City Taking Measures To Keep So-Called 'Juice Bars' Answerable Given Myriad Downtown Incidents Of Late

NEW HAVEN, CT — It's a public safety and a quality of life issue for the city, officials said.

So-called juice bars are intended to be separate and limited areas within establishments, such as bars and nightclubs, where nonalcoholic beverages are legally served to minors. However, the city said juice bars often operate alongside 21+ events or 'all age' events where alcoholic beverages are available to adults.

"Some bad actors have operated after-hours events that have attracted thousands of young people from across the region and state to New Haven and often resulted in significant public safety and quality-of-life incidents, including illegal sales to minors, disorderly conduct, fights, assaults, shootings, and other crimes and offenses," a news release reads, and a news briefing with city officials Wednesday pointed out.

Police said on any given weekend night, the number of people flowing into New Haven for events, crawls and the club scene "ranges from a couple thousand to 10,000."

The city plans to "hold bad-acting establishments accountable" with several new measures being advanced:

• a new local zoning proposal prohibiting new juice bars from opening,
• a new state legislative proposal providing municipalities with additional tools to make existing juice bars safer and hold repeat violators accountable,
• and remonstrance petitions objecting to the renewal of liquor permits at three local businesses.