At the Portage Park Board’s request, the City Council is considering a plan to create a Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area to allow bar patrons to carry drinks from one establishment to another.
The DORA proposal prompted a lot of questions and a bit of levity Tuesday as Mayor Austin Bonta tried to explain the situation and people who remembered the “Dora the Explorer” show couldn’t help but think of the show’s cartoon characters exploring bars in Portage.
Bonta used the example of one bar patron finding out a friend or colleague is enjoying drinks at another local bar at the Portage Mall and wanting to meet up. Bonta made a point of not including Councilman Bob Parnell in the example, knowing Pastor Parnell would not drink alcoholic beverages. Parnell thanked him for choosing another council member instead.
The DORA district would permit carrying an alcoholic beverage outside the bar or the beer garden open during Market on the Square events at Founders Square.
Whether the drink could be carried into another bar would be up to each bar. “This doesn’t force anybody to accept anybody or any drink from another bar,” the mayor explained.
“You don’t have to, like, drink fast or throw it away. You’re able to move it from one location to another,” Bonta said.
“Indiana’s open container law is actually pretty broad,” he said. “What really is the issue in Indiana legally is unless you have a DORA in Indiana, you’re not allowed to purchase a drink in one place, open it or be drinking it, and then leave that place with the drink.”
Some places will sell unopened beverages during festivals so a patron can leave the establishment with the unopened drink and legally consume it elsewhere, Bonta said.
Councilwoman Gina Giese-Hurst, used in one of Bonta’s DORA examples, asked the police department’s view on this idea.
It wouldn’t impact existing laws about disorderly conduct or public intoxication, Bonta said. Anyone could bring their own beer, sit on the lawn and watch traffic on Central Avenue, he said.
“For anybody that’s been to the French Quarter in the city of New Orleans, the French Quarter comes to the city of Portage,” city attorney Ed Graham said.
Parnell asked if drinking alcoholic beverages would still be limited to the beer garden open during some events at Founders Square. Bonta said people legally allowed to buy alcoholic beverages there could take the drink out of the beer garden and watch an outdoor movie with their kids at the park, for example. Anyone can legally bring their own drink from home, too, the mayor said.
“That’s what changes under a DORA, is that freedom of movement,” Bonta said.
The proposed DORA ordinance lists the Stone Quarry Lounge as a designated anchor because Indiana law governing these districts requires a bar as a designated anchor, and the Stone Quarry has been in business for decades. “I think it was founded by Cain and Abel before they broke up,” Bonta quipped.
The district would extend as far east as the Greater Portage Chamber of Commerce office at Founders Square. Graham said the city would be required to post at least 17 signs designating the district, plus the map would be available on the city’s website.
“We are growing our downtown. We don’t intend for there to be a wide gap between Founders Square and the west side of the mall,” Bonta said.
Alcohol would remain prohibited at the police and fire stations.
Councilwoman Victoria Vasquez asked whether trash would become an issue. “There’s things that get dropped all over,” Bonta said “Littering itself needs to be addressed.”
Councilman Ferdinand Alvarez asked whether bars would want patrons leaving with one of their glasses. The council could require a special plastic cup for drinks taken outside the establishment, a precedent set by some other municipalities, Bonta said.
“We can make amendments within the DORA once it’s created,” adding restrictions later, he said. “We have the benefit of the fact that we are not the first city to try this.”
“I have been to areas with this, and it’s actually kind of nice,” Giese-Hurst said.
Bonta urged the council to refer the proposal to the Ways and Means Committee, which rarely meets. Clerk-Treasurer Liz Modesto said during the 24 years she was on the council, she could remember the committee meeting only four or five times.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
