Pasadena Bars Could Stay Open Until 4 a.m. Under Revived State Bill

A California bill that would let cities extend last call from 2:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. is back in play in Sacramento, and Pasadena — with its dense Old Pasadena restaurants and bar district, convention center, and Rose Bowl Stadium — seems to have been the kind of city the legislation was written for.

Assembly Bill 342, which passed the state Assembly 50-11 last year before stalling in the Senate, would allow any California city to create “hospitality zones” where bars and restaurants with on-sale alcohol licenses could serve drinks until 4 a.m. on Fridays, Saturdays, and state holidays. The bill does not require any city to participate. But if it becomes law, Pasadena’s City Council could choose to designate zones — potentially in Old Pasadena, the area near the Pasadena Convention Center, or in other entertainment corridors — where establishments could apply for the extended hours.

The bill, authored by Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco) and co-authored by State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), is being pushed again in the second year of the 2025-2026 legislative session, according to a March 2 report by CBS Bay Area.

California’s 2:00 a.m. last call has been state law since 1913. The only current exemption is the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, home of the Los Angeles Clippers, which received a special 4:00 a.m. exemption signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2024.

“We have to, as a state, help our cities come back fully and recover,” Haney said at a press conference in downtown Los Angeles in April 2025, according to CapRadio. “We’re not talking about making every city in California stay open until 4:00 a.m. We’re talking about creating spaces in our downtowns where it makes sense, where we know it will benefit the neighborhood.”

Pasadena has more than 600 restaurants and a 1.5-mile downtown core that includes Old Pasadena, the Playhouse District, and South Lake Avenue, according to the Pasadena Convention and Visitors Bureau. Old Pasadena alone has numerous bars and nightclubs, including late-night music venues and craft cocktail bars. The Pasadena Convention Center offers 130,000 square feet of event space with more than 1,200 hotel rooms within walking distance, according to Visit Pasadena — the type of infrastructure the bill’s supporters say makes a city a natural fit for a hospitality zone.

Under the bill, cities would need to weigh several factors before creating a zone, including proximity to hotels, access to public transportation, walkability, and public safety plans, according to ABC7 Los Angeles. Establishments seeking the extended hours would need to obtain an additional serving hours license at a cost of $2,500 per year, with the fee adjusted annually for inflation, according to the bill text. Cities could also charge their own fee to fund local law enforcement.

The bill also creates a separate category called “Special Event Hospitality Zones,” which cities could designate for up to one month around major events. With the 2028 Summer Olympics both coming to the Los Angeles region, supporters say the provision could help California compete with cities like Las Vegas and New Orleans that have more permissive alcohol laws.

But the measure has drawn organized opposition. The bill stalled last July after Senate Government Organization Committee Chair Steve Padilla (D-San Diego) pulled it from consideration, according to a press release from Alcohol Justice, a public health advocacy group that led the campaign against it. The group said 6,000 emails were sent to legislators opposing the bill and called the measure a threat to public safety.

“The data is clear: extending last call to 4:00 a.m. will lead to more drunk driving, more injuries, and more lives lost,” Cruz Avila, executive director of Alcohol Justice, said in a statement, according to Patch. The California Alcohol Policy Alliance, a coalition of more than 50 public health and safety organizations, also opposed the bill, along with the Health Officers Association of California and the California Statewide Law Enforcement Association, according to Alcohol Justice’s press release.

In Pasadena, the public safety question carries local weight. The Pasadena Police Department regularly conducts DUI checkpoints near popular nightlife areas, including Old Pasadena, according to city press releases. In one recent year, the department investigated 73 DUI collisions that resulted in one death and 32 injuries, according to a city announcement about DUI enforcement operations.

Assemblymember Tom Lackey, a Palmdale Republican and 28-year veteran of the California Highway Patrol, voted against the bill and called it “the worst policy I have voted on in my whole time being in office,” according to CalMatters.

The bill includes a sunset clause and would expire on January 1, 2031. It would also require the California Highway Patrol to submit a report to the Legislature by January 1, 2029, on the regional impact of the hospitality zones, according to the bill text.