|
| 23 |
2. The Public Drinking Place: An Overview
In 1964 the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control listed
about two thousand establishments in the city of San Francisco licensed
to sell alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises. The terms
of licensing differentiate these establishments into "Public Premises,"
selling only alcoholic beverages (a total of 792), and "Public Eating
Places." The latter category can be divided into restaurants serving beer
and wine only and those serving beer, wine, and distilled beverages. Approximately
231 of the latter subcategory of Public Eating Places are listed in the
classified section of the telephone book as cocktail lounges, taverns,
or night clubs, or under all three headings. Thus, although licensed as
public eating places, they advertise and are known as public drinking
places, some serving only lunches or only enough food to comply with the
terms of their license. These establishments, that are either licensed
only for the sale of alcoholic beverages to be consumed on the premises
or function as establishments within which drinking alone may take place,
will be treated here as public drinking places.
Based on the 1960 census figures for the resident population of San
Francisco, there is approximately one public drinking place for every 717
members of the community, or one for every 515 members eligible to frequent
such settings, which is to say, twenty-one years of age or over. |
| 24 |
The Ecological Order
Most of the public drinking places in San Francisco are situated along
thoroughfares that carry both pedestrian and vehicular traffic. The location
of the premises is usually made conspicuous by signs or symbols (typically
a neon cocktail glass) [16] proclaiming the nature of the establishment.
In addition to telephone directory listings, some establishments in the
city are advertised in the entertainment sections of the large daily papers
and the smaller district papers. Occasionally they are advertised in the
classified section of the newspaper under headings such as "Special Notice"
or "Personals." Their names and locations are sometimes advertised on billboards
throughout the city and on the radio, as well as in a variety of other
media, such as guidebooks to the city and tourist brochures.
But while the location of most public drinking places may be patent
within the community, this is not true of all such establishments. Some
are located on small alleyways or side streets that are little used by
either pedestrians or vehicles. Others, located on more heavily used thoroughfares
but unmarked by sign or symbol, may be unnoticed by and unknown to the
passer-by. Some establishments, marked or unmarked, are situated above
or below street level, outside the usual visual range of one going past.
The telephone directory does not provide a definitive listing of all the
public drinking places in the city. Thus the total number of settings existing
in the community and the number of settings commonly known and easily accessible
may not be the same.
Most Of the public drinking places in San Francisco are clearly demarcated
as separate from and independent of the area surrounding them. They are
free-standing or self-con- |
| 25 |
tained structures existing independently of any other behavior setting.
Some, however, are sub settings within some larger setting.[17] Their
physical milieu can be found enclosed within the milieu of other settings,
such as restaurants, hotels, theaters, transportation terminals, bowling
alleys, sports arenas, and even retail department stores. When the public
drinking place is a sub setting, it is usually exposed to a larger segment
of the community--for example, those persons present in the larger setting
who have not attained their majority, those who do not drink, or those
who do not choose to enter the bar for any reason.
The nature of the encompassing setting may of course play an important
part in whether or not a public drinking place will exist as a sub setting
within it. When the Mount San Jacinto Winter Park Authority requested permission
to sell alcoholic beverages in the restaurant that was opening there, the
chief of the California State Park Commission stated, "If the intent of
the Winter Park Authority is to provide access to an area of outstanding
natural beauty and outdoor recreation, sale of liquor at the mountain station
will not enhance this experience." He noted that, according to the commission's
established policy, liquor sale within the state parks "as a general rule
is not compatible with park use."[18] There are, of course, a variety
of other behavior settings that would be in the same sense incongruous
with a sub setting of a public drinking place.
When the public drinking place is a sub setting, its physical milieu
may still be clearly demarcated from that of the larger selling by full
walls. The association between the bar and the larger setting may thus
be controlled by the connecting door. left open, the relationship between
the two settings is easily apparent; closed, the bar may be perceived as
an independent |
| 26 |
milieu. In other cases where the bar is contained within a larger setting,
its physical milieu may be marked off only by partial walls, low partitions,
or some other device like plantings or hangings, conventionally setting
off the smaller unit although its physical area may be in part coterminous
with the physical area of the encompassing setting. In some contained bars,
however, there may be no features at all that could either structurally
or conventionally function to define the area of the public drinking place,
and the standing behavior patterns of both settings may be found to be
equally distributed throughout the physical area which they share.
