Rocky
10-12-2004, 09:27 AM
BLOW INTO THIS TUBE, DENVER
Is Denver really the drunkest city in America? With such famously
intoxicated places as New Orleans around, you'd think it couldn't be
so. But a recent article in Men's Health magazine makes a convincing
case. The magazine looked up DUI statistics, traffic fatalities
involving alcohol, and death rates from alcohol-induced liver diseases
among the 101 largest cities. Its findings: Denver had the worst
record of the bunch. (New Orleans was tied for fifth-worst. Others
with drinking problems: El Paso, Anchorage, Albuquerque, Kansas City,
Mo., and Spokane.) What could explain Denver's ignominy? "We are the
Napa Valley of beer," said an official at one brewery. "We have more
brewpubs per capita than any state in the country." And when
Denverites stagger out of a brewpub, too many of them slide behind the
wheel of a car, unlike bar-goers in New York or Boston, which have
subway systems to transport the intoxicated. Mayor John Hickenlooper
found no humor in his city's ranking. "Anytime you're in the bottom
half [of a ranking of cities], you can't be happy with that," he said.
The owner of seven bars, Hickenlooper said his establishments offered
free soft drinks for designated drivers.
Is Denver really the drunkest city in America? With such famously
intoxicated places as New Orleans around, you'd think it couldn't be
so. But a recent article in Men's Health magazine makes a convincing
case. The magazine looked up DUI statistics, traffic fatalities
involving alcohol, and death rates from alcohol-induced liver diseases
among the 101 largest cities. Its findings: Denver had the worst
record of the bunch. (New Orleans was tied for fifth-worst. Others
with drinking problems: El Paso, Anchorage, Albuquerque, Kansas City,
Mo., and Spokane.) What could explain Denver's ignominy? "We are the
Napa Valley of beer," said an official at one brewery. "We have more
brewpubs per capita than any state in the country." And when
Denverites stagger out of a brewpub, too many of them slide behind the
wheel of a car, unlike bar-goers in New York or Boston, which have
subway systems to transport the intoxicated. Mayor John Hickenlooper
found no humor in his city's ranking. "Anytime you're in the bottom
half [of a ranking of cities], you can't be happy with that," he said.
The owner of seven bars, Hickenlooper said his establishments offered
free soft drinks for designated drivers.