Fresno City Council Members Join Health and Safety Advocates to Oppose SB 930 - the 4 a.m. Bar Bill

FRESNO, Calif., Aug. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Members of the Fresno City Council will join with health and safety advocates from Alcohol Justice and the Friday Night Live Partnership at a Fresno City Hall press event 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 5^th attempt since 2013 to disrupt the protections of California's statewide uniform last call.

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 6 cities: San Francisco, Oakland, West Hollywood, Cathedral City, Coachella, and Palm Springs. Fresno was originally the 7^th city in the pilot program but requested to be removed from the bill due to opposition among Fresno city leaders who will be voting on an opposition resolution later this week.

What:   Press Conference  

When:  Tuesday August 9, 2022 10:00 a.m.

Where: Fresno City Hall 2600 Fresno Street, Media Room 2120 2^nd floor. 

Who:

• Councilmember Garry Bredefeld (District 6)
• Councilmember Tyler Maxwell (District 4)
• Councilmember Miguel Arias (District 3)
• Cruz Avila, Executive Director, Alcohol Justice
• Carson Benowitz-Fredericks, MSPH, CHES, Research Director, Alcohol Justice
• Lynne Goodwin, Administrator, Friday Night Live Partnership

Why:  

One of the main points of opposition is that there is no "local control" when it comes to alcohol because the danger, harms and costs will not stay in the "Pilot Project Cities" where the drinking and economic benefits occur. If the bill becomes law, all surrounding communities of pilot project cities will be threatened by late night drinkers traveling drunk and fatigued in the early morning commute hours.

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), California currently suffers more annual alcohol-related harm than any other state: 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.

Fresno is following actions by the Los Angeles City Council which passed a resolution of opposition last week, and the powerful Los Angeles County Democratic Party (LACDP) that came out against SB 930 in a letter made public last week.

SB 930:

• Is a poorly conceived and inadequately funded pilot project
• Strips away uniform protections of statewide 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

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SOURCE Alcohol Justice