Even where the milieu of the public drinking place is enclosed or
contained in a larger behavioral setting, entrance into the bar may still
be direct. Bars structurally demarcated from the larger setting in which
they exist may and frequently do have a separate street entrance not shared
by the larger setting. Where the milieu of the contained bar is only conventionally
defined, its area is often located immediately following the main entrance.
Here patrons enter the bar directly, while those who intend to patronize
only the larger setting are required to move through the sub setting of
the public drinking place first. In other cases, the entrances and exits
of contained bars require the patrons to move through some part of the
larger setting first. Thus in some hotel bars and in most transportation
terminal bars, the entrance to the bar opens only onto the lobby area of
the larger setting. In some restaurant bars it is necessary for persons
who intend to use the bar first or exclusively to weave their way through
the tables of the dining area before they can reach the bar itself.
The location of public drinking places in the city is restricted both
by state law (which may deny the issuance of licenses in the general vicinity
of churches, public playgrounds, hospitals, and public work camps) [19]
and city ordinances (which |
| 27 |
Ecological Distribution of Public Drinking Places in San Francisco,
California, 1965
may prohibit establishments from areas not zoned for commercial purposes).
Even within the permitted areas, their distribution is uneven: there are
a few areas with a number of establishments and a number of areas with
few establishments or none at all.
Almost one-third of the total number of public drinking places in San
Francisco (see map) are situated in two general areas of the city, The
first area is composed of four contiguous |
| 28 |
census tracts which more or less comprise the downtown section of
the city.[20] These four census tracts include, in addition to the central
business and commercial district, the greater part of both the skid row
area and the tenderloin. Of the two hundred twenty-four bars in this area,
26 per cent are in the central business and commercial tract, 41 per cent
are in the two tenderloin tracts, and 33 per cent are in the skid row tract.
The second area of high concentration, comprised of two adjacent census
tracts, is known and characterized by the ninety-one public drinking places
located there. This is the night-life section of the city, where one finds
the greatest number of bars featuring some form of programed entertainment.
In addition to these two areas of high concentration, 28 per cent of
the public drinking places in San Francisco are found in fifteen other
census tracts, each of which has between fifteen and twenty-nine establishments.
Of these additional tracts, (which contain 11 per cent of the resident
population of the city twenty-one years of age or older), six are in the
general vicinity of the two areas of highest concentration. Partially adjacent
to both the downtown business and commercial district and the nightlife
section of the city are two tracts extending east and north along the
waterfront area, an area characterized mainly by industrial and commercial
use, as well as by restaurants, theaters, and other commercial and civic
facilities for leisure pursuits. The remaining tracts are partially adjacent
to the tenderloin tracts and are essentially residential areas, containing
apartment houses, resident clubs, and hotels that cater to a relatively
permanent clientele. |
| 29 |
Of the remaining nine census tracts with fifteen to twenty-nine public
drinking places, two adjacent tracts to the south of the downtown section
of the city comprise an area mainly characterized by light industry. The
rest are characterized. by commercial enclaves of various sizes within
residential areas. Five of these seven tracts are adjoining and run through
one of the older residential areas in the city, in many respects an area
typical of what Burgess has described as the "zone of working men's homes."[21]
Of the remaining two, one borders the main entrance of a military base
and the other is in the general vicinity of the sports arena.
Although there is an average of eight public drinking places per census
tract, of the 125 tracts in the city (excluding the two that comprise the
Presidio and Golden Gate Park) eighteen (or 14 per cent of the total number)
contain no bars. Another 46 tracts (37 per cent of the total number) have
fewer than five bars in each. Of these sixty-four tracts, nearly two-thirds
are outside the northeast quadrant of the city; but of the 20 census tracts
which have ten or more public drinking places, only eight are outside the
northeast quadrant.
In general, the ecological distribution of public drinking places is
closely associated with the ecological distribution of potential patrons.
In the sixty-three census tracts comprising the northeast quadrant of the
city, not only is there the greatest concentration of bars (70 per cent
of the total number of establishments) but also the greatest concentration
of potential patrons. Although this quadrant has only 39 per cent of the
total resident population, it contains 50 per cent of the single resident
population of the city and 52 per cent of the single male resident population,
two categories that are most likely to contribute patrons to such settings.[22]
In addition to residents, |
| 30 |
the local transient hotels, business and commercial establishments,
and a variety of recreational facilities draw a substantial number of potential
patrons to the area on a day-to-day basis.
As one moves out from the northeast quadrant of the city, there are
fewer stores, offices, hotels, theaters, and restaurants that might bring
potential patrons to local bars. Also, the demographic composition of the
residents of these other areas becomes much more characteristic of non patrons.
