Durham could get alcohol-friendly ‘social district’ before 2022 ends. Here’s where.

When downtown Durham business owners pitched a social district to city leaders, they painted the picture of a vibrant downtown fully recovered from the pandemic, where the drinks (and money) are flowing.

For many of the shopkeepers, making downtown an alcohol-friendly zone would be about more than letting people drink outdoors. It would help the city rebound from a painful era in which many bars and restaurants closed.

“Many of us are facing a very difficult time, and your vote for a social district might help us pass through this crisis, which still is not over for us,” Roberto Copa Matos, who started the farm-to-table Cuban restaurant Copa, told the City Council.

Most council members enthusiastically got behind the concept, which has been implemented in Raleigh and other North Carolina cities, at a work session Thursday.

“One of the most exciting meetings I’ve had in a long time,” said council member Leonardo Williams, a restaurant owner.

“It honestly seems like a fairly easy intervention on the part of the city to help bring folks back to downtown,” council member Jillian Johnson said.

The first vote on the proposed ordinance will take place Oct. 17. If everything goes according to plan, the district being called The Bullpen could go into effect as early as Dec. 1.

How it would work

The proposed boundaries would encompass nearly all of downtown, and the district would operate daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Only businesses with ABC permits could sell specially branded cups for drinks, meaning convenience stores would be excluded.

Wade Walcutt, the city’s Parks and Recreation director, detailed a checklist for the cups: they can’t be glass; they can’t hold more than 16 ounces; they must bear the chosen logo; and they must have “Drink responsibly — Be 21” written in at least 12-point font.

Participating businesses will get a window sticker.

“No one’s forced to participate. No one’s excluded from participation. That’s their choice,” Walcutt said.

Signs would be placed around the district, to be paid for by the city. Walcutt did not know how much they would cost.

Social districts new in NC

North Carolina passed a law last year permitting social districts. In addition to Raleigh, Greensboro and smaller communities across the state have since launched them. Charlotte is exploring it. Greenville’s got its start Thursday night.

“I was always thinking of Durham, because I knew our city would be a perfect place for a social district,” said state Sen. Mike Woodard, a Democrat whose district includes Durham.

“It certainly seems like something North Carolina’s hippest city would support,” said Susan Amey, CEO of Discover Durham.

Downtown Durham Inc., which hopes to be selected to run the social district, began working with city staff in March to craft Thursday’s pitch. They hired a marketing firm that came up with The Bullpen name.

It’s an homage to the city’s hometown baseball team. Some believe the word bullpen, where pitchers warm up, is derived from Bull Durham tobacco signs that adorned ballparks in the 20th century.

“We thought, this is perfect, right?” DDI marketing director Gina Rozier said.

Business owners say downtown hasn’t recovered from COVID

More than a dozen business owners spoke Thursday, many focused on how the pandemic disrupted foot traffic downtown after a successful decades-in-the-making revitalization.

“Downtown Durham was a very different place in the early 2000s,” said Damion Moore, owner of Dame’s Chicken and Waffles. “Most folks didn’t come to downtown unless they were coming to court or paying taxes or something of that nature. And it was pretty much a ghost town after 5 o’clock.”

Adair Mueller, who opened the Durham Food Hall in 2020, said the venue has only succeeded so far because the Farmers Market draws people downtown on Saturdays.

“We can’t survive on just one day of week,” Mueller said. “Downtown used to thrive off of employee-driven traffic, which is still fairly nonexistent. We see a little bit of trickling in through the lunchtime hours during the weekdays, but it very quickly tapers off.”

The Glass Jug Beer Lab owner Chris Creech said a social district would be “the right thing for the city.”

“We’ve seen that it’s working across the country and across other cities in North Carolina,” he said. “And we compete with those other cities for traffic. There are people in Durham who will go out in Raleigh or Chapel Hill, people in Raleigh who choose to go elsewhere instead of Durham.”

Sean Umstead, who runs three businesses downtown, said facilitating bar-hopping will keep Durham competitive among nightlife destinations in the Triangle.

“From a bar owner’s perspective, I already have people that come to Kingfisher or Queeny’s for a drink or two, go to Alley Twenty Six, go to 106 Main, frequent bars across the city,” Umstead said.

For some businesses, it’s a natural fit. The Slush, which serves colorful frozen daiquiris from its storefront on Main Street.

“Ever since I opened, the No. 1 question I constantly get is: ‘Am I able to take them to go?’” Mason said.

Just downtown?

Council member DeDreana Freeman said she was wrestling with whether the geographic boundaries were unfair to businesses and residents in other parts of the city.

“Only downtown benefits from this,” she said. “And that’s over and over again been an issue for folks who have been in business in our city.”

Johnson said to prevent alcohol enforcement from disproportionately affecting those who enjoy their drinks away from downtown, she’d like the council to codify that open containers were not a police priority.

Police Chief Patrice Andrews said her officers don’t approach people for open container violations and promised to return with statistics on those citations and arrests.

“Our priority is violent crime,” Andrews said.

Council member Javiera Caballero said she supports the concept, but wants to talk about transit options for getting people home safely.

“If we’re really going to actually get the community out, if that’s one of the major intentions, then we don’t need cars downtown,” Caballero said.

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