For far too long our community has been begging the Board of Supervisors to stop handing out to-go liquor licenses with reckless abandon. The Board's historic track record has been to give a to-go liquor license to any businesses that wanted one, even if the community protested vigorously. The Board hid behind letters from the Sheriff promising that no liquor laws would ever be violated, despite the Sheriff's liquor law enforcement staff telling the public that enforcement depended on the public doing the enforcing The Board acted like the state's Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) was on top of things when, as our experience proved, both the ABC and the ABC Appeals Board said the ball was squarely in the Supervisor's court.

Something VERY different happened today. The Board of Supervisors actually DENIED not just one, but two (!) liquor licenses. One of the applications was for a store in the unincorporated Rosemont vicinity. The other one was proposed for the 7-11 convenience store at Fulton and Hurley. The 7-11 store had applied to expand its liquor sales from beer+wine to all spirits. In denying the applications, the Board said they respected the businesses but were more concerned about the over-concentrations of to-go liquor sales in unincorporated areas and the adverse effects on disadvantaged communities such as the West Arden Arcade Environmental Justice Area. Frankly, our Newsroom Elves were floored when the Supervisors said ixnay to the liquor license requests, so they couldn't exactly give a standing ovation. But that's exactly what the Supervisors deserve: Hip, Hip, Hooray and thank you for the unanimous votes against the liquor licenses today!!!