July 6, 2025

A 4am last call is good for the economy.

Team Blueprint

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A perennial question over the years has been: should bars be able to serve liquor until 4am in California cities?

This legislative battle may sound familiar because, in fact, it is; California lawmakers (including State Senator Scott Wiener) have been trying to extend the last call since the early 2000s. Previous attempts have historically been hamstrung by different advocacy groups, including Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the California Highway Patrol, out of concerns that later hours would lead to more drunk driving.

But this time, it’s different. The new legislation (AB 342), sponsored by Assemblymember Matt Haney and co-sponsored by nightlife advocacy organization CalNight, is taking a different approach:

Rather than a blanket extension of hours, this legislation focuses on “extended weekend hours” to mostly two nights per week (Friday and Saturday). This ensures there’s minimal interference with commuters and those who have been out late.
The hours would be restricted to “hospitality zones.” Different from the increasingly popular entertainment zones you’ve likely heard about, hospitality zones are locally defined nightlife hubs that are often walkable, well-lit, and adjacent to public transit infrastructure.

With this different approach, Haney and CalNight have been able to assuage the concerns of previous iterations’ opponents; the California Association of Highway Patrolmen, a labor union representing patrol officers statewide, and Mothers Against Drunk Driving have both given a “neutral” recommendation after working in partnership with Haney to amend the bill’s language to address their concerns.

The bill coasted through the State Assembly with a broad majority of support, but is now getting stuck in the State Senate.

State Senator Steve Padilla (SD18), representing San Diego, San Bernardino, Imperial, and Riverside Counties, and Chair of the Governmental Organization Committee (which needs to hold a vote in order to go up for a full vote in the State Senate) is holding the bill hostage, according to Ben Bleiman, the Executive Director of CalNight.

“We’ve invested tremendous time building a broad coalition of support for this bill, ranging from law enforcement to important advocacy organizations like Mothers Against Drunk Driving. The previous and legitimate concerns around public safety and extended bar hours have been thoroughly considered and adequately addressed,” said Bleiman.

Despite this broad support, Padilla has given a variety of erratic reasons for blocking the bill, including that he still thinks it will lead to more drunk driving (despite the support of organizations who would be inherently opposed to any legislation that lead to such an outcome), to brushing the bill off as just not being a legislative priority.

Across key commercial corridors, many business owners have expressed that extended hours would help hasten the economic growth from, especially in California’s downtowns, a sluggish post-Covid recovery.

“We have to, as a state, help our cities come back fully and recover. We need people in our downtowns. We need them to come here, not just during the day, but at night,” Haney said during the press conference announcing the legislation.

But this issue also extends beyond simple economics. Among the many champions for AB 342: business and community leaders from the Castro to West Hollywood. These folks see AB 342 as being bigger than just an economic opportunity; it’s part of the fight to protect and defend queer spaces, many of which would economically benefit from extended hours.

There is no plausible explanation for Senator Padilla’s back-room maneuvering to kill a bill in committee that his constituents support, the LGBTQ community supports, and the organizations he claims to be advocating for actually, in fact, support.

The key to vibrant cities - including San Francisco - is creating resilient downtown economies that aren’t solely dependent on office workers and a 9-to-5 influx of economic power on the weekdays. Rather, a robust downtown recovery includes nightlife. The creation of hospitality zones and the extension of operating hours would not only be a boon for businesses, but would also promote travel and tourism, enabling our cities to compete with other world-class entertainment centers globally. And the stakes are high: with marquee events like the World Cup and Olympics coming to California, not enabling our businesses to fully capitalize on economic opportunity is a disservice to local business owners across the state.