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Alcohol Issues Aired With ABC Official at Residents Meeting

Alcohol Beverage Control administrator hears appeals and complaints about licensing on Belmont Shore's stretch of Second Street.

Belmont Shore residents and Second Street restaurant owners got together Thursday evening, though not necessarily in agreement, to ask a state ABC official all about alcohol sales licenses.

Some residents have contested the fact that local and state government have allowed  liquor licenses on Second Street to greatly exceed the legal allotment, and might correlate to an increase in the number of alcohol-related crimes in recent years. At Thursday's Belmont Shore Resident’s Association meeting, community frustrations were voiced in an overall civil dialogue over issues of community safety and legality, as well as bureaucratic impediments and small business challenges.

Vincent Cravens, district administrator for the California Department of Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC), went through a brief run-through of the legal process behind issuing or revoking alcohol licenses in Belmont Shore, then took questions.

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For some small business owners, the issuance or non-issuance of an alcohol license could mean they sink or swim. Christine Hsu, owner of the recently opened Chinese restaurant, Me Soo Hungry, is facing the challenge of getting a beer and wine license approved after being denied because of two complaints from one household within 100 feet. The initial application process for a license can take between 60 to 90 days, Cravens explained, and a protest can add another 60 to 90 days -- time that a struggling new business owner may not have.

“People often come in, look at the menu and after they see we don’t serve beer or wine, they say they need to get back to the babysitter. It’s been a trying time. I lose a lot of business because of this,” Hsu said after the meeting, as she walked Cravens to her restaurant nearby, where he picked up a menu and expressed concern for her, saying that perhaps their team didn’t realize the immediacy of the problem.

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Belmont Shore typically sees less crime and fewer permit applications than the greater Los Angeles area, Cravens said, so the connections here are sometimes overlooked.

“I want to say thank you so much from the bottom of my heart, to the people in this room and in the community," Hsu said in a heartfelt address to the meeting. "I’ve been trying so hard, but it hasn’t been enough.”  She had many supporters there.

Cravens explained that while the investigation is going on, she can apply for an interim permit, which would only take 10 to 20 days to issue, and which might buy her more time in getting approved for a permanent license. This vital piece of information may mean the difference between closing up shop and keeping her house.

Jim Worsham, president of Long Beach Community Foundation, commented that “the law is meant to regulate the problematic people who frequent the late-night bars, but somehow instead ends up affecting people like Christine. She has a nice restaurant that closes no later than 9:30 p.m. This is not the problem.”

So what is the problem?

Many residents in the Shore have complained about crimes in their neighborhoods thought to be caused by drunken overflow from the late night bars on Second Street.

Marvin Jones, who is on the board of the BSRA, remarked that he has broken up fights outside his residence, had two car mirrors sideswiped and has been witness to drunks stumbling around the area at 9 a.m in the morning.

Others, like Legends bar owner Gene Rotondo, believe deterrent methods like imposing a curfew or revoking a liquor license would be extremely detrimental to business. Rotondo, however, is open to ideas about keeping business steady while making sure to prevent alcohol-related crimes. For example, he suggested having a police officer on duty between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. to check intoxication levels and monitor disturbances and drunk driving. Noise, he said, was no problem for residents nearby.

Cravens suggested that keeping a log of criminal activity related to alcohol consumption with the date, time and description of event, so that a compilation of facts can be investigated. It is often difficult to trace intoxicated crimes back to a particular establishment, he said, a sentiment that was echoed earlier by Long Beach Police Department Commander Lisa Lopez. She was asked whether it was true that a man arrested for drunk driving and hit-and-run late last month had been drinking on Second Street. The driver turned out to be a Long Beach fire captain who's truck--on the same street but a few miles away in Seal Beach--struck and seriously injured a cyclist. Lopez said that the exact location of his drinking was very hard to determine, though those questions are routinely asked by investigating officers.

Cravens answered a technical question from the audience about whether a restaurant is allowed to serve alcohol after 10 p.m. if they are not serving food at that time, referring to a 50/50 rule that states restaurants that serve alcohol must also serve food at least half the time of operation. Cravens clarified that if a restaurant is serving food roughly half the time of operation and during the normal meal hours of 6 a.m. and 9 a.m., 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. and between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m., the 50/50 rule is not strictly enforced. Restaurants are not required to serve food after 9 p.m.

Cravens also explained that his Lakewood department is understaffed, with only two of an ideal five investigating officers, so ABC relies on local police and citizens to help bring attention to issues they should be involved in. The department’s main focus, he said, is to curb access to alcohol for underage youth and watch over vice-related crimes.

The overseeing agency is “complaint-driven,” so unless a complaint is issued, either by a private citizen, the police department or City Council, the ABC will not know to investigate. If a protester issues a complaint, ABC must investigate to see whether the complaint is valid.

He also differentiated between two different types of permits:

A person-to-person transfer exists when a business changes hands and an alcohol license is issued to the new owner.

A new license application requires compliance from the city first in the form of a conditional use permit (CUP) and without this, he stressed, a license cannot be issued. Once the CUP is approved by the city, ABC issues an affidavit and the business is investigated by licensing representatives for soundness of finances and other criteria. They also contact residents living within 100 feet of the establishment who might be affected by the decision.

One of the reasons posed by residents as a possible cause for alcohol-related disturbances in Belmont Shore is that Second St. businesses have considerably more alcohol licenses than are legally allowed. Cravens said that the ABC allows one alcohol license per 2,000 people, which means that Belmont Shore should have around six or seven.

The loophole that allows this to exist is the “public convenience and necessity” clause, which deems it economically viable to allow more businesses to serve alcohol. For example, Cravens said, the Hollywood and Sunset Strip areas go well over their allotted number because it is an "entertainment community" and customer demand for alcohol in restaurants and bars is high enough to justify the exception.

Elizabeth Borsting, a BSRA director, vehemently stated that Belmont Shore is not an entertainment community, and should not be treated as such, entreating the audience to consider the impact of alcohol sales on the community’s quality of life.

Aileen Colon, President of the BSRA, said that she believed it was not bad for some businesses to serve beer, wine or liquor, but there can be some problems with rowdiness in the community -- that basically the issue is conditional and determined by case. She said, "I am here to let the people speak and see what they have to say."

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