HB Neighbors

DUI STATS SHOULD GUIDE POLICY

We do not need more bars in downtown Huntington Beach (“ABC officials approve license,” June 9). Our crime and DUI rates are off the charts. The taxpayers have to pay for the law enforcement costs. So, why did these folks protest the license? It’s not because they had nothing better to do, but because they recognize the following pattern downtown:

1) Open a family/neighborhood restaurant.

2) Acquire a liquor license.

4) Restaurant begins to fail because it is not the “nightclub” hot spot.

5) Owner acquires an entertainment permit to improve business.

6) Restaurant morphs into a bar/nightclub to make ends meet.

7) Restaurant owner doesn’t like running a club and sells the business to an experienced nightclub operator.

8)New owner acquires both the liquor license and the entertainment permit in the purchase and turns the site into a full-fledged nightclub.

How do we allow good restaurants to open downtown and prevent them from turning into a nightclub? Our policy makers need to place restrictions on the licenses to prevent this from happening. The 195 people killed or injured in HB in 2009 from DUIs is unacceptable. A policy change is in order here to allow restaurants to open but to prevent the nightclub morph from taking place.

Angela Rainsberger

Huntington Beach