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| Let people enjoy a cold brew in public. |
This is a great way to see a city, you're swigging on their cold local brew while carefully spying on all of the architectural wonders, truly getting a multi-faceted taste of the local culture.
I've done this very thing myself in cities far and wide, including Europe, South America, The Caribbean and Asia and highly recommend it. But supposedly if you do this in Montreal police will be in a position to fine you or ticket you or something.
Now that is a big mistake.
This burg made its rep on welcoming boozehound prohibition 'fugees during the dumbest-ever North American trend. So we need to reclaim that rep and simultaneously return to our European roots.
Police hate to give tickets for stupid victimless crimes like strolling around sipping on a beer, so let's not just stop enforcing it, let's take it right off the books.I've done this very thing myself in cities far and wide, including Europe, South America, The Caribbean and Asia and highly recommend it. But supposedly if you do this in Montreal police will be in a position to fine you or ticket you or something.
Now that is a big mistake.
This burg made its rep on welcoming boozehound prohibition 'fugees during the dumbest-ever North American trend. So we need to reclaim that rep and simultaneously return to our European roots.
If someone is being a drunken asshole, well let that be his crime, fining someone for drinking a beer on the street is like fining someone peacefully watching a playoff game for partaking in a riot.
In fact, not only should we tolerate tourist booze strolls, those visiting Montreal should be greeted at the airport by someone offering a with a frosty big bottle of Labatt Blue (yeah screw Molsons they didn't support the Expos) and they can swig on it on the ride downtown.
Nah. I'm content to limit the booze to people enjoying a meal in a park, which is the rule in NDG.
ReplyDeleteIf you let people drink while walking down the street, you end up with a bunch of dumbass frat boys destroying your neighbourhood.
-Kevin
Dumbest idea I've heard yet in this blog, and I suspect you only posted it to get a negative reaction. There's doubtless another blog out there somewhere promoting the exact opposite.
ReplyDeleteYeah, sure...all we need are more drunken "students" and anti-establishment anarchists "parading" in the streets at night throwing their bottles at the riot police, onto the sidewalks, and through plate glass windows.
Allowing public drinking clearly opens up a Pandora's Box of irresponsible behaviour. Who needs to be riding a city bus or Metro next to a loud, aggressive gang of louts on their way home from bar-hopping? Accidently jostling them can easily provoke a fight.
Ever walk through a city park in the daytime and see the broken beer bottles left over from the previous night's drunken deadbeats? Did these idiots ever stop to think that children often have to navigate through this hazardous mess on their way to the wading pools?
Cyclists, too, have to be extra careful to avoid all of those broken booze bottles strewn about in the gutters and streets. Why the breweries still haven't upgraded to plastic bottles is a mystery. Surely plastic doesn't make beer taste any less satisfying? Indeed, some breweries have already experimented with it.
Going back generations now, the ritual of lugging cases of empty glass bottles back to the grocery store has become a huge pain in the butt. Enough already!
@ UrbanLegend:
ReplyDeleteSo I guess, in your mind, we have to go back to prohibition, right?
@ Marc...
ReplyDeleteWhat does Prohibition have to do with drinking in a public place, with the potential for bad behaviour?
A tiny minority engage in bad behavior, alcohol or not. I'm a libertarian. I don't want the entire populace punished for the actions of a couple bad apples.
ReplyDelete@ Marc,
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately it is the bad apples who create problems for the rest of us.
Some drunken moron kills the ducks with a pellet gun in Beaver Lake and Westmount Park and the ducks are removed forever.
Just wait: someone will do something stupid on Jacques Cartier Bridge during the fireworks displays and the city will decide it's not worth the risk--or the insurance premiums!--and close all access to pedestrians.
People should continue to drink responsibly and this has to be drummed into kids so that they don't grow up only to die in horrific car crashes.
¡Yay!
ReplyDeleteEverywhere in the world where there are no english (and which is not a muslim country), it’s permitted to booze-up in the staße.
Of course, drinking is not public drunkenness, and there are alreay laws about that. Why not use that instead?
The fact is that the english simply do not know how to drink properly. Their mentality of shielding the kids from alcohol (like locking it up in a cabinet - and forbidding drinking where it could be visible from the street) makes the kids go on binges as soon as they hit 18, because they think it’s the biggest thing since it’s prohibited.
The french have a totally different way of handling that problem: between ages 12 and 14, they let their kids go on a binge, after slowly giving them occasionnal sips of wine or beer from about age 8.
The brat gets royally sick and won’t ever touch alcohol until years later.
I know, this is what happenned to me, my brother, my cousins and all the kids I went to school with.
So, let’s get rid of that stupid law that is aimed at the english; after all, we’re a french city!!!
Judging from that last post, it's too bad there are no laws against stupidity. :-(
ReplyDelete@ Urban Legend:
ReplyDeleteSounds like what you want is a totalitarian dictatorship.
You may feel more at home in South Carolina, where under no circumstance can alcohol be sold within x distance of a church.
@ Marc...
ReplyDeleteAnd you will sing a different tune when you yourself become a victim of public drunkeness.
One word: cans!
ReplyDeleteSo much different shit comes in 473 ml cans these days that you can easily get away with totin' around an open one. Hell, I was Bixi-ing down Ste-Catherine with an open can in hand just the other day. Just make sure it's an import so as not to give yourself away too readily.
Just back from a month in Berlin and couldn't agree more. City full of people hanging out on the banks of the canals and on the bridges playing music, watching the sunset, having a beer... Less pressure to get into the bars and consume, consume, consume. Of course that's the real problem.
ReplyDeleteHow to explain to the berliners that in mtl we count ourselves enlightened because we're allowed to have a drink with a picnic in the park?
For a real wake-up call as to how public drinking and bar-bingeing can get out of control, read this link:
ReplyDeletehttp://au.news.yahoo.com/nsw/latest/a/-/latest/14559076/kings-cross-venues-face-alcohol-bans/
Newsflash...a new trend?
ReplyDeletehttp://au.news.yahoo.com/technology/news/article/-/14597111/scotland-faces-legal-challenge-over-alcohol-bill/
urbanlegend, you're coming off as a wacko.
ReplyDeleteanyway, agree 100% that public drinking should be allowed. i pretty much flout the rules as it is, i love getting off work and sipping a cider on the way home, or taking the edge off a long walk with some wine in a juice bottle. i really don't see what the problem is or who i'm hurting. to suggest (as brainless here has) that removing the 120 dollar fine for public drinking will lead to social anarchy is kind of hysterical - if someone is causing trouble whilst drunk, let that be the offending action, rather than the drinking itself.
Even if you yourself manage to act responsibly with your drinking habits, that is certainly no guarantee that others will.
ReplyDeleteIn any event, how do you regulate a drunken group or mob? You can't, therefore such "restrictive" laws are needed to protect the general public.
Would you allow your kids to play in a park where drunken deadbeats hang out? Not likely.
Even well-established special events are smartening up. See this:
http://au.totaltravel.yahoo.com/news-opinions/news/a/-/14914993/munich-defends-bottle-ban-at-oktoberfest/
UrbanLegend:
ReplyDeleteHere's your hero, the infamous officer 728. She got real rough & tough on some guy standing outside with a beer in his hand:
http://www.radio-canada.ca/regions/Montreal/2012/10/10/004-matricule-728-spvm-arrestation.shtml