TAMPA — So how cool would it be to stroll on Tampa's Riverwalk with an ice-cold beer in your hand?

It could happen.

The City Council took the first step toward that Thursday by giving its initial approval to a new ordinance allowing open containers of alcohol on the Riverwalk — under certain conditions.

For one, you couldn't bring your own.

Instead, you'd have to buy the drink from one of eight places — including hotels, restaurants, museums and the Tampa Convention Center — now licensed to sell alcohol along the Riverwalk.

You could buy beer, wine or liquor, but those drinks would have to come in a plastic cup holding no more than 16 ounces branded with a Riverwalk logo. Anything else would be illegal.

You couldn't carry more than two drinks, and the only times you could have drinks on the Riverwalk would be from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m.

So how cool would that be?

Not very, said three council members who voted against the idea.

"There are going to be some bow-legged people walking down the Riverwalk," council member Frank Reddick said. He worried about the liability the city could take on if it allowed alcohol consumption by people who left the Riverwalk and drove somewhere.

For council member Mary Mulhern, the change could make the Riverwalk — not technically a park, but very much a public space — less wholesome and more creepy.

"If you have children with you, young children, you really don't want to be around drunks," Mulhern said. "I've traveled a lot to big cities all over the world in my life, and if you see somebody in a public park sitting on a bench drinking, they're usually a drunk. It's not like people are gathering with their families and drinking alcohol. You want to stay away from them."

For council chairman Charlie Miranda, the proposal represented another step in the erosion of civil society.

"We're creating a culture … that without alcohol it's not an experience," he said. "Look at your football games. Look at your baseball games. Look at all the other sports. Is it really about the game? Or is it about the party?"

But supporters and city officials said there a couple of things to keep in mind.

First, they said, the decision was not a wet-zoning, like for a bar, where the city cannot go back later and change the conditions. Instead, the city would create what's known as a "specialty center," a designation authorized by the Legislature, where there would be an exemption to the city's general ban on drinking in public.

That means the city could go back, unlike in a rezoning, and make changes or even repeal the ordinance if there are problems.

"I think we should have the courage and have the faith that this community can handle this type of ordinance and that it really dovetails with the type of development that we have been encouraging and voting for in downtown Tampa," council member Harry Cohen said.

Also, officials said, having a drink on the Riverwalk doesn't mean anyone will be allowed to carry it into the city parks along the river (unless there's a permitted special event with alcohol there).

"I feel very comfortable enforcing this," Police Chief Jane Castor said, adding that police have been in on the planning from the start and that she's seen this work in other cities.

"It's about whether or not we want to have an active, welcoming area where people can get a glass of wine or champagne after having brunch and stroll the waterfront and have a nice Sunday afternoon," council member Lisa Montelione said.

The ordinance passed 4-3. A public hearing followed by a second and final vote is expected on Nov. 6. At the council's request, city officials plan to notify downtown residents of the proposal by sending out emails through the Tampa Downtown Partnership and through downtown homeowners associations.

Contact Richard Danielson at rdanielson@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3403. Follow @Danielson_Times