Adams Morgan Bars May Face New Regulations
For many, the bars-as-far-as-the-eye-can-see on 18th Street in Adams Morgan is exactly what has made the neighborhood the center of the District's nightlife. For others, it's the very reason the neighborhood has started going downhill.
According to the Post, the D.C. Council will vote tomorrow on whether to limit the number of taverns on the strip, potentially imposing restrictions that could force owners to close shop. Longtime area residents have complained that more and more of the strip's alcohol-selling restaurants have become taverns, a classification that frees them from regulations mandating that 45 percent of annual revenue come from the sale of food. By making the switch, residents contend, the diversity of the area's thriving restaurants has given way to generic bars and pubs that focus more on cheap booze than they do on community -- thus contributing to the violence and crime that regularly comes along with weekend nights.
On the other side of the debate are the restaurant-owners, who argue that the District's regulations regarding food sales are too restrictive -- so restrictive, in fact, that they have been forced to classify their restaurants as taverns to escape them. In their mind, city officials should focus on re-writing the regulations instead of limiting the number of taverns that can exist in any one area.
Photo by digitaldefection
Though restaurant-owners have a good point, they may have to suck it up and hope that they can start selling more food -- the legislation looks like it's going to pass. Though it was introduced by council Chair Vincent Gray at the behest of Mayor Adrian Fenty, the Committee on Public Works and the Environment, which is chaired by Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), voted unanimously to endorse it in late June. And since Adams Morgan is Graham's turf and not many of his colleagues can match the energy he expends on going after bars, it seems doubtful that enough of them would rise to oppose it.
But is it good public policy? Will a moratorium really save Adams Morgan from bars that provide little more than cheap drinks, or will it serve to sink restaurants that struggle to sell enough food to keep their liquor licenses?