Last call: Bars in Baja to close at 1 a.m.

Critics say safety measure will hurt business

BY SANDRA DIBBLE

MONDAY, JANUARY 17, 2011 AT 6:18 P.M.

Indie Go! is part of the burgeoning bar scene on Sixth Avenue off of Avenida Revolución in Tijuana. / Photo by David Maung

TIJUANA - An earlier mandatory cutoff time for alcohol sales in bars across Baja California has been drawing fierce opposition inTijuana, where early morning serving hours and a younger drinking age have for decades drawn a strong U.S. clientele.

Among the critics of the change: the mayor, the police chief, the president of the chamber of commerce and the head of the conventions and tourism committee.

Their outcry followed the Baja California legislature's vote last month that rolls back the last-call hour for serving alcoholic beverages statewide by two hours: from 3 a.m. to 1 a.m., an hour earlier than the closing time for bars in San Diego County. The regulations also impose a six-hour weekly limit on the longtime practice of allowing bars to extend their operations by buying "extra hours" from municipal governments.

The issue of Tijuana's bar hours has for years been a point of contention on both sides of the border, with U.S. law-enforcement agencies and public advocacy groups favoring greater restrictions.

The new law took effect Dec. 28, giving the state's five municipalities three months to revise their related ordinances.

Its sponsor is state legislator Maximo García, a member of President Felipe Calderón's National Action Party, or PAN. He said a main goal is to standardize what has been an often arbitrary policy of granting "extra hours" to bar owners willing to pay for the privilege.

"The intention is to make the process very clear - that businesses have certainty - and it's not left to the discretion of each mayor who gets to stay open extra hours," García said in an interview.

Tijuana's police chief, Gustavo Huerta, has said the earlier hours would be difficult to enforce and ultimately contribute to illegal drinking. Mayor Carlos Bustamante, whose family owns Tijuana's 422-room Grand Hotel, called for a gubernatorial veto, but Gov. José Guadalupe Osuna Millán refused and the law went into effect.

Bustamante has since continued his opposition, vowing to fight it in the courts. He has enlisted the support of the state's four other mayors, like him members of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. The decree has not only created a sensitive political rift between the mayors and Osuna, a member of the PAN, but also has divided Tijuana's business community.

"Tijuana can no longer be a big party city, a big cantina," said Juan Manuel Hernández, president of the Tijuana section of Coparmex, an influential employers organization that pushed for the legislation. Hernández and other backers of the earlier closings said they will reduce the number of alcohol-related accidents, many of which they say take place in the early morning hours.

North of the border, the nonprofit Institute for Public Strategies in Chula Vista, which specializes in substance abuse policies, supports the earlier closings.

"It's a common-sense measure that saves lives on both side of the border," said spokesman Anthony Wagner. "When you have measures like this in place, it reduces the blood alcohol level when you stop drinking past a certain time."

National City's police chief, Adolfo González, also has noted that Baja California's drinking policies have a direct effect on San Diego County.

"Problems stemming from cross-border binge drinking culture include crime, violence, sexual assault and car crashes," he wrote in an editorial published last year in The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Throughout Mexico, the regulation of bars and other establishments that sell alcohol is a matter of state law. Often, cities are given the option of selling "extra hours" to bar owners, a measure that allows them to generate revenue but which critics say has often been enforced arbitrarily.

In any case, some businesses appear to simply ignore the rules: As a matter of practice, bars in Tijuana's Zona Norte, the red light district near the U.S. border, often stay open until 7 a.m. or later.

The sale of "extra hours" has long been debated in Tijuana.

Under pressure from Coparmex, then-Mayor Mayor Jorge Hank Rhon suspended the practice a few years ago as a security measure. But he soon reinstated the tradition. Last February, his successor, Jorge Ramos, canceled the "extra hours" again.

Opponents of the earlier closings said they are difficult to police and will harm thousands of workers who will lose income as a result of the earlier closings: bartenders, waiters and dancers, but also untold numbers of small independent vendors who depend on the drinking clientele to purchase their tacos, flowers and cigarettes.

"By 2 a.m., we're barely getting going," said Andrés Apreza, owner of Indie Go! in Tijuana, one of several bars on Sixth Street off of Avenida Revolución that have become increasingly popular with a young crowd and are hoping to extend their hours. The legal drinking age in Mexico is 18.

Mario Escobedo, president of the city's chamber of commerce, contends the earlier hours will simply lead to proliferation of clandestine bars in private houses and generally encourage illegal alcohol sales. He and other critics said the measures were passed without input from those in the business of selling alcohol legally.

"If they're so worried about accidents, why isn't there a single program against drinking and driving?" Escobedo asked. "Why aren't they talking about a program to prevent illegal sales?"

Victor Clark, a human rights activist who teaches at class on the border at San Diego State University, said the earlier closing times ignore Tijuana's origins as a drinking destination for U.S. visitors that reaches back to the days of Prohibition. "Tijuana has an intense night life that dates many years back," Clark said. "From the days of the casinos, it's been part of the city's social dynamic."

García sounded disappointed about the outcry the issue has raised: "It makes me kind of sad that people are more concerned with economic interests than the security and well-being of Tijuana residents."

Without making any specific commitments, García also said he and Osuna favor further discussions. "We're open to continued dialogue," he said, "to recast our strategies as long as they contribute to the effort to decrease the consumption of alcohol and reduce accidents."

sandra.dibble@uniontrib.com