As a DJ who works long hours at bars in San Diego at night, I have seen pretty much everything: drunks, fights, people throwing up all over the sidewalk, vandalism, and other types of crimes. By the time last call rolls around, my fellow co-workers and I are exhausted. Just when we think we can relax and call it a night, we then have to worry if we will make it home without getting hit by a drunk driver.
That’s why I’m concerned about a proposed bill that would extend bar hours from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. I’ve seen how drunk people can get at 2 a.m. Add another two hours and for me, that gets too dangerous. Plus it’s that much closer to when normal work days start, so I predict there’d be a lot more people either hung over at work or completely missing work altogether.
Some people don’t know when to stop and then they drink to the point where they are out of control. It seems that the more people drink, the more violent they can get. This especially concerns me because of where I work — the Gaslamp Quarter. According to last year’s statistics from the San Diego Police, the Gaslamp had more than twice as many violent crimes as the average community in San Diego. Of course, not all of them were alcohol-related, but many were.
You know how many violent incidents we already have from drunks getting upset after they leave the bar at 2 a.m.? I think there’d be more of a chance for fights to break out if people had a chance to drink even the slightest bit more.
I worry that I could even lose my job because of violence due to alcohol. Last September, employees at a bar in Oceanside were laid off when the bar was shut down because of all the fights that police had to respond to.
Drunk people leaving the bars and nightclubs at 4 a.m. could possibly be sharing the road with people on their way into work. Add in the fact that they could also be sleepy and then you have a deadly combination of fatigue and drunkenness. People shouldn’t have to worry about drunk drivers while driving in an already crazy morning commute.
In San Diego, there are very few options for getting to and from the bars. Our buses don’t run that late and we don’t have a subway system like New York and Chicago. People in those cities have the convenience of public transportation that runs well into the night and early morning, but most people rely on their cars in San Diego. And for those who use taxis, Uber or Lyft, they face surge pricing during times of high use, so those aren’t reliable options either.
While bars may make extra money from two additional hours of operation, I don’t think that the costs are worth it to the whole community. We will need more police and emergency responders answering calls for service.
I wish I didn’t have to worry about my own safety, but that kind of comes with the territory of working in bars late at night. But it’s an extra concern for people heading into work who will have to share the road with people leaving the bars at the same time.
Adding two more hours to drink in bars and nightclubs just doesn’t make sense.
Daniel R. is a DJ who frequently works in the Gaslamp Quarter. He does not want his name revealed out of concern for his employment.
