Denver Is Nice, Lets Ban Beer!

Councilwoman Erica Gilmore left Denver both impressed with the city, and with a mission of her own: to ban single can beer sales in local stores in Nashville.

“I think we have a better grasp of how to deal with it,” Gilmore said. “Just traveling to Denver, it was really clean. It was really amazing actually. You think, ‘When I walk downtown, I wish our downtown could be like this.’”

Gilmore believes single item beer sales contribute to vagrants loitering around downtown and leads to littering.

“You have people loitering round, hanging around with bottles, it does not look attractive,” Gilmore said.

Now, first off, I hate to spoil the party, but Denver doesn't always look so fresh and so clean, clean. In fact, they even instituted a program to give homeless people haircuts before the convention, as well as free movie passes and other things to keep them away from the bleeding hearts. They had an insanely stepped up police presence, and over worked their public sanitation department. If we want to drastically raise our taxes to do the same every day, then we can accomplish the same task.

Now, the last time I saw this bill I thought it was incredibly flawed. First off, it would require the beers to be sold in packages of six, which would seemingly outlaw packages of Guiness, Boddingtons, and other 4-pack imports. Not to mention, the single beer ban would kill the market for beers such as Flat Tire or Rogue, which are sold as singles (big singles, but singles).

I don't think this will either cut down on homeless drinking or loitering. These are people who have to scrounge and make do with what they have; if it means collecting pieces of cardboard to make impromptu homes, or make shoes out of plastic grocery bags, they'll do it...so to assume they'll stop drinking because singles are outlawed, really doesn't make much sense. They'll adjust, and they'll continue loitering and drinking. Want to fix the problem, institute better, cleaner, and safer shelters, along with drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers.