Need for Drinking Ban Is Sign of Times : Protection of Peaceful Citizens Requires Prohibiting Alcohol at Parks and Beaches

One more sad sign of San Diego’s big-city status is the evident need for a total ban on alcohol consumption at some city beaches and parks. Like abundant open space and unclogged freeways, trouble-free beaches appear to be characteristic of San Diego’s sleepy past, not its future.

Despite the fairly comprehensive drinking restrictions already on the books, the City Council has been flirting with a citywide booze ban since 1987 because of complaints from beach-area homeowners about crime, vandalism, noise and general rowdyism. But, when a council committee voted to ban drinking at all beaches and parks last December without even a public hearing, the outcry was so loud that the full City Council unanimously punted it back to the committee for reconsideration.

In April, the committee backed that ol’ standby, the pilot project. It approved a six-month test of a total alcohol ban at La Jolla Shores beach (and adjacent Kellogg Park) and North Park Community Park. The ban still would allow organized groups of 75 or more to apply for permits to offer alcohol at gatherings. The committee also called for beefed up enforcement of the nighttime drinking prohibition at Mission Beach, in an attempt to determine if that is a better way to approach the problem.

The trial ban, scheduled to come before the full City Council on June 18, is a worthwhile experiment.

Opponents of a total ban say that the beaches would be best served by more rigorous enforcement of existing anti-alcohol laws. But beach-area residents contend that, by the time someone is drunk or loud enough to attract police attention, much of the harm is already done. A test comparison might help settle the question.

Before beach-area homeowners and park users start dreaming about peace and quiet, it is important to remember that the overburdened Police Department will not be assigning more police officers to La Jolla Shores beach or North Park Community Park than it normally does in summer months. Lifeguards would be able to cite violators, but beefed-up enforcement appears unlikely without added police coverage.

We do hope, however, that, if police are going to cite anyone who pops open a beer on the sand, they also will continue to keep a lid on some of the noisier beach-area parties that take place at private homes near the beach. They would not fall under the ban.

Also, it is already illegal to drink at all North City beaches, including La Jolla Shores, between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., so residents there would be gaining only daytime and evening coverage under the ban. Finally, even if the council approves the trial run June 18, it won’t take effect until about Aug. 1, when the summer partying season is well under way.

Critics such as Mayor Maureen O’Connor have pledged to vote against the experiment because it will penalize the vast majority of law-abiding beach-goers for the sins of the rowdy few. In a survey, the city manager’s office found that only 24% of respondents want an alcohol ban at the beach, and 21% favored one in the parks.

The mayor is right--but that’s not the point. The privilege of sipping a glass of wine while watching the sun set must yield to people’s more basic right to have their environments protected from drunks who urinate on their doorsteps, fistfights and burglaries. Most Southern California communities have realized this and have enacted alcohol bans at their beaches.

San Diegans pride themselves on their ability to resist some of the negative changes that sweep through the rest of Southern California: our traffic, overcrowding and gang problems still don’t compare to conditions in that megalopolis to the north, and we’re trying hard to keep it that way. Nevertheless, we suspect that this is one area where, eventually, we will have to follow suit and keep alcohol off the beaches and out of the parks.