SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – San Francisco partiers were dealt a blow on Wednesday after a bill that would have extended last call to 4 a.m. died on the Assembly floor.
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The bill was first introduced in February this year by Sen. Scott Wiener and Assemblymember Matt Haney.
"Senate Bill 930 is a limited pilot program to allow 3 cities — each of which asked to be included — to work with local stakeholders, including law enforcement, to decide locally whether to extend nightlife hours. SB 930 is a local control bill that lets cities decide what nightlife works best for their communities and small businesses," said Haney and Wiener in a joint statement after the bill failed to pass.
SB 930, a 3-year pilot, would have allowed not only the city and county of San Francisco, but Palm Springs and West Hollywood too, to extend the sale of alcohol at bars, clubs, and restaurants to 4 a.m. on weekends and 3 a.m. during the week.
"We have a single rule for the entire state passed in 1935 that tells every city and county what they have to do, including every single business," said Haney to the Assembly on Wednesday. "It provides zero room for flexibility, it gets in the way of a sector that has frankly been strained incredibly during the pandemic – they were the first to close and the last to open."
"All of us are concerned about the economic situation in our state right now," he continued. "In downtown San Francisco we are struggling to bring back conventions, we are struggling to open up our storefronts, and it is our hotels, our business sector, our business community that is begging for us to have this flexibility at the local level."
Some of the opposition to the bill came from concerns of safety. Haney asserted in his remarks that drunk driving happens at all hours of the day, regardless of when bars might close.
"We have studied this closely, and there is no correlation at all to a later closing time for 3 cities, let alone for the state which is happening in other places, and more DUIs and more drunk driving accidents," he said.
Pushing people to finish their drinks and head out the door at 2 a.m. might actually be what's contributing to this problem, he added.
The original version of the bill also included other cities as well – Cathedral City, Coachella, Fresno and Oakland. These cities were dropped from the final version earlier this month.
According to a spokesperson for Sen. Wiener's office, the amendment ultimately came out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
The chair of the committee, Assemblymember Chris Holden, did not respond to KCBS Radio’s request for comment.
Despite the bill's failure, Haney and Wiener have not given up yet.
"We are disappointed that SB 930 came up short on votes today on the Assembly floor after a series of misleading speeches by members representing areas that would not have been impacted by the bill," Haney and Wiener’s statement continued. "We are assessing whether there is a path to pass the bill off the Assembly floor."
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