4 AM LAST CALL

4AM LAST CALL

So it seems that a lot of California cities are about to get a much later than 2am last call and well, I honestly don't care. Maybe it's because I'm about to reach my 40's and I'm an old ass mother fucker who probably shouldn't "hang" till well past the already 2am last call, let alone the soon to be 4am one. I also have inside knowledge of working as a service sector of the economy and let's put it this way, moving last call to 4am just fucks over a lot of already fucked over people.

Think about it. Those bartenders kicking your drunk ass out of the bar at 2am after giving you a half hour last call already just want to go home. They're probably not going to be cleaned up and closed out and ready to lock the doors until at least 3 or 3:30 in the morning anyway. What the fuck do you think that moving last call to 4am will do other than screw them over a little more and have them get home around 5:30 or 6am as is.

I'm getting ahead of myself here with the editorial part first and not even throwing out the facts so you know what the hell I'm talking about.  State Assembly members voted to approve a bill that allowed nine California cities to extend the last call at bars from 2am to 4am. The bill, SB 905, is the newest version of this legislation to be introduced that has in the past been struck down time and time again.

It's a five year pilot program for cities that expressed interest in doing the later last call. The cities include  San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, West Hollywood, Long Beach, Coachella, Cathedral City and Palm Springs. and was supported by S.F. mayor London Breed and Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf.

The cities wouldn't just automatically extend the late-night hours, but would have the option to do so. Basically giving them the control over if it even suits them to do so. It would also only take into effect come 2021, well when I'm past 40 and in my 41st birthday, man. I'll be so old then that I'll be asleep by 9pm easily. But this is a means for the cities like Downtown L.A. and San Fran to take control of their own needs in terms of nightlife and decide their closing times.

You're probably wondering if that won't cause more folks to be on the road during the early morning commute times drunk. Which, I guess that could happen. I mean, if you stumble out of a bar at 4am after they kick your ass out, you're probably going to hit the early risers in the 5am commute. But then again, the flip side is that you'll have much more time to enjoy your drinks instead of pounding them back at 1:15am when they're about to call last call. On top of that, you'll spread it out and probably fade of sleepiness before the alcohol really kicks in.

The problem here though is that Los Angeles' public transportation is pretty laughable. In that it was hard to even have any night life before when trains and buses were done for the night around midnight anyway, let alone 2am, and even more so you won't find shit to get you home other than some really lonely 4am uber drivers and taxi drivers that deep into the night.

You also have to factor in that the service industry is going to hate this. How many customers are there going to be from 2am to 4am anyway? Is it going to be worth it for every place to stay open and pay a second night shift for the hours? Because that's what will have to happen. Managers will have to have basically two night shift hours. One to start off the night and then the other to continue it at some point. That means less pay for both shifts vs. one long good night of tips for a set of staff that is on for the night. So it will cause a nightmare in terms of actually hiring and keep on the clock.

To add to that, those late shifters already have a bad enough sort of lifestyle that leads to unhealthy choices in life if they're pulling vampire shifts in their life, getting to sleep at the early morning times when everyone else is just getting up. And for what, so you can drink for two extra hours?  This sort of lifestyle is normal in New  York and I constantly have folks tell me that they miss it when they're here in Los Angeles, not ever realizing that there's a reason why it works there and doesn't work here.

As much as I'm for later hours to drink, I don't think the benefits out weight the cons on this one and while it's good to have it as a choice, I don't think I would ever really fully take advantage of the whole later hours if and when they come around in 2021 to Los Angeles.. that's even if I'm still here and not in some cabin out in a fly over state just typing away on a type writer some strange story.