Late-Night Pizza Ban? That's Crazy Talk!
Noted Pizza-Roll fans, we're not one to patronize pizza establishments in order to stifle late-night sodium cravings brought on by binge drinking. (Really, with Pizza Rolls you transition from freezer to toaster oven to mouth in record time, seamlessly.) But the this idea of a late-night pizza ban is insane. There's no better word for it.
In North Beach fights breakout and mild vandalism occurs after bars close at 2 a.m. This chaos, typical for any city, makes some of our sensitive city dwellers cranky before bedtime. Or whatever. So, the City Planning Commissioners somehow got it into their heads that closing pizza parlors on the the Broadway strip, pizzerias that normally stay open until 3 a.m. or 4 a.m., before 2 a.m. will solve a slew of problems. According to the Examiner:
Closing the parlors at 2 a.m. or earlier could curb violence and public drunkenness and reduce litter from pizza boxes and plates, Central Station police Capt. James Dudley told commissioners at the meeting. Dudley said earlier club closing times could also help solve problems in the area.
But the closure could spell out certain death for Cable Car Pizza and Broadway Express Pizza -- establishments that rely on the late-night revenue. Are lingering drunks such an issue for SFPD that it's worth forcing restaurants out of business? Seeing as how it's their job, can't the fuzz handle a few tipsy, Drakkar-Noir-soaked partygoers?
Although Central Station police Captain James Dudley whined to the Commissioners that "Cable Car Pizza allows people to congregate up to 3 or 4 o’clock...I’m tasked to manage the crowd, which is sometimes 30, 40 or more people," Central Station Officer Keith Matthew seems a wee bit more reasonable. He suggests more late-night options, saying that "a responsible walk-away pizza place on this end of the Corridor would assist in alleviating the long lines at other nearby eateries...and hasten the time it takes to clear the partygoers from the neighborhood." Word.
And according to Eater SF, the only thing that this ban could accomplish would be to "eliminate a cash cow for local eateries while simultaneously not solving the actual problem of drunken violence in the Broadway clubs."
Again, this idea is insanity as its finest. It should not be approved by the City Planning Commissioners. Though it probably will.