A neighborhood bar is a place you go to see people you know will be there. Even if your friends aren't there, you'll still know the owner and the staff. The people you see there routinely are the "regulars" and the "locals." You're not going to the neighborhood bar to get sloppy drunk, loud or to pick up chicks. You aren't going there to "party."

A "cool bar" which is packed is usually too loud for conversation. If you want to sit and talk casually with people you know, then you won't go to the cool bar. If you go alone to a cool bar, then you might not talk to anyone. The atmosphere has too much going on for casual conversation. You can't overhear and engage with someone sitting at the opposite side of the bar.

This may sound lame, but one of the major themes of this article is loneliness. Regulars at the neighborhood bar might find that the bar is less lame than being lonely at home.

The article makes a statistical argument though, that the numbers of a certain sort of bar declined 17% after 2006. That 4 out of 5 bars are still there follows from that argument rather than addressing it.

What do you mean by "cool"? A lot of my coworkers in SF think Local Edition is a "cool" bar. I thought it was one of the dumbest experiences of my lifetime. I couldn't hear or see a fucking thing, and the drinks were $20.