Thus, while one-fourth of the population of the city resides in the twenty-three
census tracts that form the southwest quadrant of the city, only 20 per
cent of the single population and only 18 per cent of the single male population
reside there. Only six per cent of the public drinking places in the city
are in this quadrant. Compared with the northeast quadrant, where there
is one public drinking place for every 308 residents twenty-one years of
age or older, in the southwest quadrant there is only one public drinking
place for every 1,952 residents of legal drinking age.
The Legal Order
Jurisdiction over permissible locations is only one aspect of the public
drinking place that is governed by law, Much of the ostensible character
of the public drinking place is a matter of legal statute. Establishments
whose character deviates from this legal prescription become unlawful settings
subject to |
| 31 |
penalty of some kind, including closure, if and when the infractions
are discovered.[23]
Implicit in the laws concerning liquor sale is that unregulated public
drinking can be a source of trouble in society and, thus, public drinking
places must be legally regulated for the protection of society. The Department
of Alcoholic Beverage Control is the official California agency which has
the responsibility to
exercise the police powers of the State for the protection
of the safety, welfare, health, peace and morals of the people of the state,
to eliminate the evils of unlicensed and unlawful manufacture, selling
and disposing of alcoholic beverages, and to promote temperance in the
use and consumption of alcoholic beverages.[24]
Unlike most retail businesses, biographical character is a relevant variable
in the decision as to whether or not a prospective entrepeneur will be
legally qualified to open or purchase a public drinking place. He is required
to provide a statement that he has not been convicted of any felony or
violated any of the requirements of the Department, and that he Will not
"cause or permit to be violated any of the provisions of this division
or any rule of the department applicable to the applicant or pertaining
to the manufacture, sale or distribution of alcoholic beverages,".[25]
Similarly, if the licensee is to employ a manager, he must not knowingly
employ one who does not have the same qualification required of the holder
of the license.[26] |
| 32 |
Once the license has been granted, the licensee must continue to maintain
his moral stature, for failure to do so will result in revocation of his
license. The license can be revoked not only if the ABC codes are violated
but also if the licensee is convicted of a felony or of any offense involving
moral turpitude.[27] The operator of a public drinking place must in
effect be a person whose moral character cannot be called into question.
In California, the number of licenses issued in any county is limited
by the total population of that county. At present there can be only one
new license issued for each 2,500 inhabitants, although in the past this
ratio has been as low as one license for every 1,000 inhabitants of a county.[28]
The manifest reason for this limitation is that the restriction of the
number of public drinking places will reduce the competition among existing
establishments and hence eliminate the need for " cutthroat competition."
This in turn "promises temperance and deters violation of the liquor
control and other penal laws."[29] But the restriction also implies that
the fewer establishments available, the less the possible patronage. At
the same time, the limitation of the number of establishments presumably
facilitates the problem of surveillance and thus allows for moire effective
enforcement of the ABC statutes.
While the hours of operation of most business establishments remain
a matter for private determination, this is not completely the case for
the public drinking place. Both the time of day and the days Of the week
that they are permitted to operate are again a matter of law, which varies
from state to state. In California, no public drinking place may "sell,
furnish or give away" any alcoholic beverages between the hours of 2 A.M.
and 6 A.M. of the same day.[30] Nor is any |
| 33 |
public drinking place in California permitted to be open for business
on Election Day during the hours that the polls are open for voting.
Even the way the business may be organized is subject to restrictions.
For example, for most business establishments whether or not credit will
be extended to customers is a decision solely under the jurisdiction of
the entrepreneur; but in all states (with the exception of Ohio and Texas),
sales in public drinking places must be, by law, for cash.[31] In some
states there are even legal restrictions concerning the physical premises.
A bar may be restricted in length or be required to have stools so that
patrons may be seated. In New York, the physical bar must not be the predominant
fixture in the establishment. In Chicago, public drinking places must have
a window facing the street so that the interior of the establishment is
visible from the outside. Some states stipulate that establishments licensed
for the sale of alcoholic beverages to be consumed on the premises must
not have swinging doors. New Hampshire public drinking places are not allowed
to have window displays and illuminated signs above the premises. In California,
the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act stipulates that
no sign using the words "bar, " "barroom," "saloon" or words
of like or similar import except the word "tavern" and the words "cocktail
lounge" shall be maintained, erected, used or placed upon or adjacent to
the outside of any building and in connection with any premises therein
licensed to sell alcoholic beverages at retail for consumption on the premises.[32]
Although defined by law as "public premises," the public character
of bars is restricted by the fact that they are lawfully accessible only
to those members of the community who have reached legal drinking age (which
again varies from state to |
| 34 |
state).[33] And of those who are of legal age, some Persons--such
as the visibly intoxicated, the habitual drunkard or Person of "notoriously
intemperate habits."[34] the Indian who is a ward of the government or
on reservation land (defined as the "uncivilized" in Minnesota)--may be
barred from the premises. In some states, although not in California, the
insane are similarly excluded.
