to control the student influx into the residential neighborhoods in that historic area."
Phill Blair is the owner of The Whig, the popular subterranean bar that is at the corner of Main and Gervais streets, in the shadow of the State House. Though not in Five Points, The Whig is one of the 23 bars in the city that currently has a permit that allows it to sell alcohol beyond 2 a.m. Blair told Free Times The Whig typically closes up shop between 2:30 and 4 a.m.
Blair, who says The Whig has been in business for nearly 13 years and, since the extended hour permit ordinance was put in place several years ago, has had no problems after 2 a.m., was dismayed by Duvall's proposal.
"We've jumped through every hoop to obtain the extended hours permits and believe it to be a reasonable process," Blair says. "The problems are caused by bars rampantly serving underage customers, selling $1 liquor drinks, poor staff training, bad ownership, et cetera. What needs to be done is streamlining the process that revokes licenses of the problem establishments, not penalize everybody."
Blair says Duvall's would-be ordinance is bad for business in the Capital City.
"We are already paying premium leases and taxes to do business in City of Columbia without the benefit of the heavy tourism of Greenville or Charleston, and more regulation on law abiding businesses is uncalled for," the bar owner says. "I appreciate wanting to deal with public safety issues, but time of night is not a relevant factor.
Nevertheless, Duvall says ending alcohol sales in bars at 2 a.m. will help clean up the reputation of Five Points, and, by extension, the University of South Carolina.
"Right now you have, from 2 a.m. until 6 or 7 or 8 o'clock in the morning, drunken students heading out to get back home," Duvall says. "We just need to stop that. The university is getting the reputation as the alcohol school of the SEC. That needs to stop."
