The Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday voted 8-4 to repeal a ill-conceived ordinance that required all customers at bars, restaurants, and breweries to show ID before buying alcohol, regardless of their age. Even if you were clearly in your 60s, the server would ask to see your ID if you ordered alcohol. The rule, which took effect on March 1, lasted just over three months.
With the repeal, hospitality venues are no longer required to check every customer’s ID. However, liquor stores must still card everyone, as they’ve been doing under a 2011 state law.
The original goal of the now-repealed ordinance was to stop people with court-ordered alcohol restrictions, identified by a red stripe on their driver’s licenses, from buying alcohol at on-site establishments.
But the policy quickly ran into problems. It turned hospitality transactions into rude interactions.
Business owners complained of slow service, lost sales, and upset customers, especially older locals and tourists who were confused or offended by the blanket ID checks. Some staff even reported verbal abuse from frustrated patrons.
The repeal shines light on the difficulty of turning a well-intended public safety measure into reasonable policy. As Anchorage is in its busy summer tourism season, businesses hope the rollback will ease tensions and speed up service.
The ordinance caused confusion. Some wait staff even tried to “card” patrons who were not ordering alcohol but who were at a table where others were ordering adult beverages.
Assembly members Daniel Volland and Scott Myers, who had supported the ID rule originally, joined newcomer Yarrow Silvers to push for its repeal.
The vote broke down as follows:
Opposed to repeal (voted to keep the universal ID checks): Anna Brawley, Zac Johnson, George Martinez, and Felix Rivera.
In favor of repeal: The remaining eight members.
Read about the now-repealed ordinance at this link:
¿Qué pasa si soy indocumentado y no tengo identificación? ¿Puedo conseguir una cerveza?
Hilarious!
Nanny state meets reality!
Nanny state 0, reality 1
Wow
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.”
The philosopher and author C. S. Lewis wrote this paragraph, and no one can improve on it. The idiotic moral busybodies of our city’s municipal assembly seem determined to make a Hell of our city.
Wo, so misguided feel-good radical leftist utopian authoritarianism runs afoul of practicality and reality once again.
Who could have possibly guessed?
Wow.
Finally something I can support.
This “over the top” regulation of alcohol is dumb.
It shouldn’t be the job of a waitress to ascertain if you can legally buy alcohol.
Drinking age should be 18 – and it was until the mid 1980’s and somehow we all survived.
Old enough to go to war, to drive, to vote, to sign a contract – old enough to drink.
Get over it Puritans!….
As I recall, it was 19. YMMV.
If there were ever any doubt, this confirms that Felix Rivera, the ignorant DoorDash driver, is an authoritarian wanna-be and complete tool! In the face of objective evidence from small business owners and servers, he doubles down on authoritarianism.
Felix, you showed your true colors during Covid. This shows that behavior was not about the event, but about your mindset.
And I bet you call Trump a fascist.
The Anchorage Assembly reversing a ill-conceived regulation? Say it isn’t so! I need to go out and buy some lottery tickets.
DUI cash cow in a slump a little?
This new reg was a major problem with tourists who are not aware that they would have to show ID to have a glass of wine or beer with lunch despite gray hair. And who, in their right mind, would enter a bar with a “red stripe” driver’s license?
Dumbest ordinance ever – good riddance!
Remember, the Anchorage assembly passed this stupid law in the first place. What is unbelievable to me is that they collectively thought the law was going to help Anchorage in some way. There obviously was no critical thinking going on, which is not at all surprising. I wonder what made them wise up; it certainly wasn’t their collective brain power, which equals that of a dead frog.