Walsh wants to look at letting some bars stay open until 3:30 a.m.

The gist of it is that last call would be 2:30 and the bars would stay open until 3:30. That at least gives the drunks an hour to process before they get pushed out onto the street, and it allows people to leave at their own pace a little bit, which may alleviate some of the after hours sidewalk altercations that are prone to happen downtown and in allston.

It is also far more difficult to ride a bike while drunk than to drive a car.

However, you can use a bike to hold you up and walk until you are sober enough to ride it.

Obviously world class needs to be defined. So here is a definition: a metropolitan area with cultural, industrial, educational, governmental and sports institutions, and which has a historical foundation, which all are world famous.

Cultural institutions that are world famous: MFA, Gardner, ICA, Harvard Museums (all of them), BSO, several other classical music institutions including the Boston Philharmonic and yet plenty more cultural institutions within an hour drive of Boston (not least of all Peabody-Essex). Add that 2 religious denominations are based in Boston (U.U. and Christ Scientist). And let's not forget what some art historians consider the most significant bronze sculpture of the 19th C. in this country, the Mass 54th Regiment by Saint-Gaudens. Also there is the Emerald Necklace including the Arnold Arboretum.

Industrial: Vertex, Gillette (albeit Gillete is now part of Proctor-Gamble), software companies scattered around the area, TJX Companies (Marshall's, TJ Maxx, etc.). The hospital industry alone is huge.

Education: Too many to fully list but starting out with Harvard, MIT, BU, BC.

Governmental: Capital of the Commonwealth, headquarters for the regions Coast Guard, Federal District and Appellate courts. Boston also hosts the world's oldest commissioned naval ship still afloat (according to Wikipedia).

Historical: Too much to list.

Sports teams: Baseball, football (U.S. versions) and basketball teams all of which have won the highest accolades and were the top team at times in the past 10 years.

Boston is a small city. In square miles and population it is not terrible large. Its metro area (according to the Wikipedia again) is 10th largest. Yet for a city that on the baseball field might be seen as a small player it swings a pretty big bat.

My impression of Boston as a city and metro area is that until the 90s it was insular, insistent in its provincialism and in terms of self perception of Bostonians willing to accept a 2nd rate identity in order to maintain that insularity. Staying closed and small is easier and feels safer than being open to the anxiety that accompanies significant change, new ideas and a new outlook. I see the Menino period as having been one where Boston began the transformation from a small provincial city that was inwardly focused to one which can now look out to the world and, pardon the purple language, join the ranks of cities that would be considered world class. It will not happen overnight but I see the changes happening. I see an exciting future for the city and the region.

It's an extra hour and a half..... The people that are drunk messes will be such, regardless of the time the bars close.

Thanks for helping.

I still can't get it to work! (User error.)

And, regarding the circle - yes, that's the point; it's people who don't live near bars that think it's a neat idea to have bars open.