Should local zoning ordinances really require off-street parking for bars?   From Straight Outta Suburbia…

…did you know that American cities usually require off-street parking at bars? To take a random example, the city of Long Beach, CA requires 20 parking spaces for every 1,000 square feet of gross floor area for “taverns”. I don’t know what the city thinks people are doing at these bars, but I assure you it’s drinking.

This is how insane our mentality is. Even bars, businesses whose sole purpose is to sell alcohol for on-site consumption, “need” off-street parking. Even though we know that people drive to them, drink, and drive home. Drink and drive. Yeah, lets make sure these people have plenty of free parking.

Bringing it home, Decatur requires its “taverns” to have one parking space for every 100 square feet of “gross floor area”.  So, even if a bar WANTED to reduce people’s incentive to drive and drink, they would be stifled by our own parking requirements.

Remember all the great times you’ve had at the Brick Store? No? Well, maybe you shouldn’t have had 4 pints of Old Chub. That stuff’s 8% alcohol, ya know.

Well, for those of you that can recall great times at Decatur’s famous pub, author Mary Jane Mahan wants to include them in a book she’s writing called “Love at the Pub”. Go over to the Love at the Pub website and take the survey or send your story to the author at [email protected] and maybe you will make it into the book!

Everyone that shares a story will also get invited to the release party.

Looks like Mary Jane is now shooting for a March 2008 release, instead of Nov ’07, as was previously reported here.

UPDATE: GoDeKalb also helps Mary solicit Brick Store stories.

“Funny, sketchy, touching, ordinary—the Pub is all about good times and real life,” said local Decatur author Mary Jane Mahan.