Selling on Sunday

For the first time in a long time (or maybe ever) Denham Springs can legitimately be referred to as more liberal than Baton Rouge. That is, when it comes to the sale of alcohol on Sundays. And this according to the city’s mayor, James Durbin, a conservative Republican who fought tooth and nail against the repeal of a ban on Sunday alcohol sales before finally relenting to the will of the people Sept. 30.

Like many cities Denham Springs’ size, convenience stores and restaurants circle its outskirts. Though Durbin doesn’t see the lifting of the ban as an economic development tool, per se, he does believe more retailers might locate within the city limits now that the ban has been lifted. “Why would someone open a restaurant within the city limits where they couldn’t serve wine or alcohol on Sunday?” Durbin asks. “And obviously Denham Springs doesn’t get the tax revenue from those restaurants [outside the city]. You had a gross inequality for commercial investment.”

This is a microcosm of the issue now facing East Baton Rouge Parish. Shoppers can cross parish lines into West Baton Rouge, Ascension or Livingston and purchase liquor on Sundays without having to sit down for a meal there.

In East Baton Rouge only retail beer sales are allowed after 12:30 p.m. on Sunday. Conversely, retail stores in Denham Springs can now sell beer, wine and hard liquor from noon to midnight, and restaurants can serve beginning at 11 a.m.

Licensed Baton Rouge restaurants and country clubs have long been able to serve liquor with Sunday meals, but it’s the standalone wine outlets, convenience stores and daiquiri cafés that feel the effects of the ban.

The vote in Denham Springs passed by a razor-thin margin, but a recent poll of Daily Report subscribers showed the decision might not be as close in Baton Rouge. Out of 1,035 respondents, nearly 80% said they would vote to repeal the current “blue laws” and allow wine and liquor sales on Sunday.

Baton Rougeans might get their say Oct. 20. After a year of quietly talking up the issue, Metro Councilman Darrell Ourso wants Sunday sales on the same ballot as the upcoming governor’s race. But he is going to have to convince six of his fellow council members to earn a simple majority and put the issue to a people’s vote.

“We may see an economic consequence in increased tax revenues, but the driving force really is that if people in Baton Rouge are looking for other ways to get pleasure, then that should be made an option to them,” says Ourso, who believes at least two other metro-council members to be on his side already.

But it is Joe Greco, the council’s mayor pro-tempore, who may be Ourso’s toughest convert. Greco told The Advocate in December that he “ain’t got the guts” to put a blue law repeal on the ballot for fear that those in his district, which borders Livingston Parish, would run him out of town.

That’s an idea Denham Springs Mayor Jimmy Durbin finds laughable. “Don’t let those Metro Councilmen in Baton Rouge tell you that they are afraid to put it on the ballot because of their constituents,” Durbin says. “If it can happen in Denham Springs, it can happen in Baton Rouge.”

Even after the liquor debate received heavy media coverage, three out of the five Denham Springs council members won re-election last fall, with one suffering a narrow defeat to a strong challenger, and the other losing to Durbin for mayor. So it appears that the council’s unanimous support for a public vote on Sunday sales had little or no effect on re-election efforts.

Still, it’s that idea of the reluctant councilman and dissent from conservative Christians that has entrepreneurs like Cork & Bottle owner Jon Smith unconvinced that the law will change in Baton Rouge. Mayor Kip Holden has gone on record saying he would support the sale of wine on Sunday, but not hard liquor.

“I can understand if the community said, ‘We want to be dry and that’s it,’ but distinguishing between beer and alcohol, I just don’t understand it,” Smith says. “Maybe it’s to help the beer industry. But a case of beer is the same as a fifth of whiskey. You’ve got these single-district councilmen who have to cater to their constituents.”

Smith owns a second Cork & Bottle location in New Orleans, where Sunday liquor sales are very much legal. There, about 7% of his annual revenue comes from Sunday sales. Of course, New Orleans has a larger percentage of Catholics, while Baton Rouge has a greater Protestant influence, and what local church representatives have to say about the issue falls in line predictably.

The Rev. John Carville, associate pastor at Christ The King, says the Catholic church does not make a point to preach abstinence from alcohol on Sunday. But Chris Andrews, pastor of First United Methodist, provides a very different answer. “While a great number of persons in our church do drink alcohol, it is historically [the church’s] position to resist the promoting of alcohol sales.”

Mayor Durbin certainly found himself in this camp before his citizens voted for the repeal. He admits he was surprised that more conservative Christians did not turn out en masse to keep the blue laws.

Smith’s Cork & Bottle and other liquor outlets in Baton Rouge would certainly benefit financially from a repeal on Oct. 20. Likewise, the parish might see a small bump in sales tax revenue. But Smith reiterates his desire to simply let the people be heard.

“I went to LSU, and you know, I love my community,” Smith says. “I just want to abide by what my community wants. If people want to have a vote, we should vote.”