00:00Restrictions are being lifted, and for that, Californians owe a giant cheers to this man,
00:05Scott Wiener. In 2024, as the Sunshine State struggled to recover from the COVID pandemic,
00:12Wiener authored SB 969 to allow cities to establish entertainment zones
00:18where adults could consume alcohol purchased from bars and restaurants on the street.
00:23The bill was signed by Governor Gavin Newsom in September of 2024, and faster than you can say
00:30chug, San Francisco's Front Street hosted an Oktoberfest. Previously, their max attendance
00:36for Oktoberfest was like a few hundred folks. That first year with the implementation of the
00:43Entertainment Zone, we had upwards of like 8,000 people there. It's great to see that it has a
00:48very tangible impact for our small businesses that are in that space. They can make as much in one
00:55night as they normally do in one week, and obviously post-pandemic, that's a really big deal for our
01:01small business owners. Six months later, Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade, which has been
01:07struggling with keeping their storefronts occupied, implemented the first long-term legal open
01:13container rule on Fridays through Sundays from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
01:18But it's really enabled us to activate a little bit more foot traffic for our downtown,
01:22and we're really excited to even build off of the momentum that we've had for our really amazing
01:27beachside festival that's going to happen later this summer put on by the same folks as Coachella,
01:32and then of course for the Olympic Games. So we're testing out what works and what doesn't.
01:36We've seen no increase in any sort of illicit activity, and in fact last year we actually saw a
01:41decrease in Part 1 crimes by 12.5 percent.
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