The proposal by Port-of-Spain Mayor Louis Lee Sing to use the powers vested in his office to force pubs and bars to stop selling alcohol earlier seems, on the face of it, to be hasty, ill-considered and reactive. Addressing Wednesday's statutory meeting of the Port-of-Spain Corporation, Mayor Lee Sing said he had directed the city police to encourage bars in the St James and Woodbrook areas to stop selling alcohol at 2 am and to close their doors at 3 am.In addition, Mayor Lee Sing wants a stipulation that bars and pubs should stop selling alcohol at midnight and should be closed by 1 am written into the renewal of their licences. The mayor also wants to prevent the further growth of new establishments in the Woodbrook area with a recommendation that no new licences be granted.
Mayor Lee Sing is anxious to get drinking establishments to close earlier because of the raucous behaviour of the people who patronise these establishments. He told the meeting that he was reflecting the views of numerous residents of Woodbrook and St James who have complained about bad parking habits, loud music and the unsavoury toilet practices of some patrons. The question that the mayor needs to answer is whether requiring that clubs, pubs, bars and rum shops stop the sale of alcohol earlier is going to reduce the anti-social habits that he claims the residents have complained of.What local evidence can the mayor point to that would substantiate his belief that an earlier last call would eliminate inappropriate parking, rowdy behaviour and loud music?
Has he commissioned research by sociologists, criminologists and economists to test his hypothesis or is he just one more politician who is seeking to make policy that is lacking an evidentiary basis? Has he undertaken scientific surveys to get a more refined sense of what people think on this issue? Has he commissioned traffic density studies or liming impact assessments to determine which parts of Port-of-Spain are most popular and the impact of those popular establishments on the surrounding neighbours? If he takes the time to do the research, he would find, no doubt, that the capital's pubs, bars, restaurants and private members clubs provide honest employment for a large number of people.
He would find that those establishments purchase a significant percentage of the products of the local beverage industry. All in all the Port-of-Spain's restaurant and bar industry is responsible for the circulation of billions of dollars and thousands of jobs. It is quite likely that an earlier last call would lead to hundreds of people being placed on the breadline and threaten millions of dollars invested in new businesses. At a time when the national economy is gasping for air as it struggles to get back to life, attempting to restrict Port-of-Spain's night life does not seem like a good idea. If Mayor Lee Sing got his way, the problems he refers to would simple be transferred to some other jurisdiction. People who were required to leave Port-of-Spain establishments would simply go to similar establishments somewhere else in the country.
As we had cause to point out in addressing the mayor's approach to the vagrancy problem, there are some issues that require national and not community responses. Moreover, if loud music, bad parking and inappropriate urination are problems to Port-of-Spain residents, maybe the mayor should seek to address those issues directly by increasing police presence and constructing proper facilities in strategic areas. While we support Mayor Lee Sing in his drive to clean up Port-of-Spain, it may be necessary for him to review his modus operandi as it seems that curtailing the hours for the sale of alcohol may be a serious misdiagnosis of the problems he has identified.