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To Save Bars and Restaurants, California Extends Relaxed Booze Rules – Reason.com

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed three good bills relating to alcohol last week. This legislation extends relaxed alcohol rules to bars and restaurants which were implemented in the aftermath of the COVID-19 epidemic.

“Two” of the three bills can be extended outdoor diningPermits and alcohol sales at the pandemic-era parklets for a year after the state of emergency ends, giving businesses time to seek permission for permanent approval,” the Associated Press Reports The third permits restaurants, bars and wineries to offer food in addition to their current offerings. You can have alcoholic drinks to go with food orders through Dec. 31, 2026.”

This type of deregulation is generally accepted. enjoy widespread public support. The California Restaurant Association and Distilled Spirits Council of the United States praised the California vote. However, not all are happy with the laws. 

Like I reportedCovid-related deregulation was opposed by alcohol prohibitionists in 2020. This would have benefited restaurants, bars and consumers. An April 2020 example. Report by Movendi—a Sweden-based anti-alcohol group—claimed only one U.S. state, Pennsylvania, had “improved alcohol laws” in response to the pandemic. Is it possible that Pennsylvania has improved its alcohol laws in some way? Movendi was proud of Pennsylvania’s alcohol laws.[d]All liquor stores, and all alcohol distributors

The spring will bring the Wall St. Journal Not notedThere were increased demands from anti-alcohol organizations for local and state governments to ban to-go drinks and reduce other Covid-related alcohol regulations. It’s not surprising that California-based Alcohol Justice opposed recent California laws. 

Alcohol Justice, Movendi and other generally ArgumentThese Covid-related deregulation measures are being implemented by so-called “Big Alcohol”. And while it makes sense that large alcohol companies support efforts to remove barriers that make it harder for adult consumers to buy their products, much of the impetus for extending deregulatory alcohol measures put in place over the past year or so come from small, locally owned bars and restaurants—businesses that have been among the hardest hit by the pandemic.

In fact, for all their talk about “Big Alcohol,” opponents of extending Covid-related alcohol deregulation, including Alcohol Justice, find some of their top allies in opposing alcohol deregulation to be, well, “Big Alcohol”—namely, “trade groups representing liquor stores“—which don’t want bars and restaurants competing with them for consumers’ to-go alcohol dollars. This is yet another twist on an old idea of Bootleggers, Baptists

Alcohol Justice said that it would not be possible to respond by the deadline when I reached them for comments this week. However, the group stated its position on California’s recent legislation in a Media releaseThey shared it last week.

Alcohol Justice wrote that “choosing public drinking over public safety is a social injustice issue for low income and communities of colour, pedestrians, and drivers already severely affected by heavy police policing, lack resources and restricted access to family-friendly, walkable city streets.” Promoting the necessity for low-wage, non-union jobs for communities in color to justify alcohol deregulation is a co-opt of social justice, equity, and profit to increase alcohol-related profits.

Are you really? It’s true. Sacramento Bee reportedThe governor of California, Gov. Newsom signed the new liquor legislation in Oakland at a Jamaican-owned restaurant. The Oakland location might not have had to close if there was no alcohol deregulation.

The restaurant owner Nigel Jones stated that the temporary state rules which allowed him to sell takeout beverages helped his business survive the pandemic. BeeRead more. He said that his restaurant had ‘bounced back” because of the to-go beverages and pandemic rules, which allowed him to expand the eating space outside.

Jones is not an exaggerated outlier. According to the A.P. As last week’s A.P. A state legislator who sponsored one the bills said that six out of the ten California restaurants owned by Californians are run by “people of color”, pointing out that they have suffered more from the pandemic than other groups.

2020 Column“The” was my anthem. LooseningState and local laws governing alcohol [as]Perhaps the most visible, welcomed, and widespread” deregulation effort in response to Covid. Iowa’s decision to make some deregulation measures permanent was lauded by me, as were at least four other states. Others have followed their lead. For example, in April, Washington State legislators formed a bipartisan group. ExtendThe state has two additional years of to-go liquor rules. Massachusetts legislators will be addressing the issue this summer. ExtendA similar law was passed in the state. CNBC lists them among the least twenty states. reportedIn June that they made permanent the Covid-related rules that allow to-go cocktails.

My 2020 column noted that I support alcohol regulation “before, during and after” the pandemic. Surprisingly, so many politicians across the nation agree with me.