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Enjoy closing down a California bar at 2 a.m.?
Hold my beer, say a pair of San Francisco Democrats.
Assemblymember Matt Haney and Sen. Scott Wiener are bringing back a measure to allow some restaurants and bars in California to serve alcohol until 4 a.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and state holidays, extending the current cutoff time by two hours.
“World-class cities have world-class nightlife,” said Haney, a San Francisco Democrat, at a Monday press conference. “The opportunities that this can provide for our small businesses, for our hotels, for our restaurants, are tremendous.”
Under his AB342, city leaders would decide which areas and which businesses could extend their hours, and by how long.
Business owners, downtown associations and lawmakers supporting the proposal argue it would revitalize post-pandemic nightlife across California cities and draw more visitors and revenue, especially as California prepares to host the World Cup in 2026 in Los Angeles and the Bay Area and the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.
Wiener, who is co-authoring the legislation this year after his four previous failed attempts, told CalMatters the effort is about giving local governments more authority without the state “micromanaging” nightlife.
“It’s completely absurd that the state mandates a statewide closing time for all 500 cities in the state of California,” he said in an interview. “Cities and towns should be able to set their own closing time based on their own local needs.”
Most states that regulate bar hours set last call at 2 a.m., according to an analysis by Toast, a restaurant management company. New York is the only state to allow businesses statewide to serve alcohol until 4 a.m., and some cities, such as Chicago, allow businesses to apply for late-hour licenses to sell alcohol as late as 5 a.m. People can drink all night long in Nevada and Louisiana.
California lawmakers have tried to extend last call since the early 2000s. But most of the attempts failed amid concerns that late-night drinking could lead to more drunk driving and other crimes.
Then-Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, vetoed legislation to extend the hours in 2018, arguing “we have enough mischief from midnight to 2 without adding two more hours of mayhem.”
Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law that extended alcohol sales until 4 a.m. — only for Los Angeles Clippers VIPs inside the arena. To Haney, that signaled the governor’s willingness to perhaps apply the extension to other businesses.
A fresh attempt to keep kegs flowing
Haney said this year’s proposal is much different than previous attempts, which sought to establish pilot programs in select cities, including San Francisco. He said this year’s legislation would limit extended hours to mostly two nights a week and to “hospitality zones,” which he said would be locally defined nightlife hubs that are often walkable, well-lit and near public transit.
The changes were enough to dispel some public safety concerns shared in the past. The California Association of Highway Patrolmen, a labor union representing patrol officers statewide, has opposed similar efforts, arguing later closing hours would lead to more drunk driving. This year, it’s neutral on the issue after working with Haney to amend the language, said union board president Jake Johnson.
The proposal is waiting to be heard in an Assembly committee.
Ben Bleiman, a San Francisco businessman who owns 12 bars, is president of the California Nightlife Association that sponsored the measure this year. He argues it would help make cities safer.
“Darkness is criminals’ favorite thing in the world, and when there’s lights on and security personnel and people out, they can’t do their criminal business,” Bleiman told CalMatters.
Allowing bars across cities to stagger their closing hours also allows customers to trickle out throughout the night, Bleiman and Haney argued.
“There’s a pushing out of large crowds at 2 a.m. with nowhere else to go,” Haney said, and allowing some of them to continue the night in other venues can help reduce the number of drunk patrons on the streets all at once.
But Assemblymember Tom Lackey, a Palmdale Republican and a former highway patrol officer for 28 years, called the bill “the worst policy I have voted on in my whole time being in office.”
Extending last-call hours could encourage more late-night hangouts, which could lead to more drunk and fatigued driving, he argued.
“I don’t care what kind of sales job or what kind of safety measure they’re trying to sell on this,” Lackey said. “What is undeniably a fact is that as time passes, people’s fatigue exponentially increases, especially between 2 and 4 a.m., and that is a huge threat to the motoring public.”
Despite their enthusiasm for late-night drinking, both Wiener and Haney claim they can’t stay out drinking until 4 a.m.
“But it does warm my heart … knowing that there are people who will be out until 4 a.m. having fun,” Wiener said.