In nineteen states (excluding California), "interdicted" persons may
be denied the right to patronize public drinking places. The operating
personnel of a bar may be notified by a member of the prospective patron's
family or dependents, by public officials, the state liquor authority,
or certain courts, that an individual is not to be allowed to patronize
the establishment, and this notification is legally binding upon the establishment.
A person can be so interdicted on grounds of being "addicted to excessive
drinking, a spendthrift, on relief, neglectful of his family, or an idle
person."[35]
Just as the law defines who may or may not drink in public places,
so too does it specify who may or may not be employed in such establishments.
In aft states, the minimum age limit that defines lawful patronage of public
drinking places also defines the minimum age of those who can be employees.
Thus in California, persons under the age of 21 are barred from working
in bars "during business hours, which are primarily designed and used for
the sale and service of alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises."[36]
although such persons may engage in housekeeping and janitorial duties
during nonoperative hours, |
| 35 |
The Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) statutes of eleven states categorically
deny females the right to work in liquor establishments. In California,
women are permitted to work in public drinking places, but the tasks they
are lawfully permitted to carry out are limited. Unless a woman is the
licensee or the wife of the licensee of the establishment, she is prohibited
from working behind the bar unless she restricts her activities to serving
beer and soft drinks. The statute reads:
Every person who uses the services of a female in dispensing
wine or distilled spirits from behind any permanently affixed fixture which
is used for the preparation or concoction of alcoholic beverages containing
distilled spirits, on any premises used for the sale of alcoholic beverages
for consumption on the premises, or any female who renders such services
on such premises, is guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction is punishable
by a fine of not more than $100 or by imprisonment in the county jail for
not more than three months, or by both such fine and imprisonment.[37]
The way in which the tasks involved in running a public bar to customers
seated away from the bar are also restricted by law, for, although a female
employee of a public drinking place may lawfully pour beer from the bottle
for the customer, she cannot pour wine.[38]
The way in which the tasks involved in running a public drinking place
are to be distributed among available personnel is also under ABC control.
Thus a female employee in California may entreat a customer to purchase
a drink if she is employed by the establishment to distribute drinks, that
is, if she is employed as a waitress. But to employ someone only to encourage
patrons to purchase drinks on the premises is |
| 36 |
unlawful. Thus by law the public drinking place is to be a setting
where there is neither hustling nor soliciting.[39]
Furthermore, all employees in public drinking places are expected to
be of good moral character; the establishment is held directly responsible
for the immoral behavior of its employees, In California, a license for
a public drinking place can be revoked if the employees sell narcotics
on the premises, if they make book on the premises (even if this is only
one single act), or if female employees mingle and drink with the patrons
or accept a drink from them (even if this is a nonalcoholic drink and even
if the licensee had no knowledge of his employee's activities). Specifically,
the statute reads:
In order to find a violation of 24200(b) it is not necessary
for the accused to have knowledge of the violation or that he was negligent
in not discovering the violation; the licensee can be held to have permitted
the violation by showing that the acts themselves took place.[40]
The licensee of a public drinking place is held responsible for
all those who are on his premises, whether they are present in the capacity
of employee or patron. In the same way that the character and activities
of employees can provide grounds for the revocation of the license of an
establishment, so too can the character and activities of patrons provide
grounds for revocation. The licensee of a public drinking place in California
has by law "an active duty" to prevent minors from drinking alcoholic
beverages on his premises, as well as to prevent his premises from becoming
a "resort" for illegal possessors or users of narcotics, prostitutes, pimps,
panders, or sexual perverts.[41] |
| 37 |
In general, and unlike houses of prostitution and opium dens, bars
in America are not, by law, as much deviant settings as they are places
of potential deviant activity. Since the repeal of prohibition, the public
drinking place has been reinstated as a legitimate retail business establishment,
serving a legitimate demand for a legitimate commodity. But unlike the
majority of other retail businesses, unlike grocery stores, clothing stores,
cafeterias, movie theaters, or bowling alleys, the restrictions placed
on bars by the official agencies of social control both implicitly and
explicitly attribute to it a precarious status. The official control exerted
by the state over who may be licensed to conduct a public drinking place,
who may be employed in such an establishment, who may patronize the premises,
as well as how many establishments are to be permitted in a given locality,
where they may be located, when they may be open for business, and the
way in which the business may be run--all these restrictions serve to define
a setting of a particular kind, a setting in which, from the standpoint
of the conventional order, social trouble is apt to ensue.
