Los Angeles Says: Too Much Alcohol on These Streets!

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July 8, 2021

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LOS ANGELES, July 7, 2021 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — Members of California Alcohol Policy Alliance (CAPA) will hold an opposition rally at the Los Angeles district office of California State Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino), principal author of AB 61 & coauthor SB 314. Both bills focus on expanding alcohol consumption on public property.

As all California communities struggle to recover from COVID, those most disproportionately socio-economically impacted are black, brown and low-income. For them there is no relief in Gabriel’s bills which prioritize business economic recovery. He is completely disregarding the unintended consequences of his misguided efforts: high costs of implementation, lack of infrastructure, and loss of overriding local control of cities to implement safe street and sidewalk initiatives for residents and business alike.

This is a social justice issue for low-income and communities of color, pedestrians and drivers already severely compromised by heavy policing, lack of resources, and limited access to walkable and family friendly city streets. Promoting the need for non-union low paying jobs for communities of color as a means to justify alcohol deregulation co-opts social justice and equity to advance corporate profits. The real question is: who is funding these initiatives because it is not the labor unions and it is not the community.

In 2020, Assemblymember Gabriel received $5,700 from the Beer, Wine and Liquor sector – $4,700 from Anheuser-Busch (a multinational corporation headquartered in Belgium) and $1,000 from Wine Institute a corporate alcohol funded lobbyist organization. Gabriel’s bills will effectively privatize public spaces and compromise pedestrian right-of-way safety in the City of Los Angeles.

What: Opposition Rally & Call to Action
When: Thursday July 8, 2020, 11 a.m. to noon
Where: 20750 Ventura Blvd. Suite 101, Woodland Hills, CA 91364
Who:

Pueblo y Salud
Los Angeles Drug and Alcohol Policy Alliance (LADAPA)
LGBTQ+ Caucus, CAPA
Disability Activists
Community Activists, Youth and Parents
Alcohol Justice

Why:

COVID regulatory relief measures were never meant to be made permanent or extended they were supposed to be temporary.
According to an August 2020 CDC report, both African-Americans and Latinx were at dramatically greater risk of trauma or stress disorders related to COVID-19. This has manifested in increased suicidal ideation and the initiation of or increase in substance use, as compared to other ethnic or racial groups.
Our communities are recovering from the most severe health crisis of our time, expansion of alcohol consumption should not be our priority.
California currently suffers over 10,500 alcohol-related deaths, 165,000 alcohol-related hospitalizations and $35 billion in related economic harm annually.
Problems from excessive alcohol consumption annually cost approximately $940 for every resident, or $2.44 for every drink. (CDC)
SB 314 would restrict use of what should be public space, it threatens to allow “party zones” of a type that have historically resulted in nuisance and license violations.
Expanding drinking into public areas such as sidewalks poses a threat to seniors and people with disabilities and threatens ADA compliance.
Many cities lack the capacity to implement expansion into public spaces, especially dense communities that rely heavily on public transportation and have narrow sidewalks and other infrastructure limitations.
ABC will not engage in enforcement because most of these requirements are essentially non-enforceable by the department.
There are already numerous methods for consumers to acquire alcohol in person at retail outlets or through delivery from retailers. Our communities do not need more access through cocktails-to-go.
Cocktails-to-go create more barriers to monitoring underage alcohol consumption.

With this event, CAPA is launching a public CALL to ACTION to demand that Assemblymember Gabriel, the Legislature, and the Governor acknowledge that excessive alcohol use is No. 3 on the list of preventable causes of death in California and stop any bills seeking to extend or expand COVID-19 regulatory rollbacks for economic relief.

Take Action here: : https://bit.ly/3oFz1uo or text PUBLICHEALTH to 313131 to tell legislators and the Governor to choose PUBLIC HEALTH over industry profits and STOP AB 61 AND SB 314.

The California Alcohol Policy Alliance (CAPA) unites diverse organizations and communities in California to protect health and safety, and prevent alcohol-related harm through statewide action.

CAPA Member Organizations