States Look to Eliminate Happy Hour Bans to Lure People Downtown

Some states are reeval­u­at­ing their restric­tions on down­town hours at bars and restau­rants in an attempt to bring more — and — back to floun­der­ing down­town economies.

Accord­ing to a Route Fifty arti­cle by Kait­lyn Levin­son, hap­py hours were banned or restrict­ed in some states after a rash of high- drunk dri­ving deaths in the 1980s. How­ev­er, research has not borne out a con­nec­tion between dis­count­ed alco­hol hours and car crash rates.

Now, some states are to expand hap­py hours or reduce restric­tions to encour­age more at down­town estab­lish­ments. In Mass­a­chu­setts, a pro­pos­al to over­turn a 1984 law ban­ning hap­py hours awaits pas­sage from the state’s House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives.

Some cities are also estab­lish­ing out­door drink­ing peo­ple can walk around with alco­holic bev­er­ages. “The ‘sip and stroll’ mod­el could even a big­ger eco­nom­ic impact than expand­ed hap­py hour laws,” Levin­son writes.

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