City officials in Vancouver have just passed Sydney-style nightlife lockout laws that will prevent clubs from accepting people anytime past 2am.
Starting in July, clubs on Granville Street will be barred from accepting entry past 2am. The Last Entry program begins on July 1st and will only be effective on bars and clubs in the Granville Entertainment District. They will be allowed to stay open until 3am but will not be able to allow patrons to enter past 2am in an effort to curb what the city calls “rising rates of crime and violence in the Downtown area”.
The Sydney rules which banned entry after 1:30am directly influenced the bylaw passed in Vancouver, as admitted by Kaye Krishna, Vancouver general manager of development. “The number of police incidents has risen year-over-year and it continues to be a problem,” she told CBC. “What we’re trying to do is thin out the crowds in a more gradual way. When people are all leaving bars at the same time the streets get very crowded… and that’s when many of the fights occur.”
As expected not everyone in the city is happy about the move, which is scheduled to last 6 months before being reviewed by the city. “It came out of left field, and the industry that has to implement it wasn’t at the table to have a discussion about how to best do this,” said Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association CEO Charles Gaulthier. “How are you going to be able to communicate with individuals that may not be happy with what you are telling them—and also slightly intoxicated—that you’re not going to let them in?”
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