Greenville City Council makes changes to Social Districts, other cities considering own

GREENVILLE, Pitt County — The popularity of the social district is spreading across Eastern North Carolina.

A social district is where people can walk around in a defined area of the city with beer, wine or cocktails if they purchased it from a designated business with proper signage.

The town of Washington is in the final phases of launching a social district along Main Street and the waterfront.

Washington City Manager Johnathan Russell said they are putting together paperwork to send to the state.

"We're going to ease into it, three days a week during a certain time period and then re-evaluate it at that point," Russell said.

Once the paperwork is approved, Russell said the social district would be from from 5 p.m. through 10 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays and from noon to 10 p.m on Saturdays .

The establishment must have proper signage, cups and window stickers to allow open containers outside of the property.

Russell told NewsChannel 12 all eight establishments that sell alcoholic drinks in downtown have agreed to the idea.

He said the social district should start by early April.

City officials plan to be proactive to prevent people from taking their drink outside the designated boundaries.

"We do a lot of community policing, we'll try to make every effort to get the information out there," Russell said. "The boundaries are well-defined, the public is aware of where they are, I think the communication piece will be key, [and] having a police presence."

In Greenville, the city council voted to expand the social district by combining the uptown area with Dickinson Avenue strip. It allows people to move with their beverages from one area of the city to the other.

This social district modification begins February 1. The hours are from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.

A social district plan has not been presented to the New Bern Board of Alderman at this time, according to a city spokesperson. They expect it will eventually come to city leadership.