{"id":263550,"date":"2026-04-12T05:04:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T05:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/263550\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T05:04:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T05:04:18","slug":"long-beach-city-council-votes-to-expand-alcohol-sales-on-boardwalk-herald-community-newspapers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/263550\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Beach City Council votes to expand alcohol sales on boardwalk | Herald Community Newspapers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Long Beach\u00a0boardwalk<\/a> is a\u00a0major\u00a0attraction for visitors and a part of\u00a0the\u00a0daily\u00a0routine\u00a0for\u00a0most\u00a0residents. In\u00a0the\u00a0coming months,\u00a0the boardwalk experience\u00a0may\u00a0take a turn\u00a0toward\u00a0the tipsy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The City Council\u00a0<\/a>has\u00a0voted unanimously\u00a0to amend\u00a0two\u00a0city ordinances\u00a0which currently limit the opening of bars and restaurants and prevent the sale of alcohol at the\u00a0boardwalk. The\u00a0change will\u00a0create\u00a0an opportunity for new\u00a0establishments to open throughout the city and,\u00a0just as important,\u00a0to\u00a0allow boardwalk-facing\u00a0businesses\u00a0to sell alcohol.\u00a0<\/p>\n

City Manager Dan Creighton<\/a> began\u00a0Tuesday\u2019s\u00a0council\u00a0meeting\u00a0by\u00a0explicitly\u00a0stating\u00a0what the\u00a0amended\u00a0ordinances\u00a0would\u00a0not allow.\u00a0\u201cTo be clear, if adopted, these changes would not, I repeat,\u00a0not, allow the sale or consumption of alcohol on the boardwalk or beach.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The ordinance amendments will allow businesses\u00a0\u201cthat have an opening to the boardwalk\u201d\u00a0to serve beverages, alcoholic and\u00a0otherwise, as well as food.\u00a0It will\u00a0affect\u00a0concession-style cafes and\u00a0restaurants\u00a0that\u00a0face\u00a0the boardwalk, with the\u00a0expectation\u00a0that beverages\u00a0will be\u00a0consumed on\u00a0the premises\u00a0and not taken elsewhere. The amendments also permit new bars to open\u00a0anywhere in the city,\u00a0even\u00a0those\u00a0with\u00a0functional bars or\u00a0\u201cservice areas\u2019\u00a0more than 10\u00a0feet long \u2014 a limitation\u00a0in\u00a0the current ordinance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A similar proposal to\u00a0expand\u00a0alcohol sales was considered in February 2017. The council at the time,\u00a0which had none of the current members,\u00a0upheld the ordinances and\u00a0their\u00a0restrictions in\u00a0a\u00a04-1\u00a0vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The ordinances\u00a0were\u00a0first implemented in 1986. Sporadic variances, or exemptions, have been allowed in the years\u00a0since. The city\u2019s\u00a0corporation\u00a0counsel, Greg Kalnitsky, noted recent legal precedent.\u00a0\u201cIn the last 13 years, the zoning board has heard 18 applications for new establishments or establishments looking to extend the size of their bar,\u201d\u00a0Kalnitsky\u00a0said,\u00a0\u201cand\u00a0they\u00a0have approved all of them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Allegria Hotel, which opened in 2009 and has operated without notable incidents, was referred to throughout \u00a0 the meeting as an example of a boardwalk-facing business that sells liquor.\u00a0Those\u00a0who\u00a0favored\u00a0lifting the ordinance saw the Allegria as a testament to responsible beach-adjacent liquor sales.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

More than 200\u00a0concerned residents, advocates and\u00a0business owners\u00a0attended the meeting to voice\u00a0opinions on\u00a0both sides of the argument. The\u00a0single agenda item took\u00a0over\u00a0three hours to resolve. Anyone who wished to address the council was allowed to do so,\u00a0with\u00a0dozens of residents\u00a0taking\u00a0the opportunity\u00a0to speak for up to three minutes at a time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Denis Kelly,\u00a0the first\u00a0to\u00a0speak,\u00a0is the\u00a0attorney\u00a0for\u00a0Riptides 11561, a boardwalk-based\u00a0cafe\u00a0that\u00a0submitted\u00a0a\u00a0still-pending\u00a0application\u00a0to the State Liquor Authority\u00a0last\u00a0November\u00a0with\u00a0the hope of adding alcohol to\u00a0its\u00a0menu.\u00a0Kelly\u00a0addressed\u00a0rumors circulating through social media,\u00a0and\u00a0clarified\u00a0that Riptides would not be open for late-night liquor sales,\u00a0and would not host DJs or create a nightclub environment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Next to speak was\u00a0Nicolas Geeraerts,\u00a0owner of Tulum Tacos & Tequila,\u00a0which\u00a0has locations in Baldwin and Mineola. Geeraerts\u00a0is\u00a0set\u00a0to\u00a0expand to\u00a0the boardwalk this summer,\u00a0and\u00a0hoped\u00a0to alleviate worries about his business.\u00a0\u201cOur lease prevents us from being open past 11 p.m. at night,\u201d\u00a0he said.\u00a0\u201cWe are not opening a nightclub. We are opening up a first-class establishment. A Mexican eatery and speakeasy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mike Murphy, a Long Beach resident,\u00a0noted\u00a0a simple benefit of\u00a0revising\u00a0the ordinances.\u00a0\u201cIf we all take a look outside, you can see the boardwalk. You can see it\u2019s a million-dollar view,\u201d\u00a0Murphy pointed out.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m sober over 30 years. I would like to take my wife on the boardwalk for a ride at sunset, have a drink \u2014 I\u2019ll have a soda, she\u2019ll have a drink \u2014 and enjoy that million-dollar view.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other residents expressed concerns\u00a0about\u00a0an overabundance of bars in the area.\u00a0\u201cExcept for the poor people on Illinois, Ohio and\u00a0Nevada,\u00a0everybody in the West End is within one traffic light of a bar,\u201d\u00a0Jack\u00a0Ryan, a West End resident, said, with some hyperbole.\u00a0\u201cThose poor people have two traffic lights to get to a bar. We don\u2019t need any\u00a0more.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe research is very clear,\u201d said\u00a0Judi Vining,\u00a0executive\u00a0director of Long Beach Aware,\u00a0a nonprofit focused on reducing underage drinking.\u00a0\u201cThere is a direct correlation between the number of alcohol-serving businesses in an area and the amount of underage drinking. The data backs this up.\u00a0Look at the Boston School of Public Health, the Center on Alcohol Monitoring and Youth and Dr. David Jernigan\u2019s research on\u00a0\u2018Alcohol\u00a0Outlet\u00a0Density\u00a0Impact.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

To\u00a0further\u00a0address misunderstandings and misinformation, City Council President Brendan Finn re-emphasized\u00a0the facts of the\u00a0ordinance\u00a0amendments.\u00a0\u201cAlcohol is still not, not, permitted on the boardwalk or on the beach,\u201d\u00a0Finn stated.\u00a0\u201cOpen containers are not permitted on the boardwalk or on the beach.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The ordinance amendments will go into effect immediately.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Have an opinion on the City Council\u2019s\u00a0decision? Send a letter to\u00a0ccolucci@liherald.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Long Beach\u00a0boardwalk is a\u00a0major\u00a0attraction for visitors and a part of\u00a0the\u00a0daily\u00a0routine\u00a0for\u00a0most\u00a0residents. In\u00a0the\u00a0coming months,\u00a0the boardwalk experience\u00a0may\u00a0take a turn\u00a0toward\u00a0the tipsy.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[115595,115596,131,7188,133,132,115594,115597],"class_list":["post-263550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-alcohol-sales-ordinance","tag-boardwalk-businesses","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-city-council","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-long-beach-ny-boardwalk","tag-nassau-county-nightlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}