Years ago, Richmond had a thriving nightlife scene. 1st street had a bunch of nice little bars, pubs, and dance halls. On Thursday night you could barely drive through downtown. It was good because the college kids could walk from EKU to the bars so nobody had to get behind the wheel. Over the years, though, various people in the higher ups of the town decided to "clean up" downtown. One by one, most of the bars disappeared. Now if anyone wants to go anywhere, one has to get in a vehicle. Downtown Lexington has a thriving nightlife scene downtown,but it's a 25-minute drive from Richmond. It is still much more common for people to drive from Richmond and Berea to go to Lex than to hang around Richmond. As a result, we seem to have more alcohol-related wrecks, DUIs, etc. It's sad. In an effort to make our downtown more "family friendly" it just made the area more dangerous and virtually killed downtown in the process (most buildings are completely empty now).