If businesses could get away with it, they'd probably be open for no more than an hour per week. After all, if that were possible, they'd save a lot of money on things like labor and utilities. The only way it would be viable, though, is if they could service every one of their potential customers during that brief period of time.

In other words, it's never going to happen.

Businesses extend their hours so they can be available to more customers. That's what benefits them. What doesn't benefit them is crime, which can not only directly impact them should the business become a victim, but can also force a lot of people to avoid various parts of a city out of fear of becoming a victim themselves.

In San Francisco, though, officials have apparently devised a --*cough*--cunning plan.

They're making some businesses close earlier.

San Francisco officials are trying to lower crime in one of the city’s most dangerous neighborhoods by setting a curfew for businesses.

The city’s Board of Supervisors gave final approval Tuesday to a pilot program that will shorten business hours in Tenderloin, known for its homelessness, drug use and violence.

Businesses that sell prepackaged food or tobacco will no longer be allowed to stay open from midnight to 5 a.m. during the two-year pilot. The new ordinance doesn’t apply to restaurants and bars.

The city said the move was motivated by the “high rate of drug-related crime in the Tenderloin,” according to Bay City News. The neighborhood is seen as the heart of San Francisco’s fentanyl crisis.

So if you get off at three in the morning and want to grab a snack for the trip home, you're screwed.

Meanwhile, the city acknowledges that there are crowds of people engaged in all this illegal activity. Why not focus on the crowd and not the lawful businesses that have a right to be open to serve customers during a time when there aren't a lot of other options? I mean, if there are crowds of drug dealers and such, it would make sense for the police to show up to such gatherings and disperse them.

Instead, the businesses are being told to close, which means some people are going to be out of a job since this period is the time period they were specifically hired to work. And since this is a two-year program, it sure looks like there's little reason to adjust someone's schedule for when the program lapses. It's just easier to lay them off and rehire them should the program end.

And note that bars aren't included in this, despite all of us knowing how people leaving bars can be rowdy.

Perhaps the most interesting part of this, at least to me, is how San Francisco enjoys so much gun control and yet they're having to shut down lawful businesses because of criminal activity.

It's almost like gun control doesn't really accomplish anything.

It's also like there's no reason for criminals in the city to actually be concerned about prosecution. While I am a firm believer that deterrence is overstated, the fact that they're back out on the streets in no time at all probably doesn't help. Couple that with the fact that bad guys can get guns in California without blinking an eye while law-abiding citizens have to jump through numerous hoops and you've got a recipe for disaster.

Disaster, thy name is San Francisco.