Minnesota Gets a Second Social District, with a Third on the Way?

By Amanda Week - In November 2024, state lawmakers passed legislation that permitted Shakopee to establish a social district, a designated part of a city in which people are allowed to purchase alcoholic beverages from licensed businesses and consume them while walking through the specific area. After several months, the city’s social district pilot is finally here with two defined districts: one in its downtown, and another in the area around entertainment venue Canterbury Park.  

The social districts, which began on September 1, are open until October 31, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. At participating bars and restaurants, people now have the option to buy drinks served in official licensed social district cups and enjoy them on the sidewalk, in plazas, or even within retail locations that have opted to be part of the program who showcase “Drinks Welcome” signage on their storefronts.  

Michael Kerski, Shakopee planning and development director, said that given the city's familiarity with large event programming, social districts conceptually match what the city has already been doing for years. 

“We’re seen as kind of the entertainment capital on this side of the river because we’ve got a casino, Canterbury, Valleyfair, and now the amphitheater,” Kerski says. “People come here to be entertained, so having a social district just makes a lot of sense.” 

Shakopee is the second city in the state to implement a social district. During the 2022 state legislative session, a special provision was included for. Anoka to establish a social district. Following a 30-day pilot program in 2023 and a five-month program in 2024, both of which were successful, Anoka opened its social district for a third run in May, and has since expanded to be year-round.

In the first few weeks since the launch of Shakopee’s social districts, Kerski said that the city has seen minimal pushback to the initiative, with the majority of residents in support and many exercising the newfound ability to enjoy an alcoholic beverage from a local establishment while engaging in everyday activities. 

“I think that people are pretty excited,” Kerski says. “We had an event downtown [during the weekend of September 13-14], and there were lots of people walking around with social district cups. People have gotten used to it pretty quickly, and I think that just about every bar and restaurant downtown and at Canterbury have joined.” 

“It just allows people to take a drink and go to, for instance, some retail establishments downtown,” he adds. “Like Bill from Bill’s Toggery said, ‘Why wouldn’t you want someone who’s walking around downtown to go into your business and shop?’” 

After Shakopee’s social districts end later this fall, they'll return briefly during the first weekend in December to coincide with a city holiday event; they’ll be back again in May 2026 for their first full season. 

For some cities, it's not as clear-cut as to whether a social district will bring positive, lasting change—some businesses in Shakopee even say it's yet to bring in crowds. During the same legislative session in which Shakopee was approved by the Minnesota Legislature to establish a social district, Stillwater also received the go-ahead. According to Stillwater Mayor Ted Kozlowski, the city's efforts to gain approval for a social district were made “at the eleventh hour” with more curiosity than certainty about its potential success.  

“It was very clear that we didn’t have to do this, but more, Let’s entertain the option of it and ask the state if they can grant us the authority to do it, and then we can actually have the conversation,” Kozlowski says. “It was kind of a backwards process.” 

Since receiving state lawmakers’ approval, Stillwater’s city council has spent several months talking with its residents and collecting their feedback through an online survey on a social district pilot. From those community discussions, Kozlowski says that responses have been “really mixed” and “almost 50-50.” Those in favor of a social district, including many business owners in Stillwater’s downtown, frequently cited the potential to bolster the economy as a reason in support of the initiative. Those against the pilot, particularly people who live in the city’s downtown area, often expressed concerns that a social district would “turn the city into Las Vegas or New Orleans” and normalize public drunkenness because of the less restrictive liquor laws. 

From Kozlowski’s perspective, though, arguments about economic prosperity and potential for disorder hold less weight in the broader decision-making process. He believes that the question of a social district for Stillwater ought to be examined by taking into consideration the unique position of the city.  

“It would be well-regulated, so I don’t think it would descend into chaos, but I also don’t know, frankly, that [a social district] would add that much to the city of Stillwater in terms of experience because it’s already a pretty good experience here,” Kozlowski says. “Shakopee and Anoka are trying to create some extra vibrancy in their towns, and if I were one of their leaders, I would be all for that because a lot of the identity of our communities comes from our main streets. But we just don’t necessarily have the same issues as those cities do.” 

Kozlowski adds that Stillwater's reputation for a bustling downtown area is owed in part to a change to city ordinances at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to allow residents to bring alcohol in non-glass containers to city parks, with the exception of Teddy Bear Park. However, the implementation of a social district would mean that visitors would instead need to purchase drinks from a licensed establishment. 

“Virtually all of downtown [Stillwater] along the riverfront is a giant public park…[and] when everybody was taking food to go, we thought this would be a great way for people to experience the town and be outside and hang out with family,” Kozlowski says. “One of the issues with the social district is we’d have to rescind that.…[People] would have to walk over to a bar and get a beer, and [this city ordinance] is one of the details that is unique to Stillwater that’s giving us a little pause.” 

As the city council continues to assess the feasibility of a social district, Kozlowski hopes for a winter pilot, saying that it would be exciting to have a social district in place during the World Snow Sculpting Championship, a signature event held in Stillwater in January. Before any trial run, though, the city must determine whether it has the capacity to dedicate the necessary time and resources to bring a social district to life, given the small size of its city staff. As Kozlowski emphasizes, the conversation now is focused not on the possibility of a social district merely on paper, but rather, if and how it can be tailored to accommodate the city of Stillwater in ways that would serve it well.

“We can adjust the seasonality, and we could say, Maybe we don’t want people drinking on Main Street in the summer or on weekends because it’s busy, and we could say, We can cut it off at 10 p.m.” Kozlowski says. “I think that we could probably come up with a way that this could be a net positive for the city of Stillwater, but it’s anyone’s guess as to how much of a net positive it is.” 

Source: mspmag.com