The Moral Order
The precarious status attributed to the public drinking place by law presumably
reflects the judgment of the conventional community. historically, the
patterns of behavior taken for granted in such settings as a matter of
course have often been viewed not only as the antithesis of the general
standards of propriety of polite society, but as destructive to the moral
fiber of those engaged in them and ultimately to |
| 38 |
society as a whole.[42] The following example of this view comes
from a tract written in the eighteenth century as a guide for innkeepers:
Public-Houses, though very useful when no more in Number than
necessary and well managed, yet when made subservient to Idleness, Drunkenness,
Profanation of the Lord's Day, Lewdness, and Debauchery, or any Vice and
Immorality, may in such Case be called poisonous Sinks of Iniquity, and
fatal Consequence to the great Annoyance of the Neighborhood, the Corruption
of Morals, the Waste of Substance, the Destruction of the Body, and the
eternal Ruin of the Soul.[43]
In the same vein, Booth writes of the public houses of England,
The standard of propriety in these public places should not
only be set as high as possible, but should everywhere be at least equal,
and in the poorer neighborhoods rise above that ordinarily obtaining
in the
|
| 39 |
homes. Respectability must rule. . . . This is no extravagant
ideal. It is not only expected, but is practically attained in all other
places of public resort: in the streets and parks, in theaters and music-halls,
in markets and shops, in tea-rooms and refreshment houses of every class.
. . . Everywhere we find order and propriety of behavior. Misconduct is
admittedly out of place. Nor is exhilaration connected with the consumption
of alcohol incompatible with order in public places any more than in the
home. What would be thought of a railway company which permitted any of
its refreshment rooms to be the scene of conduct which is accepted as a
matter of course in half the public-houses in London on a Saturday.[44]
If the nature of the patterns of conduct associated with the public
drinking place was dubious, so too was the nature of those who frequented
such settings. As far back as early Greece the public drinking place has
been associated with social outcasts and those of little or no social worth.[45]
Firebaugh writes of the taverns of the Middle Ages,
In addition to the vagabond, ribald strumpets, jugglers, and
the like, the tavern rout was swelled by great numbers of errant minstrels,
peripatetic fiddlers, clamorous and frowsy singers, of both sexes or of
neither, who thronged these places for lack of welcome elsewhere. Here
they could forget themselves in the maze of the dance, cadge drinks and
meals and, if the forelock of opportunity was long enough, pick the pockets
of patrons, to the accompaniment of picaresque recitals, folk songs and
the like.[46]
|
| 40 |
Similarly, the innkeeper of the eighteenth century was admonished
to order his business in such a way as to discourage the presence of the
"Loose and Disorderly, the wicked and Profligate, in short, the worst Part
of Mankind" who were likely to patronize drinking places.[47] For those
patrons whose character was not in the first instance questionable, the
possible fate that awaited them in the public drinking place was often
deemed sufficient to discredit them, either by habituating them to drink
or by bringing them into association with improper company or improper
conduct.[48]
Although there have been exceptions to the precarious character attributed
to the public drinking place (notably the taverns of colonial America and
the historically more recent public houses of England), in America the
contemporary bar remains a setting to which many still accord at best questionable
esteem. Thus, for example, Macrory writes in his study of attitudes toward
the tavern,
The most striking discovery is that over four-fifths of all
respondents were in agreement with statements that would place the tavern
in a position diametrically opposed to some of the most important values
in contemporary American life, such as children and the home. . . . About
four-fifths believe that the tavern provides contacts and associations
which lead to crime, and attribute to the tavern much drunkenness and disorderly
conduct. It seems paradoxical that such a large proportion of respondents
agree that the tavern is related to these forms of social disorganization
and yet over three-fifths of all respondents patronize the tavern either
irregularly (27%) or regularly (35%).[49]
|
| 41 |
Attitudes toward public drinking places are intimately bound up with
attitudes toward alcoholic beverages and drinking, which are in themselves
ambivalent.[50] In American society, although a sizable majority of
the adult population drink[51] (and to a certain extent the non adult
population as well),[52] alcohol and drinking occupy a position that is
both sacred and profane. On the one hand, alcohol and drinking are associated
with such sacred rituals as christenings, weddings, communions, and funerals;
more secular rites such as celebrations of birthdays, engagements, and
anniversaries; and a variety of other special occasions of friendship,
solidarity, and success, such as social parties, dinners and promotions.
