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It's Brew City for a reason
Forbes.com taps Milwaukee as America's drunkest city
By VIKKI ORTIZ
vortiz@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Aug. 23, 2006
Drunkest Cities
1. Milwaukee
2. Minneapolis-St. Paul
3. Columbus, Ohio
4. Boston
5. Austin, Texas
6. Chicago
7. Cleveland
8. Pittsburgh
9. Philadelphia (tie)
9. Providence, R.I. (tie)
More on Forbes.com
Doug Knueppel takes a swig from his third beer Wednesday at G-Daddys BBC on E. North Ave. Knueppel says he will drink as many as 10 to 12 beers and two to three shots on a Saturday night.
Depends on whom you ask.
On Tuesday, Forbes.com named Milwaukee "America's Drunkest City" on a list of 35 major metropolitan areas ranked for their drinking habits. The report put Brew City way above stereotypical party towns Las Vegas (No. 14) and Miami (No. 33) and warned of the "serious trouble" Milwaukee could experience based on its alcohol consumption.
"It's not necessarily the end of the world to rank high on this list, but it certainly should be an amount of concern for civic leaders," said David M. Ewalt, who wrote the story for the business Web site.
But there's a difference between being a town of belchers on bar stools and a city with a drinking culture, some Milwaukee residents argued Wednesday.
"I don't remember the last time I got wasted, but I have a drink every other day," said Chase Brandon, 32, the kitchen manager at G-Daddy's BBC, a popular east side bar at 2022 E. North Ave.
Brandon estimated that the bar would sell 900 cans of Pabst beer between 7 and 10 p.m. as part of its Wednesday night $1 Pabst / $1.75 burger special. Yet partaking in a special and being a drunk are two different things, he said.
"The people who are drunks, honestly, don't get served here," Brandon said. "If you can't hold your head up and if you can't walk straight, you get shown to the door."
To compile the list, a first for Forbes.com, staff writers used numbers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to rank cities in five areas: state laws, number of drinkers, number of heavy drinkers, number of binge drinkers and alcoholism.
In each of those categories, Milwaukee came out near the top. More than 70% of adult Milwaukeeans reported that they had at least one alcoholic drink within the past 30 days. That compares with Nashville, Tenn., which ranked at the bottom of the list at No. 35, where only 45% of the residents had a recent drink.
The list also cited the fact that 22% of Milwaukee respondents confessed to binge drinking, or having five or more drinks on one occasion.
Residents may be quick to dismiss such rankings based on other awards the city's seen - from fifth Fittest City in America by Men's Fitness magazine in January to 17th Best City for Singles by Forbes last month.
But Milwaukee does have other undeniable drinking statistics.
In the city of Milwaukee, there are more than 1,000 outlets for beer, wine and liquor, according to the city's License Division. These include about 978 locations with Class B tavern licenses. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Milwaukee in 2002 had 261 taverns and 67 liquor stores. Those 328 businesses generated more than $148 million in sales, or about $250 for every man, woman and child who lived in the city that year. And that doesn't include alcohol that was sold at grocery stores, gas stations or restaurants.
Or how about this: In the past year, Brew City Beer Gear Inc., which has a store at the Grand Avenue, has sold more than 100,000 T-shirts with the words "Beer: Now Cheaper Than Gas" printed across the front, mostly to Wisconsin residents.
"It's unbelievable," said Frank Keppler, co-owner of the company.
Still, officials at Visit Milwaukee, the area's convention and visitors bureau, contend that the city has come a long way in ridding itself of its "Laverne & Shirley"/beer-guzzling image. Milwaukeeans have plenty of other ways to entertain themselves that don't involve drinking alcohol, said Dave Fantle, spokesman for Visit Milwaukee.
Since 1998, the city has spent $1.5 billion in tourism-related infrastructure, including a new convention center, the Milwaukee Art Museum expansion, a casino expansion and a new baseball park.
"We've gone from Brew City to new city," he said.
Less offended, DeMeyer, who celebrated his birthday at G-Daddy's BBC on Wednesday, said he could understand the Forbes.com ranking.
"I have had people stay with me from London and Chicago, and they can't get over how much liquor we can hold and how much we drink," DeMeyer said. "I guess we do."
Jesse Garza and Steven Potter of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report
Heck there is a bar on every fricken corner
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