People who have partied in the bars along Crown Street in New Haven can tell you what closing time is like.
"It's very congested. It's so many people, too many people," said Victor Gonzalez of Waterbury. "Everyone's walking around drunk, falling all over the place."
On the weekends especially, Gonzalez said surrounding streets become parking lots when bars let out and cars leave Crown Street Garage.
To cut down on the chaos, Town Green Special Services District Director Rena Eddy recently floated the idea of letting the bars stay open an hour later, until 3 a.m.
At Black Bear Saloon, Manager Dan Bernstein can see how it would help.
"I think definitely it will help people trickle out and leave not all at once, at a slow pace," Bernstein said.
But staying open later won't mean more time to drink. If the proposal happens, last call would still be at the same time, but bars would have until 3 am. to serve food and soft drinks, before getting people out the door.
Tom Methot manages Nikkita's on Crown Street. He thinks the idea could be, "good for business, but I think there are logisitical things that need to be worked out like getting people out and getting drinks out of people's hands," Methot said.
At a forum on violence in the Elm City, organized by the Christian Community Comission Brotherhood Leadership Summit, reaction was to the proposal was immediate Wednesday night.
"That's terrible," said CCC Executive Director Minister Donald Morris.
Morris said the timing is also bad, given the murder of a Hamden man last month at Sinergy, a Crown Street nightclub.
"You had a young man both shot and killed and another stabbed. We don't need another bar and we certainly don't need an extension of bar time," said Minister Morris.
But while out with friends at Nikkita's on Wednesday night, Sterland Charles said he thinks the extra hour could actually mean a safer ride home.
"I think it will attract more people to come, cause it closes later, but drinks would stop flowing so everyone would have a chance to ease it down," Charles said.
The idea is a long way from becoming a reality. State law would have to change to extend closing time.
Rena Eddy said she wants to reach out to other communities including South Norwalk, Hartford and Stamford to gauge interest statewide, before moving forward.