On the other hand, alcohol and drinking are also associated with an assortment
of social evils: destitution, crime, vice, licentiousness, and mental
and physical illness.
In part, this ambivalence may result from the nature of the physiological
effects attributed to the consumption of alcoholic beverages. To the extent
that alcohol acts as a depressant upon the central nervous system, drinking
can, and |
| 42 |
is generally expected to, diminish inculcated social inhibitions of
reserve and restraint, allowing the participants to act with whatever heightened
ecstasy, increased elan, or degree of freedom is proper and fitting for
the occasion at band. But while this diminution of inhibitions may allow
the participants to engage more fully or more appropriately in an occasion,
care must be exercised by those present not to drink beyond the point where
they will completely lose control of themselves--that point where the
broader obligations required in the setting and ' by the occasion are
disregarded. Those present are expected at least to show that they are
both aware and capable of meeting the demands that may be made of them
while they are in a given situation. Those drinkers who disregard these
broader situational obligations are relegated to a morally debauched state
of "being drunk," and they are typically accorded a variety of attitudes
appropriate to their debased position: disgust, scorn, fear, loss of respect.[53]
At best, then, drinking even on the most sacred of occasions can be a risky
activity, for, as reserve and restraint are diminished, the possibility
always exists that the participants may lose complete situational control
of themselves.
If drinking is a precarious activity in any setting, the risk associated
with drinking in public drinking places may be even greater. In most private
settings in which drinking takes place in American society, the persons
present are typically either known to one another directly or known to
at least one other participant who can vouch for them to the others present;
if the need arises, one is or can be assured that he is in the presence
of trustworthy social persons. Hence he can assume that his right to diminished
reserve and restraint will be treated with respect, first, because of the
kind of people that the partici- |
| 43 |
pants are known to be, and second, because the existing relationships
that transcend the particular setting and occasion require the participants
to exercise care not to damage those relationships beyond repair. But the
public drinking place, being by definition open to the public, is typically
populated by persons about whose character one may have no information
whatsoever and with whom there exists no relationship transcending the
immediate setting and governing in part the activities of the moment.[54]
As strangers, they should be treated with the reserve and restraint that
drinking is at the same time expected to diminish. The following statements
made by men in response to the question, "How does liquor affect you?"
are indicative, particularly the last:
"I want to be friends with everybody. I have no enemies when
I am drinking. Normally, I am the shy type. But when I have a few drinks
in me, I become everybody's pal."
"It does make me a little more talkative than I usually am. When I
am not drinking, I tend to be a quiet sort of guy."
"Drinking makes me relaxed, friendly and talkative. I become uninhibited."
"Usually I have a reserved attitude toward strangers, but when I am
drinking I'll talk with anybody."[55]
Thus, added to the risk of completely losing situational control
in a public drinking place, is the further risk of leaving oneself open
to possible exploitation on the part of those with whom one is unacquainted[56]
and whose trustworthiness is |
| 44 |
neither vouched for in the present setting nor expected as a feature
of a broader system of obligations.
A further potential risk is attached to engagement in social hypocrisy.
The reduced reserve and restraint that may be proper and fitting in other
drinking settings may be valued in part because it provides tangible evidence
of the kind of special occasion which is occurring or the kind of special
relationships shared by those present. In the public drinking place, there
is usually no particular occasion that might "legitimize" the activity
occurring in the setting and no special relationships to be proclaimed
or reaffirmed among those present. Thus the same forms of behavior that
may be valued in other drinking settings may be, in the public drinking
place, only shams, symbols without a referent of a particular kind of occasion
or relationship behind them. Those who engage in such social hypocrisy
may run the risk of having any claims they make about knowing and respecting
the true nature of the social order doubted, and they may find themselves
accorded a kind of moral censure similar to that accorded other social
charlatans, such as confidence men and gigolos.
Thus behavior in the setting of the public drinking place may be empty,
standing as a symbol without a referent of a particular kind of relationship
behind it; and it may call forth further sanction insofar as it suggests
the possibility that freedom of behavior need not imply that intimate
relationships exist. If the character of the behavior is to be taken as
evidence of the nature of the relationships underlying it, and if the same
behavior can be evinced without corresponding relationships, then whether
these relationships are in fact as they are said to be is put in doubt.
