The flipside of fun in West Hollywood

West Hollywood’s nightlife is legendary, drawing local and international crowds to hotspots ranging from The Abbey to The Roxy, with every conceivable kind of watering hole in-between.

But where there’s revelry, there may be a hangover, too. A recently-released public health report on problems associated with alcoholic beverage outlets in Los Angeles County found that West Hollywood  has the highest concentration of on-premises drinking establishments anywhere in the county. It also ranked near the top in “off-premises” stores selling alcoholic beverages to go.

What’s more, the small, sophisticated city ranks third-worst among the 117 communities surveyed for motor vehicle crashes and 13^th worst for violent crime. Its alcohol-related death rate also was deemed a serious enough problem to be ranked “high” among the communities included in the report.

“West Hollywood is, for better or worse, the adult playground of Southern California,” said Mayor John Duran. “It is primarily an adult community,” drawing residents and visitors alike because of its many dining, drinking and entertainment options. “It’s why we all choose to live here.”  But, he noted, “there is a tradeoff.”

The popularity of the city’s restaurants, bars and hotels gives West Hollywood the budget to fund important services—even in tough economic times. “Without all that nightlife activity, we wouldn’t have a surplus,” Duran said.

The report, issued by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, seeks to draw connections between the density of liquor establishments and an array of problems ranging from car crashes and hospital admissions to neighborhood disturbances and assaults.

Nowhere are the issues and dilemmas more striking than in West Hollywood.

“While we are home to the Sunset Strip’s nightclubs, we are also a Mecca for recovery,” Daphne Dennis, the city’s social services manager, said in an email describing the city’s support for 12-step recovery efforts.  Overall, she said, West Hollywood commits “substantial resources” to two strategies recommended in the report—access to mental health and substance abuse services and educational services.  Other recommendations— on limiting advertising and on training for alcoholic beverage-selling staffs—are expected to be discussed by the city’s Human Services Commission in May.

The report used 2007 population estimates and information from the state’s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to determine the density of liquor outlets in individual communities. Then it analyzed law enforcement and health data to try to measure the impact of such establishments in each part of the county.

It found an average of 16 alcohol outlets per 10,000 people countywide. In West Hollywood, the concentration was far greater—47.3 on-premises outlets per 10,000 residents.

Still, the per-capita measurements of alcohol-related problems may not tell the whole story when it comes to West Hollywood—a 1.9 square mile city with 34,399 residents which has a much larger footprint after dark.

“Our city swells to over 100,000 on the weekend. Even on a weeknight, our population probably doubles,” said Lt. David Smith, of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s West Hollywood station.

He said the department responds to the influx by taking a pro-active approach to all kinds of alcohol-related issues, including DUI enforcement.

Every holiday season, deputies and city staffers hand out cocktail napkins bearing an anti-drunk driving message to bars and nightclubs. And for the past several years, a wrecked car has been displayed prominently at the corner of Santa Monica and San Vicente boulevards from early December through New Year’s—a reminder of the consequences of having one for the road.

“We take drunk driving seriously,” Smith said, “and efforts are underway to counteract it.”

At Barney’s Beanery, a West Hollywood institution that’s celebrating its 90^th anniversary Saturday, regional manager AJ Sacher said it makes good business sense to keep its clientele from drinking and driving.

“We call cabs all the time for our customers,” Sacher said. Barney’s, like other drinking establishments, also offers free non-alcoholic beverages for designated drivers and lets people who’ve overindulged leave their car valet-parked all night, without charge. “We want them to come back.”

Sacher said West Hollywood businesses tend to “operate in an extremely responsible manner” toward the drinking public—“It’s our livelihood.”

And he said he thinks the public as a whole has gotten savvier about drinking and driving in recent years.

“The vast majority of people who go out to restaurants in Los Angeles County every night are very responsible with their alcoholic beverage consumption, get home safely and don’t cause any problems.”

But when there are alcohol-related problems, the public health report found, they tend to happen where liquor-selling facilities are clustered.

And West Hollywood is not alone in feeling the effects.

On the Westside, Culver City, Santa Monica and Malibu also have high numbers of alcoholic beverage establishments per capita and have had their share of related problems, particularly motor vehicle crashes. (Beverly Hills, on the other hand, has one of the county’s highest concentrations of restaurants, bars and stores selling liquor, but has experienced only low levels of the social problems surveyed in the report.)

Elsewhere in the county, Commerce had the county’s highest concentration of stores selling liquor. It also had the worst rate of car crashes, the 2^nd worst rate of alcohol-related deaths, and one of the worst violent crime rates. San Fernando, with a high proportion of liquor stores, had the worst rate of alcohol-related deaths. The correlation between liquor establishments and social problems wasn’t always quite so pronounced, though. For example, Westmont, an unincorporated area close to South Central Los Angeles, had the worst violent crime rate among the communities surveyed—but ranked only “medium” in the number of liquor stores.

“Obviously, there are always going to be exceptions,” said Ben Lee, chief of the research and epidemiology unit that crunched the data for the report. But overall, he said, the report should serve as an eye-opener for people and communities across the county, as well as a tool for policy-makers seeking to combat an array of ills associated with alcohol abuse.

Posted 4/28/11