{"id":8160,"date":"2014-04-27T19:54:43","date_gmt":"2014-04-27T11:54:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=8160"},"modified":"2014-04-27T19:54:43","modified_gmt":"2014-04-27T11:54:43","slug":"montreal-mayor-extends-bar-hours-for-summer-trial-takes-jab-at-toronto-nightlife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/04\/27\/montreal-mayor-extends-bar-hours-for-summer-trial-takes-jab-at-toronto-nightlife\/","title":{"rendered":"Montreal mayor extends bar hours for summer trial, takes jab at Toronto nightlife"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Denis_Coderre_2011\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Denis Coderre. Wikipedia photo<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

MONTREAL – Montreal’s mayor is putting his city’s renowned nightlife to the test \u2014 and taking a shot at rival Toronto in the process.<\/p>\n

Denis Coderre says he will allow bars on two downtown streets this summer to serve alcohol until 5:30 a.m., two and a half hours later than liquor laws currently allow.<\/p>\n

Busy stretches of Crescent and Saint-Denis Streets will be part of the trial.<\/p>\n

“The fact that we’re having that pilot project, at least we’ll know,” Coderre said.<\/p>\n

“It doesn’t mean that it will be in every borough. It means that downtown you might have the capacity to do it.”<\/p>\n

The trial will run from June 12 to July 5, during weekends only.<\/p>\n

The populist mayor used Friday’s announcement to lob a playful jab at Toronto, saying that a metropolis “should be fun.”<\/p>\n

Last call in Canada’s largest city is 2 a.m.<\/p>\n

“There is a nightlife in Montreal. The only reason there is one in Toronto is because there’s a half a million Montrealers who have moved there,” Coderre told reporters.<\/p>\n

Coderre’s comments prompted a good natured retort from former Ontario premier Bob Rae.<\/p>\n

“Denis Coderre says we have no nightlife in Toronto. Arlene and I are going to bed now. We’ve had our cocoa. What does Denis know?” Rae tweeted Saturday.<\/p>\n

Coderre said his city’s traditional 3 a.m. cut off for alcohol sales causes problems because too many people head out into the streets at the same time, especially during the party-filled summer months.<\/p>\n

Montreal’s police chief is on board with the project, he added.<\/p>\n

Coderre said the city will evaluate the economic and social impact of the extended hours before deciding whether to make the change permanent.<\/p>\n

Not everyone is happy with the trial.<\/p>\n

The head of an association of Quebec bar owners is upset with the move, but only because he’d like all downtown bars to be able to stay open until dawn.<\/p>\n

Peter Sergakis, who owns a number of downtown bars and restaurants, said he’s received dozens of complains from fellow bar owners.<\/p>\n

He said it’s unacceptable that a small number of bars will reap the benefits of the extended hours, while hundreds of others will close their doors at 3 a.m.<\/p>\n

“What will the other bars do? All the patrons will go to the bars that will be open late.”<\/p>\n

– with files from Louis Cloutier<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Denis Coderre. Wikipedia photo   MONTREAL – Montreal’s mayor is putting his city’s renowned nightlife to the test \u2014 and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":8161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[2621],"class_list":["post-8160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","tag-denis-coderre","mauthors-benjamin-shingler","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}