Town Fights Public Boozing With Warm Beer

Arlington Heights, Ill., is tackling its public drinking problem with a novel weapon: beer. Warm beer. Starting in January, stores won't sell single-serving bottles or cans of beer cold. You can still buy that tallboy, but the town is betting problem drinkers will be less likely to crack open a warm brew on the street. “The compromise is good,” a liquor store owner tells the Chicago Tribune—the town had mulled a ban on all single-serving sales. “It’s the best we can do.”

In March the law will expand, prohibiting all sales of wine in containers under 10 ounces and hard liquor under 6.4 ounces, targeting airplane-sized "nips." One village official is not particularly confident about the power of warm beer. “Don't be surprised if it doesn't work out to the hopes of the Police Department,” he says. “The alcoholic isn't going to sit there and say, ‘Well, I like my beer cold.’” (More beer stories.)