In this sense, the bar setting may give false witness to the commonsense
expectation that the character of relationships may be inferred from the
nature of the behavior of the participants, and a whole section of taken-for-
granted knowledge can be discredited.
In summary, while the public drinking place as conven- |
| 45 |
tional. setting is relatively abundant and available to the members
of the community, its moral character is by no means unquestionable. Both
the legal statutes governing such settings and the historical and contemporary
characterization of the nature of the public drinking place define the
setting as one that is, for a number of reasons, if not beyond the pale
of respectability in American society, at least on its fringes. |
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[16]
Of the 116 public drinking places situated along two main thoroughfares in the city, 64 had neon cocktail glasses posted outside the entrance and another 11 had cocktail glasses which were unlit.
[17]
By "sub setting" is meant a behavior setting that is included within the physical boundaries of some larger setting. Thus the waiting room would be a sub setting of a doctor's office. See Roger Barker and Herbert F. Wright, Midwest and Its Children, (Evanston, Ill.: Row, Peterson and Company, n.d.), pp. 48-50.
[18]
San Francisco Chronicle, June 20, 1963.
[19]
Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, Alcoholic Beverage Control Act (California State Printing Office, September, 1961), pp. 68-69. In other states, restriction of the location of public drinking places may include the vicinity of prisons, homes for the aged, the poor, the insane, military installations, public buildings, fair grounds, and auctions. See Bertram M. Bernard, Liquor Laws (New York; Oceana Publications, 1949), p. 58.
[20]
The Concentration of public drinking places in the central business district of Providence, R.I., was even greater. Approximately 20 per cent of the public drinking places in that city were located in the one tract which essentially comprised the central business district, while the Similar tract in San Francisco has only 6 Per cent of the total Number of such establishments. Cf. M. W. Pfautz and R. W. Hyde "The Ecology of Alcohol in the Local Community," Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 21 (1960). D. 451
[21]
E. W. Burgess, "The Growth of the City," in R. E. Park and E. W. Burgess, The City (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1925).
[22]
Of 961 respondents classified as "drinkers" in a sample of the resident San Francisco population, 56 per cent indicated that they either never attend a public drinking place or attend only once a year. However, only 36 per cent of the never-married respondents and 35 per cent of the unmarried males stated that they "virtually never" frequent such settings. These data were collected by the Alcoholic Rehabilitation Center of the California State Department of Public Health, I am indebted to the Center for graciously making them available to me and particularly to Walter B. Clark and Robin Room for their assistance in tabulation. Detailed analysis of the differences between patrons and non patrons can be found in Sherri Cavan, Social Interaction in Public Drinking Places (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1965), pp. 58-67.
[23]
There are a number of settings, often called "after-hours places," where drinks can be obtained but which are not licensed by the state for the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages. While there may be a great deal of similarity between such settings and licensed settings, I am here concerned only with the latter.
[24]
Alcoholic Beverage Control Act, op. cit., p. 16. There are no states where the control of liquor and liquor dispensation is not a matter of official concern. Cf. Bernard? op. cit.
[25]
ABC, op. cit., p. 75.
[26]
Ibid., p. 68
[27]
Ibid., p. 94.
[28]
Ibid., p. 72.
[29]
Bernard, op. cit., p. 15.
[30]
ABC, op. cit., pp. 138-139. To comply with this law, bar clocks are typically set ten minutes ahead, thus producing what is referred to as "bar time."
[31]
Bernard, op. cit., p. 61.
[32]
ABC, op. cit., p. 136.
[33]
In New York, for example, the age is eighteen; in California, twenty-one.
[34]
Bernard, op. cit., p. 59.
[35]
Ibid., p. 60. The roll of those who have at one time or another been barred from drinking in public drinking places has include4t in various times and various places~ townsmen (in contradistinction to travelers. or strangers), indentured servants, slaves, and women.
[36]
ABC, op. Cit., pp. 143-144.
[37]
Ibid., p. 140.
[38]
Conversation, Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, March, 13~ 1963.
[39]
ABC, op. cit., pp. 140-141.
[40]
Ibid., p. 96.
[41]
Ibid., pp. 94-95. This section has a long history of legal proceedings, especially with respect to the use of such settings as "resorts" by homosexuals, the problem being whether it is to be unlawful for such people merely to patronize an establishment regularly or whether it is necessary to provide evidence that unlawful acts were committed by them on the premises. Cf. Vallerga v. Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, 53 Cal. 2nd 313.
