The Folly of Needless Alcohol Laws

by Conor Friedersdorf

In Orange County, California, as in many American communities, the approach planners take to bars is as follows: they're generally located in close proximity to one another, so that on a weekend night, bar goers congregate around Main Street in Huntington Beach, the pier in Newport Beach, the Irvine Spectrum, and Newport Boulevard and 17th Street in Costa Mesa, among other spots. This arrangement means that most neighborhoods are free of bars, something that a lot of...