Angelenos could soon be sipping drinks while strolling in one of the city’s most dangerous areas under a new proposal.
The Los Angeles City Council voted 12-0 at its Wednesday meeting to direct city departments to study the feasibility of establishing designated “entertainment zones” in notoriously violence-prone Downtown LA where patrons could carry open containers of alcohol.
City planners, local agencies, and state alcohol regulators now have 60 days to report on whether the plan is viable or not.
The Department of City Planning will team up with several city departments, the LAPD, the City Attorney, and the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) to deliver a comprehensive report detailing their analysis for community-tailored safety measures, operating hours, and enforcement protocols.
The report would also outline formal location recommendations where these entertainment zones can be created in DTLA, which has an overall crime index that us 62% above the national average, according to Doorprofit.
Councilmembers Ysabel Jurado and Hugo Soto-Martínez introduced the motion to study the plan in May this year.
The proposal follows Senate Bill 969, passed in 2024, which allows local governments to let adults legally buy alcoholic beverages from licensed bars or restaurants and drink them outdoors in specific public zones.
“Downtown Los Angeles is one of the strongest economic and cultural engines of our City, but our local businesses, hospitality workers, restaurants, bars, and cultural corridors are still recovering from years of disruption,” Councilmember Jurado had said in May.
She added that the motion “is not about creating a free-for-all” but about exploring whether “managed public space activation can support economic recovery while maintaining strong safeguards for residents, workers, visitors, and neighborhoods.”
During the October 28 meeting, Soto-Martínez formally amended the measure from the floor to add a directive studying “one or more Entertainment Zones on or near the Hollywood Walk of Fame”.
Similar entertainment zones are are active in Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade and Culver City.
If approved, the zones would mark a major shift in public alcohol regulations for Southern California, mirroring open-container zones popularized in cities like New Orleans and tested in San Francisco.