[42]
An excellent summary of the historical position of the public drinking place can be found in Simon Dinitz, The Relation of The Tavern to Drinking Phases of Alcoholics (unpublished Pb.D. dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 1951) and in Mass Observation, The Pub and the People (London: Victor Gollancz, Ltd., 1943). Descriptions for specific historical eras and geographical locals can be found in: George Ade, The Old Time Saloon (New York: Ray Long and Richard Smith, Inc., 1931); E. Field, The Colonial Tavern (Providence, R.I.: Preston and Rounds, 1897); W. C. Firebaugh, The Inns of Greece and Rome (Chicago: Pascal Covici, 1924); W. C. Firebaugh, The Inns of the Middle Ages (Chicago: Pascal Covici, 1924); V. Efron, "The Tavern and the Saloon in Old Russia," in R. McCarthy (ed.), Drinking and Intoxication (New York: The Free Press, 1959); and F. W. Hackwood Inns, Ales and Drinking Customs of Old England (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1909). The Prohibitionist literature also provides an abundance of material On the disrepute of the saloon. Cf. Raymond Catkins, Substitution for the Saloon (New York: Houghton Mifflin & Co. 1901) and Charles Stelzle, Why Prohibition (New York: George H. Doran Co., 1918).
[43]
The Public Housekeeper's Monitor (London: C. E Rivington, 1793),pp. 10-11.
[44]
Charles Booth, Life and Labour of the People of London (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1903), v. 8, p. 112.
[45]
See, for example: The Inns of Greece and Rome, op. cit., pp. 57-58 et passim; Hackwood, op. cit., p. 68 et passim; Ade, op. cit., pp. 12-13 et passim. This is not to say that the exclusive clientele of the public drinking place is of this nature, but, rather, that the socially nefarious have formed a prominent group of historical patrons.
[46]
The Inns of the Middle Ages, op. cit., p. 69.
[47]
The Public Housekeeper's Monitor, op. cit., pp. 48-49.
[48]
See, for example, The Inns of Greece and Rome, op. cit., pp. 57-58; Stelzle, op. cit., p. 112; Henry Mayhew, German Life and Manners (London: Wm. H. Allen & Co., 1864), v. 1, pp. 288-289; and Byron Kirby, "The Logic of Prohibition," in McCarthy, op. cit., pp. 383-388.
[49]
B. E. Macrory, "The Tavern and the Community," Quarterly
Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 13 (1952), p. 622.
[50]
Cf. A. Meyerson, "Alcoholism: The Role of Social Ambivalence," in McCarthy, op. cit.
[51]
While the way in which "abstainers" is defined varies from study to study, it appears that between three-fifths and three-fourths of the adult population in America drink alcoholic beverages to some extent. See: Genevieve Knupfer and Robin Room, "Age, Sex and Social Class as Factors in Amount of Drinking in a Metropolitan Community," Social Problems, 12 (1964), P. 226; Genevieve Knupfer et al., California Drinking Practices Study, Report No. 6, California State Department of Public Health, April, 1963, p. 8; Harold A. Mulford and Donald E. Miller, "Drinking in Iowa: 11. The Extent of Drinking and Selected Sociocultural Categories," Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 21 (1960), pp. 26-39; John W. Riley and Charles F. Marden, "Who, What and How Often?," in McCarthy, op. cit., pp. 182-198.
[52]
See: Raymond G. McCarthy, "In High School," ibid., pp. 205211; Arthur D. Slater, "A Study of the Use of Alcoholic Beverages among High School Students in Utah," Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 13 (1952), pp. 78-86; M. M. McCluggage et al., "Summary from Attitudes of High School Students Toward Alcoholic Beverages," in McCarthy, op. cit., pp. 211-218; and Robert Strauss and Seldon D. Bacon, Drinking in College (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1953).
[53]
Cf. J. J. Lawrence and M. A. Maxwell "Drinking and Socioeconomic Status," in D. J. Pittman and C. R. Snyder (eds.). Society, Culture and Drinking Patterns (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1962), P. 144.
[54]
Cf. Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, (Kurt H. Wolff, ed. and trans ) (New York: The Free Press, 1950), pp. 402408; and Alfred Schutz, "The Stranger," American Journal of Sociology, 59 (1958), pp. 409-507.
[55]
The Question Man, "How Does Liquor Affect you?," San Francisco Chronicle, August 29, 1963.
[56]
Erving Goffman, Behavior in Public Places (New York: The Free Press, 1963), p- 124-
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