It’s Last Call for Most Alcohol Signs

The city of Los Angeles moved Monday to enforce a ban on most signs and billboards advertising alcohol and, in so doing, ignored merchants who had urged waiting until a judge can rule on a legal challenge.

The ban, which took effect Saturday, prohibits all signs bearing ads for tobacco or alcohol within 1,000 feet of any residential neighborhood, school, church or park.

“They are saying we can’t advertise alcohol. That’s a violation of our 1st Amendment rights,” said Ed Dato, a vice president for Eller Media Co.

Planners estimated when the measure was approved a year ago that it would affect 97% of the 2,777 billboards in the city.

Councilman Mike Feuer, who wrote the ordinance, said it is aimed at protecting minors from ads for beer, wine and cigarettes.

“We know from experts that the most determinative factor of whether kids smoke or drink under age is advertising,” Feuer said.

Liquor groups filed a lawsuit in federal court in August, seeking an injunction permanently barring enforcement. The issue has not yet been decided, and the next hearing in the case is set for next month.

Building and Safety Department officials said Monday that orders to comply will be sent out the first week based on complaints received on a city hotline, (888) 524-2845. No complaints had been filed by the close of work Monday, said Bob Steinbach, a spokesman for the agency.

On Friday, all building inspectors will receive training on the new ordinance, and next week, six inspectors will sweep the Wilshire district searching for offenders.

“We are enforcing it,” Steinbach said. “If we receive a complaint, we will go out and we’ll cite the owner.”

Lawyers who filed the challenge said the city could be liable for damages if a court finds the ordinance unconstitutional.

Opponents have cited studies that concluded that advertising bans do not affect overall sales of alcoholic beverages.

Steven G. Brody, an attorney for liquor trade groups, said the studies he has seen indicate that peers and parents are the biggest influence on whether minors drink alcohol under age, so the city ordinance cannot be legally justified.

“It’s our position that they will not be able to prove that this law is going to materially reduce underage drinking,” Brody said.

Feuer cited studies demonstrating a strong link between advertising and underage smoking.

“It clearly is a very strong influence,” said Feuer, citing the work of John Pierce, a researcher with the Cancer Center at UC San Diego, who testified last year to the City Council that there is a strong link between advertising and underage smoking.

The lawsuit does not challenge the provisions addressing tobacco advertising, because firms have agreed to remove those ads as part of the national settlement with tobacco companies.

Feuer said there is no need to delay enforcement, noting that similar laws have been upheld in Baltimore and Tacoma, Wash.

‘Underage consumption of alcohol and tobacco is illegal and the city has authority to limit, as a land-use matter, the location of these signs to protect our kids,” Feuer said.

“The battle lines are clearly drawn,” he added. “They can sue if they want to elevate the economic interests of their clients over the health of our kids.”

The crackdown also concerned local merchants, including Tom Chan, who owns Tom’s Liquor Market in North Hollywood, which he said is about 500 feet from a residential neighborhood.

“I think it would really hurt a lot,” Chan said of having to take down his window signs. “The signs bring a lot of people in. This [law] is unfair.”

Eddie Mashy, who runs a liquor store in the Los Feliz area, said he is worried that a nearby residential neighborhood might trigger the law for his store.

“We have always had signs in the window,” he said. “It is probably going to ruin business.”

Connie Chang said her Saki Liquor store in the Crenshaw District is within 500 feet of a private school, but she checks the identification of all customers and never sells to anyone younger than 21. The ban will harm not just her sales of liquor but also receipts on groceries, Chang predicted.

Mashy said he would support a ban on billboards at schools, but added: “We have a liquor license. We should be able to have signs.”