Oh, what a lovely day it is for all food and beverage people in Charleston…
At 12:06pm today, a federal judge overturned the ruling that bars in the downtown Charleston area had to close at 2AM. This has been an ongoing battle for the past two years here.
Up until 2 years ago, bars were allowed to stay open until 4 everyday except Saturday. (It is a state law that bars have to close at 2AM on Saturday night.)
Then, our stick-in-the-mud mayor decided to placate a couple of blue-bloods that wanted the bars shut down at 2AM. He cited that people are urinating in yards, getting sick, and starting fights. But, he only wanted bars in one city block to have to close at 2AM. Nowhere near where the blue-bloods live. Unfair, you say? Yup. So then they closed all bars at 2AM downtown only. Still unfair? Yup.
Then the real rumble started. Bars had to close at 2AM. My friends Lenny and Jim, bartenders at AC’s, saw their money disappear right before their eyes. They did approximately 70% of their business after 2AM. This is when all the people that work in the tourist industry, which is where most of our “fair city’s” income comes from, go after a hard night’s work. Mass protest ensued. People picketed the mayor’s office. Lawsuits were filed. Court was attended. (By a massive amount of people, by the way.)
Today, the judge said that closing the bars downtown at 2AM was unconstitutional. So, we little tourist industry people get to actually go out after having to deal with all the people every day. We can sit in a bar, and have a beer, and talk smack about people. Maybe now we can return to being the most polite city in the U.S. again.