Stay classy, St. Charles.

Yes, welcome to our bars, out of towners. Come on over....plenty of room...especially if the Alibi gets its' way. So, how's that Tavern Association doing, barowners? And ...where were these two drunks walking to, to "avoid getting into trouble"? To their cars? They live in Elgin and Sugar Grove.

And St. Charles, somehow managed to be voted the BEST TOWN FOR FAMILIES! Must be a certain type of family, with appreciation of certain types of values. I would NOT feel safe setting teenagers or young adults free on a weekend night in this town. Definitely not the best town for my family....but looks like we're stuck until real estate picks up.

You can go to the smallest town in America and have two men arguing on a street corner, and therefore doesn't make St. Charles different from any other town.

I really don't think that we should hurt the business owners of the restaurants or bars because of this. These establishment bring in millions of dollars of revenue to the city and not having them would take this town of the map.

Two men arguing on a street corner? OK, Jimmy Stewart, It's a Wonderful Life in St Charles. Millions of dollars of revenue-um, no, you exxagerate that. And I'll take my revenue from better sources-our Economic Development Director is asleep at the wheel of the bigger picture for our community-he needs to stand back and see the real picture.These bars have gradually replaced mom & pop antiques shops- it was a much more family-friendly business environment. And, Tom, tell me the cost of our police force and city staff having to devote a disproportionate # of man hours to enforcement, follow-up, morning after-the-party's-over vomit sidewalk cleanup for the merchants who must live with the bars on Main-subtract that from your "millions". I have had to hose-down vomit, prior to a community event venue opened in the a.m.....have you? Do you know what adjacent businesses and homeowners have to deal with? These 2 were walking into a NEIGHBORHOOD-NOT STANDING ON A STREET CORNER. I have seen clusters of teens standing in groups near the bars-is that good for families? As for "any other town", look to the south. Is this happening in Geneva? No,it is not.

Thank you, Josephine. Nothing like personal experience (mopping up vomit) to bring up some absolutely justified righteous indignation. If the bars and their associated traffic are so good for the town, perhaps Mr. Brady could explain why was it that the City Council felt a need last year to pass an ordinance against public urination?

Stay classy, St. Charles; stay classy. I bet we have Geneva worried sick about how they are going to keep up with us.

Look at the times of most problems. Almost always after midnight. It's an old but true saying- nothing good happens after midnight. St. Charles would be a much better place if the bars closed at 11:00 PM.
Sorry bar owners. It's time to change the image of this community.

There is no doubt that a problem exists in the evening in downtown StC, we all agree on that. I don't think sniping at each other is productive at all and probably similar to what happens in town between 2 over served customers. Also requiring taverns to close at 11pm is unrealistic, what about 2nd shift workers and even 3rd shift, do they just go home? I truly feel alot of the problem arises from the young, intimidated bartenders that are afraid to cut off patrons and lousy bouncers that don't back them up. The biggest issue lies with the patrons themselves, young, rude, spoiled, immature and plan stupid especially when they drink! Not sure if there's a cure for that, maybe a biff on the back of their head. I give the Tavern Assoc. credit for organizing and attempting to correct them problem. I wonder if Naperville has the same type of Assoc. perhaps they might should share issues and maybe come up with a solution. I should add that it's not only the 21 year olds we're seeing making fools of themselves.

As I have said on this topic many times, a big part of the problem is we have issued way too many liquor licenses downtown. People will say that is because they don't want empty store fronts, but now we are scaring away other businesses and we definitely have lost that family feel downtown. Unfortunately closing the bars earlier won't help, prevention, zero tolerence for violations and stiffer fines and punishments for the bar owners and violators is what it is going to take. I hope the association works I really do, but the bottom line is we have basically become the college town no one wants to be and worse we don't even have the college to blame it on. No more liquor licenses for bars downtown!

David 20 years ago the City was in a similar situation only with antique stores. The City had to buckle down, focus and work hard to bring in other businesses and it worked until we let the bars take over and took our focus off of downtown as a whole and focus strictly on First ST. Lets hope we start seeing a positive direction soon

There have always been alot of taverns in StC so I don't think the number of them is the problem. The corner of Rt. 31 and Main used to be called Whiskey Bend where folks would hop off the streetcar as it made the turn onto Main and head into one of the taverns for an afterwork libation. I'm sure there were plenty of overserved patrons then, but times have changed. As much as I hate to agree with Henry James, I also feel that there should be stiffer fines for the owners. Apparently some of the owners are just not getting the message or chooses to ignore the problem.
As I have stated over and over, the bartenders are too young and too intimidated by their patrons to cut them off. There used to be mostly mature women and men bartenders/owners in this town and when they were on duty no one was going to cause a problem! Naturally the patrons would rather have a young woman serving them but I bet they would think again before causing a problem if someone more seasoned was behind the bar. But I'm not stupid, these patrons would just move on to another bar that has a more agreeable bartender. Sooooo...??
I hope that StC has taken steps to contact other towns to see how they handle these issues. Somehow there must be a way to compromise and make it work.
Back in the '70's I thought we should build a wall on Kirk and 64 so no one else could move here or at least slow down the droves, damn that was a good idea!

