By Tim Sheehan

Central Valley Journalism Collaborative

In some neighborhoods in the San Joaquin Valley, it’s challenging to go more than a block or two without finding someplace to buy alcohol.

Between liquor stores, convenience stores, neighborhood markets and large grocers – and from the smallest rural outposts to the region’s largest cities across eight counties – 2,140 retailers hold state-issued alcohol licenses to sell beer and wine for off-site consumption. Throw in another 1,709 licensees authorized to sell distilled spirits as well as beer and wine, and it adds up to 3,849 stores to pick up a six-pack of beer, a bottle of wine, or a fifth of bourbon, rum, gin or vodka.

The result is an average concentration across the Valley of one alcohol retailer for every 1,124 Valley residents. According to state regulators, that number of retailers per capita is about in line with the ratio determined by the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) to protect the “safety, welfare, health, peace and morals of the people of the state.”

ABC has two major types of “off-sale” retail licenses for sale of alcohol for off-site consumption: Type 20 off-sale beer and wine, and Type 21 off-sale general, which allows sale of beer and wine as well as distilled spirits. The state’s Business and Professions Code declares that between Type 20 and Type 21 licenses, the number of retailers to which those licenses are issued is limited to a ratio of one for every 1,250 residents.

The same ratios apply to individual U.S. Census Bureau tracts as well. But there are exceptions – a lot of them – throughout the Valley, and the distribution of beer, wine, and liquor retailers is uneven at best. In some Valley census tracts, the concentration of licenses is as high as one for every 250 or 300 residents, rather than one for every 1,250 residents as outlined in the state code. 

Provisions of the law, however, authorize ABC to issue additional licenses if an applicant can show that “public convenience or necessity” would be served. If the local city or county government agrees, and the proposed site is not in a high-crime area, the state may issue the license.

In north Fresno, for example, along the city’s bustling Blackstone Avenue commercial corridor north of Herndon Avenue, Fresno County Census Tract 44.04 has one of the highest concentrations of off-sale ABC licenses in the Valley. The tract includes several major shopping centers and 16 ABC licensees, from large liquor chains BevMo and Total Wine & More to big-box club stores Sam’s Club and Costco, as well as Target and smaller convenience and liquor stores. The tract also has almost 3,300 residents in the Pinedale neighborhood west of Blackstone Avenue. The combination translates to a ratio of once licensee for every 205 residents.

In other urban or suburban census tracts in the Valley:

• Kern County’s Census Tract 16, which includes downtown Bakersfield, has a concentration of one licensee for every 146 residents, based on 16 liquor retailers and a population of 2,335 residents.
• In San Joaquin County’s Census Tract 16, a neighborhood of about 2,400 residents in east-central Stockton including John C. Fremont School, 10 ABC off-sale licenses amounts to one licensee for every 240 residents.
• Also in San Joaquin County, Census Tract 44.04 in east Lodi has 18 ABC-licensed alcohol retailers, one of the highest totals in the Valley, translating to one license per 250 residents.
• In Modesto, Stanislaus County Census Tract 21 in the Airport neighborhood west of the Modesto City-County Airport has a population of 3,557 residents and 16 off-sale ABC licenses, or one license for every 222 residents.
• By contrast, the adjacent tract to the south, Census Tract 27.02 in Modesto’s Bystrom neighborhood has only one ABC off-sale licensee relative to its 6,603 residents, among the lowest concentrations of licensees in the Valley.
• Merced County’s Census Tract 13.01 in downtown Merced has 11 licensees amid its 3,164 residents, or one licensee for every 287 residents.
• Downtown Hanford, in Kings County’s Census Tract 9.02, has 12 licensees and 3,253 residents, or one licensee per 271 residents.
• Tulare County’s Census Tract 12 encompassing downtown Visalia has only four licensees, but the relatively sparse population of 1,168 people amounts to one ABC-licensed retailer for every 292 residents.

City or county government agencies “are the ones who determine if public convenience or necessity would be served by the issuance of a Type 20 or 21 license in such a location,” said Hayley Devlin, a public information officer for ABC, in an email response to questions posed by CVJC. “When local government makes that determination, ABC may approve a license in accordance with the local decision.”

“Just because a license meets Public Convenience and Necessity does not guarantee that a license would issue because that is one small part of our thorough investigation required by law,” Devlin added. “There are other considerations such as moral character of applicant(s), financial makeup of the entity applying, residents (establishing non-interference with), churches, parks, protests, and law enforcement considerations to name a few.”

While “public welfare and morals” are factors in the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act, potential health considerations are also part of the  equation.

Alcohol-related health concerns 

The relatively easy availability of alcohol for those who are at least 21 years old is not without potential health consequences, not only in the Valley but nationwide as well.

A database compiled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that among about 45,240 alcohol-induced deaths in California since 2018, more than 5,100 of those were among Valley residents.

Those include deaths directly attributed to acute causes, such as alcohol poisoning, or chronic conditions, including alcohol-related liver or heart disease or cancer for which alcohol consumption is a primary cause or a significant contributing factor.

Valleywide alcohol-induced deaths peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic before tapering off somewhat in 2023, according to the CDC’s mortality database.

• 2020 (first year of the pandemic): 719 deaths.
• 2021: 856 deaths.
• 2022: 747 deaths.
• 2023: 716 deaths.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory on alcohol and cancer risk, describing alcohol use “as a leading preventable cause of cancer in the United States, contributing to nearly 100,000 cancer cases and about 20,000 cancer deaths each year.”

The advisory describes that alcohol use increases the risk of developing several different forms of cancer, including breast cancer in women and cancer of the mouth, throat, voice box, esophagus, liver and colon or rectal cancer among both men and women. 

“The more alcohol consumed, the greater the risk of cancer,” the advisory states.

Additionally, the risk of alcohol-related cancer is greater among women than for men who consume the same volume of alcohol.

• Less than one drink per week: 16.5% increased risk of cancer for women, 10% increased risk for men.
• One drink per day (seven drinks per week): 19% increased risk of cancer for women, 11.4% increased risk for men.
• Two drinks per day (14 drinks per week): 21.8% increased risk of cancer for women, 13.1% increased risk for men.

“That is about five more women out of 100 who would have developed cancer due to a higher level of alcohol consumption,” the advisory states.

Tim Sheehan is the Health Reporting Fellow at the nonprofit Central Valley Journalism Collaborative. The fellowship is supported by a grant from the Fresno State Institute for Media and Public Trust. CVJC student research assistant Lauren Aiello contributed to this report. Contact Sheehan at tim@cvlocaljournalism.org.