A bill that would let businesses in West Hollywood and six other California cities serve alcohol until 4 a.m. took a major step forward today when it passed in the state Senate.
The bill, SB 905, must be approved by the state Assembly and then signed by Gov. Jerry Brown before it can take effect. If that happens, the seven cities that it authorizes to serve until 4 a.m. must each decide if they want to implement it and how.
The late-night bar bill would apply to Long Beach, Los Angeles, Oakland, Palm Springs, Sacramento and San Francisco as well as West Hollywood. The West Hollywood City Council and that of Oakland have endorsed it as have the mayors of Long Beach, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
While the West Hollywood City Council endorsed the bill in 4 to 1 vote in April 2017 (Councilmember Lauren Meister opposed it), the city’s Public Safety Commission and Capt. Sergio Aloma of the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station have spoken out against it. Aloma has questioned assumptions that the bill only would have an impact on cities that agree to extend bar serving hours past the current 2 a.m. limit.
“I don’t think that we should fool ourselves in thinking that local impact is going to be contained in the City of West Hollywood,” Aloma said at the Public Safety Commission’s April 9 meeting. “Two hours of additional drinking certainly is going to have an impact on cities outside West Hollywood. I also think it’s going to impact our local trauma centers …
“We’re going to absolutely have to rethink our staffing model and our deployment of deputy service. At 4 a.m., we don’t have the same staffing we have at midnight or two a.m.”
Wiener’s bill also has gotten the support of the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.
If the bill passes in the state Assembly and Brown signs it into law, it would take effect in 2021. The cities authorized to serve until 4 a.m. each would decide exactly how late they wanted to extend alcohol sales hours and on what days of the week.
The bill specifies that cities extending drinking hours must report the impact of the extension to the legislature by 2025 at which time it will reassess it.
Weho is now really party central. There has been no effort to try to bring non-bar entities to WeHO over the years – either chain retail like Barnes & Noble or Banana Republic was rejected as well as mom and pop retail coffee shops and juice bars. Now you have all bars and all night long. Lean to deal with it….You have destroyed the character of the city,
Glad to see it pass step 1.
Can’t believe if it gets signed it doesn’t go into effect for THREE years!
Yes this is going have an impact and, we have to accept the FACT that a significant percentage of the population is NOT going to just give up recreational drug and alcohol use no matter how much people like me advise against it! First off our Sheriff’s Department needs to respond to Emergency calls of situations getting out of hand and showing up before they escalate into serious assaults. We need many MORE Security Ambassadors with more authority to take control of of scene where events are taking place. For example a high ranking Security Ambassador or Sheriff’s Deputy should… Read more »
As someone who has always been more nighttime acclimated and those I know are looking forward to spending more time and money in the drinking establishments of West Hollywood, now that I’ll be allowed to do so.
I’ll just stay home and smoke pot and binge watch NETFLIX, etc.
That’s governor Brown for you. Drug them. gmo booze, forced vaccines that we can’t trust, more pharma. More pot and drugs for everyone. Great society we have here.
As Captain Aloma mentioned, the community pays one way or another. Increased tax revenues are not a panacea, one must consider the cost both fiscal and human on the downside. Has critical thinking become extinct? Hello WH Chamber of Commerce, please tune up your antennae!