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Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

theguardian.com

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Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#101

Post by twic »

kintamanimatt wrote: post #94
exodust wrote: post #92

SOHO has closed! Didn't know. Last time I was there years ago, the whole club was high on MDMA. Personal space dissolves into nothing, your dancing becomes super smooth, your inner-calm is completely zen. Nobody is drunk. Nobody fighting. Nobody dosing off. People are fresh and energized until sunrise. Walking out into the sunrise is a good feeling. The drunken trashy streets are just places to avoid and navigate you…

As fun as MDMA is, it's horribly and cumulatively neurotoxic. Mass weekly usage would be a short term gain at the expense of a lot of long term health issues. MDMA and alcohol intoxication don't seem to be best friends either IIRC.

Half the UK was on E for most of the '80s and '90s. The only sign of an epidemic of brain damage is that people have started buying Craig David records again.

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#102

Post by bigtones »

rbritton wrote: post #20
jclulow wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is nonsense they trialled first in Newcastle. Prohibiting the sale of a double shot of spirits in one glass; eventually forbidding the sale of any neat spirits at all. Want a nip of expensive scotch? Hope it's still good drowned in soft drink.

In the US, Utah is very similar. Some places will sell you a "sidecar" shot with a mixed drink, but a lot won't. Hard alcohol is measured electronically to ensure it is exactly one ounce.

And to the article authors point, that is because of religious reasons - in this case the Mormons.

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#103

Post by to3m »

MrBuddyCasino wrote: post #46
chris_wot wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are. The lockout laws actually come from Newcastle, which had an even worse problem. Alcohol fueled violence has been and remains a massive problem in Australia. In fact, drinking in Australia remains a massive problem: we have some of the worst cases of binge-drinking and alcoholism rates in the world. We have a list of dangerous pubs in NSW: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-27/north-coast-pub-tops-l...

Interesting, recently there was a study posted on HN that it depends on genetics whether or not someone becomes violent when drunk. Australia started as a prison colony, maybe there is a connection there?

It started as an English prison colony - a much more damning link, in my eyes.

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#104

Post by toomanybeersies »

EdwardDiego wrote: post #31
jclulow wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is nonsense they trialled first in Newcastle. Prohibiting the sale of a double shot of spirits in one glass; eventually forbidding the sale of any neat spirits at all. Want a nip of expensive scotch? Hope it's still good drowned in soft drink.

Oh God. I travelled to Newcastle to meet friends and went out on the town on a Friday night. My big mistake was waiting until 10:30pm to depart, because nearly everything was closed or getting ready to close at midnight - Newcastle's "favourite cocktail bar" was unable to make any cocktails. I'm from Christchurch, and we have a better nightlife than Newcastle, and our CBD got smooshed by an earthquake.

Haha, Christchurch nightlife. It's so bad that I'm a uni student there and go to town maybe twice a year.

There's about 4 places to go, they're all ages away from each other, and the lines are always really long.

The council is also doing its best to kill the nightlife, strongly preferring craft beer pubs over clubs, and trying to bring in a 1 am one way door, 3 am closing policy.

Apparently the bloke in charge of liquor licences at the council is teetotal too.

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#105

Post by chris_wot »

varjag wrote: post #70
johnchristopher wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A wild guess: The most influential backers are Christians. They have the money to lend to the party so it can build effective marketing and political campaign to go after the rest of the voters.

Given that the majority of Australians are Christian it would indeed make sense that the most influential backers are Christians too. Probably been like that for a long time? Still there might be something in their campaigns that resonates with the views of the majority. One wouldn't imagine them consistently winning fair elections in predominantly Hindu or Muslim country, no matter the campaign spending.

That's very much incorrect. Most Australians are agnostic.