The easiest most effective but also the most costly is to have "police presence" all over the downtown from 10 pm to after close. That's what NYC does to keep things safe in Times Square, that's what Ft. Lauderdale used to do when it was "Spring Break Capital". They showed people they weren't gonna take sh_t from anyone! Not a couple here or there, cops everywhere you look and on foot not passing in squad cars. The Mayor and Council must bare as much blame as the bar owners themselves, as they said "YES" to those licenses and therefore must be willing for the other residents of STC to help cure the problem they too caused not just sit all high and mighty and point fingers and all the blame at the owners. If it becomes required, the bars should have to pony up more $ for licenses & fines as well as those arrested, but if people see a police presence, things will calm down immediately. After all, isn't that the motto "To Serve & Protect" get them out there doing it.

louis - Have you ever walked Main Street at about 1:45am on a summer Friday or Saturday night? It IS like an armed camp. Police stationed at every corner, and Police cars stacked like cordwood at the gas station at 4th & Main.

For anybody reading this who has not had the high privilege of seeing our "quaint and charming" downtown filled with both Police and drunks, you really ought to go for a late-night walk some summer night. Might sober you up a bit.

My personal thought is that the Council first needs to write a liquor license ordinance that makes sense, sets clear guidelines, and is enforceable. Above all else, it must differentiate between bars and restaurants, and contain provisions to strip the license if a restaurant starts acting like a bar (selling more booze than food). Next, the Council should decide how many bars it wants to have in downtown. Not how many liquor licenses; how many bars. Do not confuse the two. I do not think there should be any limit on the number of restaurants with liquor licenses (Geneva places no limits on theirs), but for bars, there must be a cap. That cap could (and should) be fewer than we currently have in the downtown area. As bars go under or do something stupid to lose their license, no new bar liquor licenses should be issued...ever. Simply let nature take its course. Last, our economic development folks ought to go on the offensive and let businesses know that it is safe to think about opening up something new here, as we have finally sobered up and decided that we really do not want our downtown to be defined by our alcohol-soaked bar culture. Right now, there is zero indication coming from City Hall that they really intend to do anything, other than to try to 'manage' the mess they have created. Nothing says 'stay away' like a strong signal that you really intend to do nothing about a serious problem that is dogging your downtown. Caribou clearly knew as much.

Dave what you said may be true, but the issue with that arsenal staged at 1:45 am, the damage has already taken place (allowing the drunks to be created) I am saying the presence needs to be throughout the evening and not just on warm summer nights as it appears you say is when it occurs. It must be every night, and starting much earlier so the crowds understand while they are sober that the Police are here waiting for you. You don't wait for the problem to occur, you stop the problem from occuring in the first place. I agree with your other points and ideas, but until that ever happens and again changing ordinances doesn't mean spit to a drunk in a bar. Intimidation does work, it may not stop all but it will stop a lot and if the Bars do their part a big impact can happen. If so many Police are staged as heavy as you describe, then how did these girls get blocks away to your neighborhood? I also think their should be video cameras on streetlight poles to help battle the fights and crime as well. They work in retail for shoplifting, put some on the streets too. The City let this get out of hand, they need to do whatever is required to get it under control.....no excuses.

Louis - Excellent points you raise. Not sure I want "quaint and charming" downtown St. Charles to look like the London or the south side of Chicago with all the Police CCTV cameras dangling from the light poles, but maybe the mere idea of it happening would wake people up to the idea that everything is not going swimmingly in our little town.

Louis- I was on a police ride recently, and the Police DO walk among the crowds all year long-not only in summer-I know that they go into the bars after 11pm or so-I was asked if I wanted to join them during the ride-along. We walked into parking lots along Main and adjacent streets looking for pot smoking, walked along the bar areas, busted a girl walking w/open liquor near Moss Funeral Home then were called away on a crime in progress elesewhere, so never got to walk inside a bar w/my officer. (Was'nt looking forward to it, anyway!) Someone posted that the 2 were walking to their apartment...um, don't think so- if that is true, why are we given their addresses as Elgin & Sugar Grove? We don't need to know their birthplaces. Those are their addresses.

i mean does anyone notice why this article doesnt have a reason as for we were stopped in the first place? "because walking down the street peacefully" doesnt really sound very good on the officers behalf because thats exactly what were doing and in no way caused any type of scene or disturbance, everyone wants to make this big deal that we were somehow hurting the community? excuse me i live ONE block from the bar im sorry for being responsible and not DRIVING there

Hey there Justin. The article is intentionally brief as it is intended more to briefly summarize an incident that resulted in a citation over a ticketable, alcohol-related offense, which has been an ongoing, hot-button issue in St. Charles and therefore of news interest. You can request to see the police department's full report, which includes the officer's observations about why he/she stopped you in the first place.

Well, Justin, your arrogance continues-it says you were stopped for DISORDERLY conduct/drunkenness-not responsible conduct. You walked home. Goody for you. But, you must have done or said something to GET THE TICKET. It was you, according to the article, who rejoined that your attorney would have the charges dismissed, rather than accepting the ticket peacefully. And the young lady also argued. You do not challenge a police officer-you take the ticket. The young woman that I witnessed getting the ticket for open alcohol, was mouthy to the officer, telling him she was walking, why does'nt he go find a DUI...just did not know when to restrain her tongue, disrespectful. The officer told me she would not have gotten the ticket-they do make those calls, and give people the benefit of just a reproach-I saw it, all the night long. So, I think you must have done something to get their attention, and sounds like matters became worse as you both responded. Like it or not, there are community standards we uphold. Police officers deserve respect, drunk or sober. Youthful arrogance mixed with liquor-not a good combo. Like David said, bar patrons are two types-locals and out of towners. And out of towners have no stake in this town, and their behavior tends to mimic that fact. So, you say that moved here recently, not time enough to update your license? Alright, now, you live here-so act like it, and care about what you do in your town.