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The American Prohibition Museum is not in Chicago, but tucked into an old brick building in Savannah, Ga., just off Congress Street. A $29.91 ticket to the museum comes with a drink at the adjacent speakeasy. In most American cities, that would be a perfect finish to a trip through the Prohibition era. Not in Savannah. The garnish on the cocktail is what you can do with that drink after it’s poured.
Old fashioned or martini in hand, you can legally step outside and stroll through the historic district. Not even Elliot Ness can stop you.
Savannah allows outdoor drinking in its historic district, provided the drinks are in 16-oz. plastic cups. The city promotes this social perk. It’s an attraction for tourists, including Granite Staters who can pop down on a cheap flight.
Like the rest of the original 13 colonies, New Hampshire has plenty of historic districts and beautiful downtowns. But it doesn’t have a single social district where outdoor drinking is allowed.
That could change this year.
Since the pandemic, unreasonable alcohol regulations have been lifted in states across the country. The changes helped boost local economies and keep bars and restaurants open. These deregulation efforts were so popular that states have looked for other laws to relax. The hottest trend is to allow local governments the option of creating social districts where drinking in public is allowed under certain tightly regulated conditions.
Rep. Bill Boyd, R-Merrimack, has introduced House Bill 467 to let local governments create social districts in New Hampshire. Boyd modeled his bill on legislation that North Carolina passed in 2021.
Before North Carolina adopted its social district law, the foothills city of Hickory was working to attract more business to its downtown core by legalizing outdoor drinking just in that zone. In 2019, the city applied for and got what was called a common area entertainment permit. It was not quite what city leaders had in mind.
The city had to get a state liquor license, which meant that city staff had to pass background checks and get fingerprinted. The city had to be the license holder. When the city hosted its own events, drinking was restricted to the roped-off footprint of the event space.
This tiny alcohol containment zone reduced the economic benefits of the event. The whole point was to draw people downtown to patronize businesses. But because people couldn’t carry their drinks across the square, they’d often stay in the roped-off area the entire time, then go home, city Business Development Director Dave Leonetti said in an interview.
After the social district law passed, Hickory created one for its downtown in 2023. Traffic to the downtown core is up 16.8 percent over the last three years, Leonetti said. The social district has helped turn downtown into a regional magnet for shoppers and diners.
With the social district, people come downtown to hang out, not just to shop. Locals come just to sit outside and play cards or meet friends and pop into local shops and restaurants. The creation of the social district itself has changed the way people interact with the downtown area. It’s increased foot traffic, sociability and business.
In fact, business activity is expanding beyond the old downtown district. Restaurants have opened in warehouse buildings just outside of the traditional business area, increasing economic activity and tax revenue for the city.
“It’s been a great boon for downtown,” Leonetti said.
And the city has seen no increase in trash or crime downtown since the district’s creation, according to Leonetti.
A few hours up I-40, Raleigh’s nightlife and entertainment district attracts a lot of visitors. But city leaders wanted more foot traffic in its downtown core. So the city created a social district there, like Hickory did.
The Raleigh Downtown Alliance did a survey to gauge the popularity of the social district. Rachel Bain, hospitality and nightlife planner for the City of Raleigh, said “it was the best survey response they’d ever received. It got a higher rating than the Christmas tree lighting.”
The social district has helped to increase in foot traffic and business to the downtown, but it’s led to no increase in crime, intoxication or littering, Bain said.
At least eight states have adopted statutes allowing municipalities to create districts where it’s legal to drink alcoholic beverages in public spaces. The laws typically restrict open containers to materials other than glass, usually plastic cups. Stickers or other labels are required, and drink limits are enforced. Drinks cannot be carried outside of social district boundaries, which are marked with prominent signs. Maps of the district boundaries are posted online, and businesses can decide whether they allow customers to enter with outside drinks.
Concerns about trash and public intoxication have not materialized, Leonetti said, because the regulations discourage both and the crowd that is attracted to a social district is not the crowd that wants to stumble down Bourbon Street at 3 a.m.
“Before the social district, it was illegal to brown bag your bottle of liquor, to throw everything in a Yeti cup, to be drunk in public,” he said. “All of those things that were illegal are still illegal. This just gives the people who want to follow the rules a way to do it.”
Among the rules that municipalities get to set are drinking hours. Raleigh sets hours from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. so they’re consistent every day and they cover Sunday brunch. Raleigh also excludes city parks from its district.
Michigan adopted a social district law in 2020. The Detroit News reported last August that municipalities have adopted 128 social districts, inducing 27 in Detroit alone. Detroit’s social districts were part of the appeal when the city hosted the NFL draft last year.
“Business owners inside several districts said they’ve seen nothing but positive effects, and it has encouraged new customers to come to their communities, serve patrons even when their dining rooms are full and encourage people to stay awhile,” the newspaper reported. “Some said these districts are even playing a role in revitalizing downtowns that may not have gotten as much foot traffic before.”
In Clawson, Michigan, officials credit the social district with reviving their downtown.
“Eight years ago, you might not see anybody walking downtown,” Joan Horton, director of Claswson’s downtown development authority, told the News. “People drove through Clawson to get somewhere else. But now we’re a drive-to destination. We really have become a dining mecca.”
HB 467 would enable New Hampshire municipalities to use social districts as targeted economic development tools. No New England state has a social district law. But Boston officials last year began discussing social districts for the city.
That puts New Hampshire lawmakers in the position of deciding in coming weeks whether they want New Hampshire or Massachusetts to become the first New England state to notch another small win for personal and economic freedom by legalizing small districts where responsible adults can be trusted to drink and socialize like responsible adults.
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