Column: It's time to boost bar-entry age

Iowa City Councilors finally seem to be putting their collective feet down when it comes to underage drinking in bars - hallelujah.

Councilors overwhelmingly approved the first reading of an ordinance last week that would ban people younger than 21 from the city's bars after 10 p.m. If second and third readings go the same way, the ordinance will take effect on June 1.

It's about time.

For years, councilors have toyed with the idea of upping the bar entry age, but they've never had the votes to pull it off. In 2007, they put the idea to the people, who shot it down. Opponents of a 21-ordinance will no doubt petition to put it to a vote again. That's fine.

And when they do, I hope voters think for a minute about who benefits the most from allowing adults-in-everything-but-alcohol into places devoted to the sale of that one forbidden right.

Here's a hint: When the ordinance goes into effect, those customers will still have time. They'll still have money. Smart business owners will target that need and fill it.

When 19- and 20-year-olds go to the bars now, they drink. In droves. We all know this - heck, it's implied in anti-21 arguments that say the change will force young drinkers to tank up at house parties - all the dire predictions we've heard in years of debating the issue.

But this ordinance change isn't about punishing adults not yet legal to drink - it's about taking the reins from bars that can't or won't uphold alcohol laws.

If police had time to loiter around in certain Iowa City's bars, they could pluck underage drinkers from the crowd like fish from a barrel.

That's what bothers me - more than the fact that 19-year-olds are drinking: the fact that we all know they're doing it, regularly,  at licensed downtown businesses.

Letting 19- and 20-year-olds into bars is like aiding and abetting underage drinking. Even Connie Champion, who has sided with bar owners in seemingly endless rounds of debate, has started to get it: “We don't have an alcohol culture, we have an overindulging culture,” she said last week. “And I do blame the bar owners.”

When the bar entry age comes to another vote, we'll hear all the old arguments: the 21 drinking age is a stupid idea; 19- and 20-year-olds will continue to drink alcohol. But that's not what the ordinance is about.

It's about whether or not we want to allow businesses to enable illegal drinking - to profit from it.

Bar staff have consistently shown they can't or won't uphold the law. It's time for the city to step in.

Jennifer Hemmingsen's column appears on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Contact the writer at (319) 339-3154 or jennifer.hemmingsen@gazcomm.com