Visitors to Anoka will now be able to drink alcoholic beverages and walk around outside year-round in a designated area downtown near the Red River.
The Anoka social district, which initially started as a 30-day trial in 2023, is open year-round, effective Oct. 7, with a few exceptions.
The district currently has 12 different businesses that allow patrons to take alcoholic beverages outdoors, without violating any open container laws.
Anoka County officials amended ordinances to allow their social district to remain open through 2025 and each year thereafter, continuing its operating hours of 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week.
Anoka Mayor Erik Skogquist said the city does not expect much business in January, but the patio season months, from May to October, do not account for the nice days or events outside of that window.
“You'll get nice days in April, March, even sometimes you do get one in January, or something where it's, you know, 50 or 60 degrees now, and people want to be outside,” Skogquist said. “It just allows people to, kind of, socialize and sip and stroll around the city and do it outside of that particular time window.”
The expanded open carry rules will be prohibited each year during Anoka’s Halloween parades, including Light Up the Night Parade, Big Parade of Little People and the Grande Day Parade.
The participating businesses are required to have a social district license, in addition to their liquor license, to participate, according to Anoka’s city website. They are also required to sell their ‘sip-and-stroll’ products in designated plastic cups.
The city is focused on educating patrons and businesses about these rules, rather than strictly enforcing them, Skogquist said.
"Our first thing has been to just educate people about how this works because they maybe have experienced it in other states, in Las Vegas or Tennessee or some other state, and maybe the rules are different,” Skogquist said.
Drinks cannot be brought from one establishment that sells alcohol to another, according to their website. Businesses selling as part of the sip-and-stroll will have a burgundy sign, indicating ‘sold here.'
The positive feedback and limited law enforcement issues led to this years’ expansion, according to Skogquist.
“We have codes within the system for the police department that show, you know, if something was a social district related incident or not,” Skogquist said. “Our police chief said it's the most unused code in their entire system.”
Skogquist added that the social district may have reduced issues that existed prior.
“It's definitely a different environment to be around, you know, a bar during the day, versus a late night crowd, and so that's something we haven't really been interested in introducing,” Skogquist said.
Beyond Anoka
Anoka was the first city in Minnesota to open a social district.
The city considered the idea for a couple of years, and coming out of COVID many states started to implement them, Skogquist said.
“When that idea came forward to me, and I saw that, I thought, ‘Hey, this is maybe a good structure that would work,’” he said. “So I brought it forward to our council, and they were in favor of seeing if we could make something happen for the city of Anoka.”
Since opening, Shakopee and Stillwater have been in close communications with Anoka’s community communications director, looking for ways to implement a social district into their cities, Skogquist said.
“We're very open to being a resource to people, to help them understand what happened in Anoka,” Skogquist said.
Last year, the Minnesota Legislature authorized Shakopee and Stillwater to issue social district licenses starting on Aug. 31, 2025.
Shakopee opened a social district in September that will run until Oct. 31. The district will return Dec. 6-7 for the holidays, before opening their first full year in May, according to their city's website.
Stillwater has not established official plans for a social district. A city survey revealed concerns over public intoxication and littering.
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