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The Manhattan city government is heading in the right direction on beer gardens.City commissioners this week supported the idea of allowing broader areas where people could drink alcohol out in the open.It’s a good start. Why not broaden the concept further so that people can walk around Aggieville routinely with a drink in their hand?The legal background is this: Basically, the law says alcohol has to be consumed on the premises of a place like a bar that has a license to sell booze. You can’t just walk around with a drink — that’s a violation of the “open container” law.But the city (like many others) has carved out a few exceptions for limited special events, where a special permit is granted. The trouble is that the area where people can drink is usually limited and fenced off, and that can get restrictive. Commissioners noted that it pulls parents away from kids, for instance.We should note that we’re not talking about raging keg parties on the lawn of a fraternity — we’re talking about fundraisers for local charities, for instance.Anyway, as Commissioner Wynn Butler said, people drink all the time at tailgates in the K-State football stadium parking lot, and there’s no roped-off area. Perhaps it’s time to loosen the regulations a bit.Police director Brad Gruntley said the city should be careful to craft rules so that you don’t end up with a the kegger on the lawn, or as he put it, a “Bahama Mama festival” sponsored by fraternities and sororities.True.On the other hand, we figure regulations could be crafted to allow adults to walk around a carefully drawn area — Aggieville comes to mind — with plastic cups during certain hours of certain days. No glass, of course, but would there really be any harm from allowing more of a festival-type atmosphere on weekend nights in what is already the bar district?It’s worth a discussion.
Tarped how? What does that mean?