JEFF DUCLOS:  …in the late '90s, early 2000’s all of a sudden
we were giving out way too much in terms of full alcohol.

And then all of a sudden we realized we have this
problem that we are dealing with today.  YouTube Clip



MICHAEL DIVIRGILIO:  The third thing is an over abundance
of what I call capacity, hours generally.

…when this place was dead and we were trying as a community
to recruit businesses to come here, we gave too much away.

…we need to do something to start reducing those hours.

…but what we're not doing is doing anything,
we're not doing anything to reduce the late night hours.  YouTubeClip, pt. 1

I'm committed to fixing this problem...

…it's easy to mock but we totally have a problem in town
and when the economy comes back
that problem is going to be back fuller than it is now.

Stop mocking the issue.

…those hours aren't going anywhere. YouTube Clip, pt. 2



KIT BOBKO:  We have talked about alcohol as long
as I've been on this council. It was one of the first
things I talked about when I came on council
and I'm still talking about it now.

I think the problem, or the solution if you will, is the time.

I think that the time of things… is the critical aspect of this whole equation
and we continually refuse to look that fact in the eye…

I have always espoused… not intensifying alcohol use in the city,
especially on the Plaza after 1 a.m.

I absolutely agree with Mr. DiVirgilio,
the issues that we're concerned with are simply in remission right now.

They are coming back and we're going to deal with them
over and over and over again until we finally come around to the idea
that restaurants close at around 11 at night and whatever happens
after that probably ain't a restaurant.

No one has come up with anything new to solve this problem.

This problem will persist and it will not go away.  YouTube Clip
 


PETER TUCKER:  We as a council have wrestled with this
for many, many years. I've probably wrestled with it for the
last 20 since I was on the planning commission.

I remember when I first got on the planning commission
we had another Italian restaurant downtown that came to us
and said, 'You know, I got to have alcohol to compete.'

And everybody said, 'Yeah, he's been here a long time.
I think it's a good idea.'
Gave him full alcohol, he turns around and sells it
and then it was a place where we've had problems in the past
and every now and then it comes back again.

…I've always wanted some kind of a policy
but we've always danced around it.  YouTube Clip

Transcript of the Buona Vita Hearing

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