In August 2021, the City of Moscow amended ordinances related to open containers. The amendment created the entertainment district between the streets of Jackson and Washington streets to Lewis and D streets.
Inside the entertainment district, events can be hosted with beer and wine without the requirements of an enclosed beer garden. Similar exemptions have been given to an area near the Kibbie Dome during football games. All of this could be done as Idaho has no statewide open container laws, only county by county and city by city.
This new district has been used a few times for events so far. Once was for Moscowberfest which took place last Oct. 2. and another was Moscow Winterfest on Jan. 22. Both were put on by the Moscow Chamber of Commerce.
“An event application comes to the Community Events Division office, if they are planning on having alcohol in the entertainment district, they’re welcome to pursue the open container, and it has to go through (city) council,” Moscow Community Events Organizer Amanda Argona said. “When people apply for an event, they have to submit an event footprint… They can’t be willy nilly walking around downtown or into downtown neighborhoods. They have to be within that event footprint during the event hours consuming alcohol.”
Moscow business owners seem to have a positive yet cautious outlook on the introduction of the entertainment district.
Stefan Yauchzee is the owner of Pour Company, a taproom and bottle shop. His business has participated in previous events despite not being located in the area.
“I think it’s awesome because we can do events downtown,” Yauchzee said. “It makes them family-friendly. So people could come with their kids and you don’t have to worry about going into like a quarantine little beer garden just to drink and worry about like, do I bring kids?”
Yauchzee hopes that perhaps the district could be expanded westward towards his business on Sixth Street.
“I think it’d be cool to get it to where it’s kind of like Vegas, right? Like where it’s just you can walk around with open containers outside right, like maybe not up and down, not residential but within like, the downtown corridor,” he said.
Another business owner, Courtney Sieben of Revolver Vintage Boutique & Record Store, expressed her hope that these events would make Moscow a destination for people at times like Memorial Day weekend when people usually head out of town.
“I think it’s created some interesting new opportunities for people to recreate outdoors and it has provided a vital way for people to interact safely during the height of the pandemic,” said Colin Mannex, the director of the Kenworthy Performing Arts Center. “I think it’s overall a positive and that it serves a social need that has otherwise been impeded with the inability for people to gather indoors.”
Ana Blaisdell of Essential Art Gallery saw the benefit of an outdoor alternative to hosting inside her gallery.
“I think it’s a great way to encourage people to visit other stores downtown. While in an art gallery, it can be a little bit challenging with spilled drinks on Persian rugs and, you know, potentially art,” Blaisdell said. “It’s a great opportunity to kind of bring more awareness, I would say, to uptown Moscow and downtown Moscow within the entertainment district.”
Blaisdell also addressed some points of concern she had about the impact on businesses downtown.
“One of the downsides is streets getting closed off for people who want to access the businesses that are there who don’t really want to be there for the party, they want to be there for their business,” she said.
As far as its current size, Blaisdell would be content if the district did not expand further. She cited concerns over how these events may affect the residents who live downtown.
“I don’t see the expansion of the entertainment district being a necessity at this point. Unless you’re kind of picking and choosing certain spots where you would do it, like the city park,” she said.
Cory Summers can be reached at [email protected]