Panama City’s Downtown Improvement Board has been working for several months on a plan to implement a downtown entertainment, or social, district in which people could openly carry alcoholic beverages on city streets within the district.

Numerous cities across the southeast, particularly those in tourist destinations, have implemented downtown entertainment districts, many with great success.

But Panama City Mayor Michael Rohan is clearly not a fan. He thinks the plan is “terrible” and creating the downtown district would increase the divorce rate, according to a report by WMBB in Panama City.

“When I first heard about the social district, I was at a meeting and I thought it was the dumbest thing I had ever heard in my entire life and then I started thinking about it, and then I did some research, as I pointed out during this meeting and I think it’s a terrible idea,” Rohan said during a public hearing on the plan Tuesday.

“I think it’s absolutely horrible.”

According to the report, Rohan said implementing the district would increase law enforcement and trash pickup needs. But he also claimed the Florida Panhandle has one of the state’s highest divorce rates and the proposed district would somehow make it worse.

“We have one of the highest divorce rates in the state up here in the Panhandle,” he said. “I would imagine if we threw some alcohol on that fire, we could probably get even a higher divorce rate.”

City commissioners and the Downtown Improvement Board are scheduled to present the final proposal for a vote at the commission’s Nov. 14 meeting.

Rohan, a retired physician, was elected Panama City’s mayor earlier this year. He took office May 24.