Re “West Hollywood’s serving hours may extend to 4 a.m.,” July 7 issue

The City Council of West Hollywood has signaled (3-2) its willingness to allow bars to stay open and continue serving alcohol until 4 a.m. While this change may be profitable for the bars and fun for the drinkers already on site, it would rather quickly prove disastrous for the community at large.

After last call, some people who have been drinking all night at other bars in the five county metropolitan area would get in their cars and drive to West Hollywood to keep their spree going. This would add hundreds, possibly thousands, of drunk drivers to the roads every night. The toll in traffic accidents and injuries would be significant.

Not all of the drunks from every bar in Southern California share WeHo’s celebration of diversity. Trouble makers of all sorts could be expected to show up. Clashes among homophobes and the gay community, and between various street gangs are likely to occur.

The extended bar hours would inevitably become a lure for some of California’s vast homeless population – a situation which would carry over to daytime. Deterioration of the local quality of life would follow.

If the entire state of California or even the entire county of Los Angeles and its cities changed over to a 4 a.m. [bar] closure, the consequences would not be so concentrated in the little town of West Hollywood and the immediate vicinity. But if only WeHo makes this change, the collateral consequences would be severe.

Let the proposal die in the Legislature once again.

Stefen Malone

West Hollywood