City Of Berkeley, Using Its Free Time, Addresses Age Old Vice Of Alcohol
The Berkeley City Council has once again proven its dedication to taking on the area’s largest problem - student drinking. From the CC Times:
The council voted Tuesday night to adopt the first reading of an ordinance that will require bartenders, cocktail servers, liquor store clerks and others in alcohol sales or service to take a four-hour training class that will teach them not to sell to minors and to cut customers off when they’ve had too much to drink.
That’s, uh, kind of like what they already have to do - receive training, recognize IDs, etc. This is already pre-requisite knowledge. Besides, how would the city enforce this? Would there be some sort of certification program?
Thankfully, the city has recognized this problem, and has recognized that initially the program will be using complaint-based enforcement mechanisms. However, the lovely people at BAPAC had proposed another alternative:
The council also rejected a BAPAC recommendation to assign five city employees to alcohol education and enforcement — a lawyer, planner, police officer, code enforcement official and neighborhood liaison officer — because the cost of their salaries would top $750,000 per year.
Because I couldn’t think of a better way to spend $750,000 in this city.
The more important implications here are the changes to host laws. Now, you can be held responsible and fined substantially for minors drinking in your house. This means co-op managers, fraternity presidents, and apartment owners getting charged with these.
And Wozniak sleeps while students talk. Great.
Comment by Matthew Gratt — January 31, 2007 @ 11:22 pm