Published
Mon, Sep 4, 2017, 20:52
- "There's no need to study anything," said state senator Scott Wiener, who originally introduced the bill.
A bill passed by the California State Senate to allow municipalities to extend late-night drinking hours has been stalled in the State Assembly.
The bill, called Let Our Communities Adjust Late Night (or the LOCAL Act), was first discussed back in February and then introduced to the State Senate by Democrat Scott Wiener, who represents San Francisco. It was passed in the Senate but over the weekend was stalled by the California State Assembly, who revised the bill's language to instead call for a task force to study the issue and report back by the end of 2019.
As the LA Times reports, Wiener criticized the decision in a statement.
"There's nothing radical about letting local communities decide for themselves whether to let their bars and nightclubs go later," he wrote. "It's embarrassing that California shuts down its nightlife so early. We're not going to give up."
The original bill would have allowed California municipalities to decide whether or not to extend drinking hours until 4 AM, instead of the statewide mandated 2 AM last call that stands right now. It was introduced in an effort to modernize the city's nightlife as well as cut down on the number of illegal afterhours parties in major California centres like Los Angeles and San Francisco.