Members of Los Angeles Drug & Alcohol Policy Alliance (L.A. DAPA), California Alcohol Policy Alliance (CAPA) and Alcohol Justice will be joined by Los Angeles City Council Members led by Councilmember Paul Koretz at a City Hall rally to oppose California SB 930. The “gut & amend” bill, authored by Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and Assembly Member Mark Haney (D-San Francisco) is the 5th attempt since 2013 to disrupt the protections of California’s statewide uniform last call.
What: Rally / Media Event
When: Wednesday, July 27, 2022 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
Where: 200 N Spring St, Los Angeles, CA 90012 (1st Street Steps)
Who:
- Cruz Avila, Executive Director, Alcohol Justice
- Paul Koretz, Los Angeles City Council, District 5
- Richard Zaldivar, The Wall Las Memorias Project
- Dr. Marielle Reataza, Executive Director, National Asian Pacific American Families Against Substance Abuse (NAPAFASA)
- Aracely Ocampo, California Alcohol Policy Alliance (CAPA)
- Ruben Rodriguez, Pueblo y Salud, L.A. DAPA
- Alec Foster, Women Against Gun Violence (WAGV)
- Jorge Diaz, HIV Prevention Activist
- Janis Reid, Board Member, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Network of Southern California
Why: SB 930 would allow closing times for on-sale retailers to be extended from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. as part of a dangerous “pilot program.” The experiment would take place in 7 cities: San Francisco, Oakland, West Hollywood, Fresno, Cathedral City, Coachella, and Palm Springs.
According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), California currently suffers more annual alcohol-related harm than any other state: over 11,000 alcohol-related deaths, $35 billion in total costs, $18.5 billion in state costs. The CDC also identifies maintaining existing last call times as one of the 10 key policies for reducing the harms from reckless drinking and from alcohol-related motor vehicle deaths.
California taxpayers do not need to pay for additional public health and safety harms that will follow (especially in low-income communities of color) extending last call to profit the nightlife industry.
Why it matters to Los Angeles: There is no local control when it comes to alcohol because danger doesn’t stay in the district where the drinking occurs. If this bill becomes law, Los Angeles will be surrounded by late night drinkers — drivers traveling drunk back through the district in the early morning commute hours.
Quick Facts – SB 930:
- Is a poorly conceived and inadequately funded pilot project
- Strips away uniform protections of 2 a.m. last call
- Costs the state at least $3-4 million per year to administer, mitigate the harm, and clean the blood off the highway; costs cities and towns in “Splash Zones” millions more
- Disregards 40 years of peer-reviewed, public health research on the dangers of extending last call
- Ignores the existing annual catastrophe of alcohol-related harm in California
- Uses the false narrative of COVID economic recovery to subsidize and reward late-night alcohol-sellers at government and tax-payer expense
Alcohol Justice encourages the public to TAKE ACTION to STOP SB 930: Text JUSTICE to 313131 or visit: https://alcoholjustice.org/take-action/stop-sb-930-no-late-last-calls-in-ca-not-now-not-ever
ABSOLUTELY…. we need two more hours for the drunks to get drunker?
All the arguments against this pilot program can be explained away with such simplicity it’s embarrassing, especially the “interfering with the early morning commute” one. How ridiculous!
We already drive drunk home now at 2am – what’s the difference?
Chicago is 4am and they have shitty public transport and they’re fine.
Oh wait – Ubers and taxis all disappear in West Hollywood at 2am and turn into pumpkins. I forgot.
This is not that big of a deal, people – move on. You’ll all be asleep anyway and won’t notice.
FRANK- how many dui’s on your plate? YOU OLD LUSH!
It does not take a Harvard Degree to understand that the longer bars are open, the crime rate goes up. There is no such thing as a “poor bar owner”. When a bar is not making big bucks, then there is something seriously wrong with ownership and management. DUI’s and other crimes will go up exponentially the longer bars are allowed to serve. THE biggest problem is ‘out of towners’ who visit the bars do not care what damage they do to the City. They drink too much and their cognitive skills plummet!
Nothing good ever happens after midnight, What could possibly be the conscious benefit of this irresponsible bill? More infantile drunks playing in Weho because that is the only thing they know,
Just the expected conservative prohibitionist lobby doing their usual schtick to oppose this as they always have, along with the uptight NIMBYs. A later last call exists in many other parts of the nation, many of which are lacking the nightlife of West Hollywood which is the number one driver of West Hollywood anyways. It’s long overdue and will be a welcome change to have later social hours.
We don’t have the mass transit system most big cities have in place that makes it easy for drunks to get home. We are a car culture. Extending hours will have negative effects. Only benefit is more cash in the pockets of bars and government from taxes.
It’s the rideshare era, pal. We don’t need a mass transit system. The entire state of Indiana has a later last call than West Hollywood, clearly there’s more to it. Besides, this is just a red herring. Even if we had a perfect subway running right through WeHo, which most people opposed to the later last call would also probably oppose, NIMBYs that they are, they would still object to this. So what’s the point? Look which special interests are opposed to this. “Alcohol Justice?” What is that the modern day temperance movement? No thanks.
Hear hear
100% The pearl-clutching “won’t someone please think of the children” crowd NIMBYs are out in force on this one. It’s about time this prohibitionist-era nonsense go away the way of the dinosaur.
Horvath and Erickson voted for this. They like bar crawling, and the free drinks. But they have to watch getting too boozed up, especially Erickson, since he is known to sexually harass young males. Like he did with the president of Stonewall.
It was Eric Bauman, who was harrassing young males. Eric was former president of Stonewall Democratic Club at the time who was serving as Chairman of the California State Party.
The current President of Stoewall, Alex Moajer, was not harrased by Bauman. Guess who? I also recall Erickson was part of the Stonewall leadership that took forever to kick Ed Buck out because they wanted his bucks. News for you, Bauman is not the only gay man sexually harassing young men in West Hollywood.
Just putting more drunk drivers on the streets. How sad must a life be…..to be drinking between 2AM and 4AM???
This is a great idea. Instead of people who work late going to the bar a 1am and pounding drinks, they can take their time and have time to sober up if they have gotten to tipsy.
Los Angeles Drug & Alcohol Policy Alliance (L.A. DAPA), California Alcohol Policy Alliance (CAPA) and Alcohol Justice all have the same board of directors.
This needs to be marked as an opinion or editorial. It is a one-sided listing of a rally taking place -not in West Hollywood, but – at LA City Hall. Note that the legislation doesn’t include the city of LA as one of the pilot programs.
I’m happy it was posted. Thanks for the information Wehoville, keep it up!
Yes, thank you WeHo this directly effects us and I’m glad the word is out.
It’s a reprint of the event organizer’s press release.
This is a blog, lest ye forget
In general, I believe that even this 2:00 is too late. Night is not the time to walk drunk on the streets. Of course, this will not stop those who want to get drunk after midnight, because you can buy in advance, but you can still weed out random ones. A terrible law with long-term consequences, I also already wrote an article about it somehow and intend to continue to do so. https://essaypay.com/blog/how-to-write-a-capstone-project/ prepare to write your capstone project with the best writers in different industries.
The primary responsibility of our Weho City Council Members is the “quality of life”of its residents. This factor influences every aspect of our lives. They have blithely discounted this obligation to serve self interest…..the proverbial hand that feeds them.