'Downtown' liquor zone flows to Crossroads, 18th & Vine - Kansas City Business Journal:

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The and the would be includeds in the zone in proposed rules circulating City Hall that woulfd allowany bar-and-restaurant group west of Cleveland north of Linwood Boulevard and south of the Missouri Riverr to apply for an "entertainment district" liquodr license. The rules are intended to makethe city's alcohol ordinance conform with a change in statw law that takes effect Aug. 28. The boundaries were set when the city decidec where to apply the benefits of the 2003 Missouri Downtowbn and Rural EconomicStimulus Act, known as Modesa.
"Eacn license would have its own boundaries within the Modesa saidJudy Hadley, manager of the city'z Division of Regulated Modesa was passed to help financse redevelopment of about seven blocks between the conventiomn center and the proposed Sprint Center arenaa within the downtown freeway loop. The 2005 Missourui General Assembly amended the law to createea $300 liquor license allowing entertainment districts within Modesa boundaries to sell alcohol from portablse bars in outdoor "common areas" during schedulede festivals. Drinkers will be able to carry beveragee between restaurants and bars withij theoutdoor district, a luxury not afforded by currentr liquor rules.
Missy Wilson, vice president of the , said the boundarie s were set following research that turnecd up an 1893 definition ofthe "central business district" that stretched east to Cleveland Avenue, 3.75 miled from the state line. She said state officiala have not objected tothe city's Modesa boundaries, whic h include a loop north of the rivee that takes in the . Modesas required that the boundariesencompass "the historic core locally known as the city's downtowjn area" but let City Hall draw the map. The boundariews please David Whalen, president and CEO of the "We'rre an entertainment district, a visible entertainmentr district," Whalen said.
"This just adds to the good He said the annualRhythkm & Ribs Jazz Festival and an annual pub crawlp would benefit from a districtwidse liquor license covering the three blockx of the jazz district. Meanwhile, art galleries in the Crossroads Arts Districyt are preparing to stop serving free wine during First Fridays, beginning Aug. 5. "We are not goingb to renew that liquor license just simply because we cannot afford to giveit away," said Suzie Aron, presidentf of the . But the Crossroads may gain the optioh of selling booze on the streets if its restaurants decide to seek adistrictwidd license.
"That would really be a questiomn more for our restaurants than for our Aron said. As the monthly First Fridays open house has becom e too popular for galleries to continue dispensingfree wine, the galleriess have learned that they needn't offer booze to draw a she said. "We were thrilled that peopl have come forthe art," she "It's not about going to get a free Outside the growing boundaries of Downtown is the .
Executivs Director Tom Brenneis has protested thatthe 171-year-old town site and decades-oled bar district will be ineligible for the liquofr license reserved for what statee law calls "the historic core locally known as the city'ss downtown area." Brenneis registered his complaintt in a letter to Mayor Kay Barnesd on July 21, saying, "Westport is the most historiv area of our city and has provesd to be a cornerstone of commercse within the community.
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