Henderson Says Breathalyzers Belong on Beach

A day after the San Diego City Council voted against a total ban on alcohol at the city’s parks and beaches, Councilman Bruce Henderson on Wednesday proposed an emergency action to make it illegal for anyone to have a blood-alcohol level of 0.08%--the standard for drunk driving--while at a city beach or park.

“If you can’t drive . . . then you shouldn’t be at the beach,” said Henderson, suggesting that police could use on-site Breathalyzer tests to identify offenders. “If you’re over the limit, you’re gone.”

But a council committee, burned the day before when its previous position advocating a blanket booze ban was defeated by the entire council, in part because the ban took the public by surprise, instead decided to refer Henderson’s proposal for consideration at upcoming community meetings and to the city attorney’s office for more study.

The committee Wednesday pledged to seek public opinion at a series of community meetings before recommending solutions to drunkenness and alcohol-related rowdyism.

Henderson represents Mission Beach, where complaints about drunkenness at the beach have become a crescendo. Henderson first proposed that the council’s Public Facilities and Recreation Committee enact the new standard immediately as an emergency ordinance.

Others noted that the city already has a law prohibiting public drunkenness, but Henderson said “you almost have to be falling down drunk” before officers make an arrest, and that the 0.08% level would provide the city with a better, scientific standard of public drunkenness. The 0.08% level is the lower drunk-driving standard that went into effect statewide Jan. 1.

It’s unclear how such a standard would be enforced, particularly since Henderson and the rest of the City Council have decried the lack of police enforcement of existing laws prohibiting late-night drinking at most city beaches and the dearth of jail space for people arrested for misdemeanors.

The committee wants to enact a package of prohibitions by mid-March, before the spring break brings thousands of college students to the city’s beaches, according to committee member Judy McCarty.

Councilman Bob Filner, chairman of the committee, said any alcohol ban would be only one part of a series of proposals to curb violence, rowdyism and public drunkenness at parks and beaches, and shouldn’t be isolated as the only solution.

Next week, the city administration will release the schedule and location of the public hearings, which will probably be conducted by community groups connected to the city’s Park and Recreation Board.

The hearings will allow the committee to consider exemptions for supervised events where alcohol is sold and for law-abiding citizens who drink in moderation, according to Filner.

Meanwhile, some attempts to curb rowdyism at La Jolla Shores and adjacent Kellogg Park will advance at the urging of Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer, who represents the area.

First, the state Coastal Commission will be asked to approve closing the park’s parking lots an hour earlier, at 10 p.m., in an effort to curtail late-night drinking. Also, the city will consider placing a gate at the parking lots and limiting fuel in beach fire rings to no higher than a foot above the level of the ring, because of complaints that large bonfires attract rowdy crowds.

Wolfsheimer also said she will continue to push for an outright alcohol ban at La Jolla Shores, a stance that McCarty, who represents an inland district, said might penalize those residents who flock to the popular beach from other parts of the city. The La Jolla Shores beach, McCarty said, is an asset for all residents and not just those who live near it.