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#106

Post by chris_wot »

vacri wrote: post #50
dicemoose wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

`'One-punch'' assaults have cost 90 Australian lives since 2000, most in booze-fuelled bashings, a study has found.` ... `NSW had the highest number of king-hits (28), followed by Victoria and Queensland (24 cases each).` So not night after night at all, but more than a couple (this article is from 2013. http://www.smh.com.au/national/90-killed-in-singlepunch-assa...

So you're looking at about 4 deaths a year. To put that in context, in 2012[1] 26 Australians died from falling off a chair and 58 died falling while getting out of bed. The gold standard for these kind of comparisons, lightning strikes, gets 5-10 Australians a year[2]. There is a problem with drinking and violence in Australia, but at the same time, 90 people over 13 years isn't all that many; by itself, it shouldn'…

Wow, talk about taking the data and misusing it!

There were zero deaths in Kings Cross from falling off a chair, and zero deaths whilst getting out of bed. Similarly, nobody was struck by lightning in Kings Cross either.

In 2012, there were about 20 deaths per 100,000 people attributable to alcohol in NSW. Source is here:

http://www.healthstats.nsw.gov.au/Indicator/beh_alcafdth

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#107

Post by chris_wot »

weeksie wrote: post #37
stevebmark wrote: post #4

I'm an outsider to Sydney and Australia, and I'm a regular visitor. This article rings of an insider perspective, full of "we" statements. It has a vibe of personal anger and personal overreaction. What I'm genuinely curious about is the events that lead to the formation of these laws. Again, as an outsider, the main thing to do in Sydney is drink. A lot. The main thing my friends want to do after work in Sydney is d…

When I first immigrated to Australia I was shocked at the tone that journalists used, even in mainstream publications. Turns out it's just an Aussie thing. People can argue about the merits of that tone but that article fits pretty well with Aussie journal style, especially for an editorial.

If you think that's bad, don't listen to what passes for debate in the House of Representatives! Although it's calmed down since Keating:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEsN4-XLE2k

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#108

Post by greggman »

mceoin wrote: post #71

I have just returned to Sydney after 5 years in SF. I grew up and worked in the neighborhoods most affected by the lockout-laws, so have experienced the before and after. I've seen the parties, I've seen the punch-ups, I've seen the drug overdoses and the drag queens. The city I remembered had a vibrant culture and a heady mixture of people that comes with any cosmopolitain city around the world. It wasn't perfect, b…

While it might be better than Sydney, SF is not a good place for nightlife though. Coming from Tokyo where the standard nightlife routine is arrive at your clubbing area of choice around 12:30am (near last train) because you're stuck there until first train (~5am). So, pretty much all clubs and bars as well as many late night restaurants are open until 5am or later. When I came back to California I hated that my nightlife was basically forced to end at around 1:30am (LA or SF). Many other cities party all night.

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#109

Post by driverdan »

lucaspiller wrote: post #29

This is the first time I've heard of this, but as I understand the new laws are: - No sales after 10pm for off-site consumption - No entrance after 1:30am - No alcohol sales in venues after 3am In the UK this has effectively been the law for a long time. The actual law allows 24hr licensing (for on-site consumption), but very few places have a license to sell alcohol after 1am. Why exactly have these laws so drastica…

As the article says, Sydney culture is different due to the previous laws. People didn't used to go to bars until late, 10:30 or 11:30. That means you have to either stay at one bar after 1:30 or just go home. Previously people bar hopped into the early morning.

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#110

Post by conistonwater »

twic wrote: post #100
switch007 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't start drinking at 5pm on a Friday, puke up twice, consume your body weight in kebab meat and then go for a greasy fry-up in the morning, you're basically a boring sod.

For the benefit of foreigners, i will note that this is actually optional for most people. My experience, living in London and working at a few different tech companies, is that you might go out for a "quick beer after work" one to three times a week (and almost never on fridays), stay out for one to three hours (you're rarely still there for closing time), and over the course of the evening, drink two to four pints…

> drink two to four pints of pretty nice beer

This is optional too.

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