CDA: Dining deal hurts good locals

In another bold stroke of municipal governance, Coeur d’Alene City Council voted last week to curtail sidewalk dining at downtown restaurants from 11 p.m. to 10 p.m. to control the growing culture of bad behaving, foul-mouthed, Jagger Bomb/Irish Trashcan-drinking, gun-toting 20-somethings who roam Sherman Avenue bars.

The problem with the council’s “let’s do something, even if it’s wrong” mentality is that the badly behaving kids they want to reign in don’t even arrive in the Sherman Avenue bar scene until well after 11 p.m.  Who ends up in the crosshairs of Council’s decision? You guessed it: Responsible locals and visiting tourists who want to enjoy a sidewalk dinner and cocktail on a warm summer evening.

The only way to change the culture of downtown bars is the enforcement of existing city statutes regarding 1. over-serving of intoxicated patrons, 2. monitoring the number of pemitted patrons in an establishment, 3. citing public intoxication, and 4. patrolling Sherman Avenue for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

The Coeur d’Alene police and fire departments should be applauded for their work thus far ... but continued foot patrol and undercover surveillance are critical.

City Council missed the mark on this one. The clear solution is enforcmeent, enforcement, enforcement.

ROBERT B. CLIFF

Coeur d’Alene