There has been talk among some elected officials that Santa Monica may have too many establishments that serve alcohol. Some have even suggested that the government regulate how many bars and restaurants should be located in different areas of the city.
This week’s Q-Line asked: “Does Santa Monica have a drinking problem? If so, should the city government intervene?”
Here are your responses: ■“Please! Don’t give the elected imbeciles any more ammunition to screw up the city government. They’ve done enough already and to check on the bars and the restaurants is ridiculous. They need to check on the liquor stores and 7- Elevens. All they have to do is take a look at the homeless and all of the beer cans that sit around them.” ■ “Yes we have alcohol for the young and the old in Santa Monica. There are at least three bars within spitting distance from each other. They may not be considered bars but nonetheless they still serve alcohol. They are, 1. The Border Grill, 2. Benihana’s, 3. Harvelles. I think we have enough bars and bums in the street.” ■ “The city should not get involved in a person’s choice to drink or not to drink. I don’t think there are too many drinking establishments in this city. It’s a person’s own personal business as to whether they want to put alcohol in their bodies. Government should stay out of our personal lives. I can’t even imagine! What a stupid question! Another thing for government to get involved in! Just let a person do what they want to do with their alcohol consumption.” ■ “Yes, Santa Monica does have a drinking problem. Last year when the ABC state agency came to Santa Monica, it said that this city has more alcohol licenses per square mile than South Central Los Angeles. An alcohol license in an alcohol license. Once it is issued it stays with that establishment, even though the person who is leasing the space could leave and a completely different entity can go in there. That license will still be valid and still stay at that facility. That is a danger. We have way to many alcohol licenses. We are having a lot of drunken driving. The Santa Monica Police Department is not the only department giving DUIs. The California Highway Patrol is giving an awful lot too. So when Chief Butts at the last meeting asks are DUIs up or down and he says down, that’s nonsense. He’s a liar and we all know that. We are not looking at all of the other agencies giving citations. So, yes, we do have a problem.” ■ “If Santa Monica has a drinking problem I couldn’t even begin to see how city government intervention could do anything for it or about it. It’s not the amount of bars and restaurants that are located in an area, but who goes to make the purchases. You can’t control that. The government has no control over that. I say leave the establishments alone and let them do what they do.” ■ “The only regulation I think the City of Santa Monica should have regarding establishments that serve alcohol is to keep them away from our schools, whether they are public or private, elementary, middle or high. Other than that I don’t think the city should intervene.” ■ “I feel Santa Monica does not have a drinking problem. The City of Santa Monica should not be regulating at all. The government should stay out of it 100 percent.” ■ “As long as the bars are not near schools you can open as many as you like.” ■ “If Santa Monica has a drinking problem, I’ve never heard of it. City government should not get involved if there is a problem. They are already far too involved in our private lives. If need be, there are other means of curbing drinking in public establishments.” ■ “There’s far too much boozing in this little hick town of Santa Monica. Vomit all over the place and lots of drunken yelling late at night.” ■ “Santa Monica has a drinking problem but I am more concerned about the toxic waste they are going to start putting in our water very shortly. That’s right fluoride, which is a by-product of the phosphate fertilizer industry, is now going to be dumped into our water rather than into a toxic waste dump. Are we going to pay for this? Of course. Would they have had to pay for it if they had put it in a toxic waste dump. Yes. I think concerns of the Christian Women’s Temperance Union, who are worried about bars, are unfounded. It gives the cops plenty of business on DUIs. It’s legal and I don’t understand why anyone would have a problem with that and yet want toxic waste dumped in their water. Maybe we should refocus the question.” ■ “I think Santa Monica has a government problem. Too much city government. That’s what should be looked at. Less city government, less micro-managing.” ■ “Yes. As a lifelong resident of Santa Monica I definitely think there should be a limit to how many places there are that sell the number one narcotic, which is alcohol. We need to protect our community from all the bad that alcohol does bring. It’s probably more serious a drug problem that all the other drugs combined.” ■ “Of course there is a drinking problem. But I think more concern should be focused on police enforcement of drinking laws. Every other Friday night the city is closed, so on Friday nights, where is our police enforcement?” ■ “One only has to look at the pervasive presence of obviously intoxicated persons on our streets, anytime day or night, to conclude that Santa Monica has a drinking problem. From the self medicating, mentally ill and chronically addictive transient population in Santa Monica to the nightly influx of binge-drinking college kids. The legendary non-existence of liquor law enforcement is tantamount to a perpetual last call to drink up in Santa Monica. It is against the law to not enforce the law as it pertains to alcohol sales and service. Local law enforcement is guilty of a misdemeanor if it fails to enforce liquor laws. Even if they simply know of violations and do nothing, they are guilty.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 7, 2002. Read the original PDF.