Closing Time May Come Two Hours Earlier at Harlem Bars

Closing Time May Come Two Hours Earlier at Harlem Bars

December 12, 2011 5:24pm | By Jeff Mays, DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

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HARLEM — A Central Harlem community board is consdering a plan to require all new bars and restaurants to stop serving liquor at 2 a.m., two hours earlier than normal.

The proposal has divided Community Board 10 down the middle. Some members believe the requirement would put new businesses at a competitive disadvantage to established businesses that can serve alcohol until 4 a.m. Others want to get a grip on Harlem's bar boom before things get out of hand as in the East Village and Lower East Side, where a near tripling of DWI arrests was blamed on growing nightlife in the area.

"I think we have way too many liquor establishments," said Hazel Dukes, a board member.

Several new bars and restaurants have sprouted on Frederick Douglas Boulevard below West 125th Street and on Lenox Avenue between 125th and 130th streets in the past couple of years.

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