Santa Barbara City Council Votes to Expand Nightlife Hours

In the face of an intense lobbying blitz by Santa Barbara’s bar, lounge, and restaurant industry, the Santa Barbara City Council voted to significantly expand the hours allowed for nighttime operations throughout the central business district, along Coast Village Road, and in the Funk Zone. This expanded the curfew for Santa Barbara’s nightlife operations by two and one half hours, from 10 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Although some councilmembers expressed concern about rising COVID numbers, a clear majority embraced the time change in order to help keep struggling businesses financially afloat.

Mayor Cathy Murillo led the charge, at first unsuccessfully pushing to lift the curfew citywide instead of restricted to these three specific major entertainment zones. She also alluded to vaguely described enforcement and outreach campaigns that presumably would accompany the expansion of allowable nighttime hours.

The 10 o’clock curfew had been imposed this May with the de facto creation of what’s become the State Street Promenade, in which many bar and restaurant operations were allowed — for the very first time — to expand their operations to the sidewalks, to the streets, and out into innovations known now as the “parklets.” Many of these businesses have licenses allowing them to operate to the early morning hours, but only indoors. And indoor service, in the time of COVID, has been all but totally eliminated for health considerations.