LOS ANGELES, May 2, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- California Alcohol Policy Alliance (CAPA), Alcohol Justice, and Los Angeles City Councilmember Paul Koretz have come together again to host a press event to oppose another 4 a.m. bar bill. SB 58 is State Senator Scott Wiener's 3rd attempt in three years to disrupt the state's uniform mandatory closing time for alcohol sales. In response, Councilmember Koretz introduced a resolution (Council File: 19-002-S39) opposing SB 58 on March 5, 2019. Friday's press event participants will report on the city and statewide public health and safety threats the bill would create by allowing a patchwork quilt of cities ? including Los Angeles - to extend alcohol sales to 4 a.m. If passed and signed into law by Governor Newsom, SB 58 would launch a dangerous ten-city, five-year experiment that could expose over 76% of California's population to increased alcohol-related harm. The bill faces a Senate Appropriations Committee determination by May 16, 2019.
What: Press Event/Opposition Rally/Call to Action
When: Friday, May 3, 2019, 9:00 a.m.
Where: Los Angeles City Hall, 200 N Spring St. Los Angeles CA, 90012 (First Street steps)
Who:
Paul Koretz, Los Angeles City Council District 5
Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Los Angeles City Council District 8
Sonny Skyhawk, Alcohol Justice
Melissa Estelle, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD)
Miriam Castro, Promotora - Mujeres Transformando La Comunidad
Richard Zaldivar, The Wall Las Memorias Project
Brenda Villanueva, Los Angeles Drug & Alcohol Policy Alliance (L.A.DAPA)
Gennesis Lopez, Coalition to Reduce Alcohol Related Harms in LA Metro (CoPalm)
Veronica De Lara, California Alcohol Policy Alliance (CAPA)
Why:
Having failed to pass two previous 4 a.m. bar bills (SB 384 in 2017, SB 905 in 2018), State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) authored SB 58, a poorly conceived and inadequately funded ABC "pilot project" to extend last call to 4 a.m. in ten cities.
SB 58 disregards 40 years of peer-reviewed, public health research on the dangers of extending last call.
SB 58 will strip away uniform protections of the existing 2 a.m. last call, and spread additional alcohol overconsumption, loss of life, injury, and nuisance across the state.
According to California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS), fatal DUI is a chronic, worsening problem for California.
There is no such thing as "local control" in alcohol policy. The harm from one city's decision to change last-call times "splashes" over every surrounding community.
SB 58 will cost the state at least $3-4 million per year to administer, mitigate the harm, and clean the blood off the highway; and cost cities and towns in "Splash Zones" millions more.