Arguments can certainly be made, especially in the era of Uber and Lyft, and increased access to public transit, that closing-time laws for bars in California and more particularly in Los Angeles County are arcane and anti-business.
Really, is there a logical, non-merely-Nanny State reason for being able to serve a drink at 1:30 a.m. and not at 3:30 a.m.?
What real business of the state is that? Isn’t it somehow more of a moral judgment about when citizens should be home and tucked into bed and when they shouldn’t, a matter that is no real concern of government?
After all, the sale of alcoholic beverages is legal throughout California. We, individually, can tut-tut about our neighbor or brother-in-law wanting to party all night in a saloon. But, ethically, we are not our … brother-in-law’s keeper.
Closing-time exceptions for various California cities have been the subject of attempted legislation for years in the Legislature — all unsuccessfully.
Now there is a new exception being proposed in Sacramento — for just one location across all of California. As our Jason Henry reports: “A bill heading to the governor’s desk would allow the newly opened Intuit Dome in Inglewood to serve alcohol to members of an exclusive club until 4 a.m., two hours later than every other venue in the state.”
AB 3206, by Assemblymember Tina McKinnor, D-Inglewood, would allow alcohol sales to continue from 2 to 4 a.m. as long as the drinking is “in a fully enclosed arena with a seating capacity of at least 18,000 seats located in the City of Inglewood.”
That description fits only Intuit, as the neighboring Forum has 17,500 seats, and SoFi Stadium, with over 70,000 seats, isn’t a “fully enclosed arena.” And it would apply only to the exclusive private club within Intuit, whose members pay dues.
The bill passed in the Assembly, and more narrowly this month in the state Senate. It now awaits Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature.
Creation of this exception would be no disaster. You could say that its experiment would be instructive in gauging how well such a closing time works for the rest of the state. But it’s just — weird. Only a posh club gets this privilege? That sends an odd message to the rest of us.
