Hard-Partying Puerto Rico Capital Faces New Code That Will Limit Alcohol Sales

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Puerto Rico’s capital is famend for its all-night partying, however a brand new municipal code is predicted to alter that.

San Juan Mayor Miguel Romero on Tuesday signed a brand new measure to ban alcohol gross sales after sure hours, saying he was “morally satisfied” it was the correct factor to do.

The brand new code, scheduled to enter impact in November, is predicted to have an effect on lots of of eating places and bars throughout San Juan. It was fiercely debated in current months, with companies and Puerto Ricans used to lengthy nights and many years of no oversight decrying the brand new guidelines, which don’t apply to inns and their company.

Residents within the capital’s historic district often known as Previous San Juan, which is fashionable with locals and vacationers alike, rejoiced cautiously.

“The impression of San Juan is that something goes,” mentioned Reinaldo Segurola, 71. “It’s a mixture between Disney and Las Vegas.”

Throngs of individuals with drinks in hand typically crowd the slim streets of Previous San Juan, the place companies are identified to stay open till 5 a.m. to serve the final stragglers, and the celebration typically strikes to the famend seaside group of La Perla, the place revelers welcome the dawn.

An identical scene performs out in different areas of San Juan, together with Loiza Avenue and La Placita de Santurce, a market sq. the place companies bustle and music thumps till daybreak.

Underneath the brand new code, companies in San Juan can solely serve or promote alcohol from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m. from Sunday to Thursday, and as much as 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday, and on Sunday if Monday is a vacation.

“They went overboard,” Carlos Álvarez, a 34-year-old San Juan resident who works at a hashish retailer, mentioned of the mayor and municipal legislature that authorised the code on Friday.

He and his girlfriend typically celebration in Previous San Juan and different areas of the capital late into the night time, and he famous that the brand new code would possible drive folks to begin partying earlier or search clandestine bars he expects will pop up after the brand new guidelines go into impact.

“We stock the love of partying in our blood,” he mentioned of Puerto Ricans.

Romero, the mayor, mentioned the brand new code is required to curb violence and noise, and that it will be revised each six months if mandatory.

“The extra the code is complied with, the stronger the financial system of San Juan, the stronger the tourism,” he mentioned.

Romero signed the code three months after two college students at NYU’s enterprise college have been fatally shot on Loiza Avenue whereas on trip, victims of a close-by altercation. Earlier this 12 months, three tourists from the U.S. mainland were stabbed after police mentioned somebody instructed them to cease filming at La Perla in Previous San Juan.

Total, it’s uncommon for vacationers to be killed in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory of three.2 million folks.

Earlier than Romero signed the brand new code, bar and restaurant house owners warned they might see a drop in income and accused him of favoring inns, that are exempt from the measure.

“This isn’t the time to ban and shut down and stagnate the financial system,” mentioned Diana Font, president of the Affiliation of Companies of Previous San Juan.

She famous that enterprise house owners are nonetheless struggling to get better from the pandemic and Hurricane Maria, which hit the island as a robust Class 4 storm in September 2017.

Font and others additionally questioned whether or not the brand new guidelines would even be enforced, provided that police at present don’t reply to their complaints about noise, rubbish and public ingesting in Previous San Juan.

Segurola, who lives in that space, mentioned Puerto Rico’s tradition is one in all “ingesting recklessly.”

“There’s no management,” he mentioned. “It’s a tradition of enjoyable, of loud music and noise and ingesting.”

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