Group Fights Ban on Alcohol at Beach

A petition drive was announced Tuesday to force the San Diego City Council to either rescind an ordinance banning alcohol from beaches and parks or approve a citywide vote on the issue.

The People to Ban the Ban committee hopes to collect over the next month signatures from 5% of San Diego’s registered voters, or about 29,000 signatures, said Linda Jo Hardison, co-founder of the committee.

Hardison said her group sees the ordinance as an attempt by the city to eliminate public drunkenness and alcohol-related crimes on beaches and nearby properties when laws against those crimes are already in place.

“This law is not going to solve those problems,” Hardison said. But the law would hurt people who have occasional drinks at the parks and beaches during picnics and other outings, she said.

The decision to impose a one-year trial ban of alcohol from all city beaches and most city parks from Sunset Cliffs to the southern border of Torrey Pines State Beach was passed by a 6-0 council vote Monday following a second reading of the proposal. (Mayor Maureen O’Connor and Councilmen Wes Pratt and Ron Roberts were not present.) The ordinance takes effect in mid-April.

Bob Glaser, an attorney and a People to Ban the Ban committee member, said, “It’s back to the logic that if your dog has fleas, kill the dog. It gets rid of the fleas but it’s not fair,” he said. “For the sake of ease of enforcement, they’re punishing 99.9% of the citizens out there and they’re still not going to get cooperation from the 0.1% that’s causing the problem,” Glaser added.

“That’s a fairly tired argument at this point,” countered Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer, who represents the residents of La Jolla Shores, where a similar trial ban was just made permanent by the City Council.

“The majority of beach and park users in San Diego have spoken out and said that they do want their beach and park areas returned to them,” she said. “They do not want them in the hands of the unruly.”

Glaser said that the City Council should ensure that more police officers are on the streets to enforce existing laws. To ease the problem of enforcement, the committee favors a dusk-to-dawn alcohol ban at beaches and parks, after 6 p.m. in the winter and 8 p.m. in the summer, Hardison said.

The People to Ban the Ban has 30 days to gather the signatures, Glaser said. The city then has 30 days to verify the signatures after which the council has another 10 days to decide whether to rescind the ordinance or place it on a citywide ballot in the next 11 months, he added.

The least costly time for a ballot measure would be September, when half the city will go to the polls to elect council members, Glaser said.

If the law is not rescinded by the council or by a citywide vote, the council could make the ban permanent or extend it after the trial period.

Several hundred signatures were collected Tuesday, the first day of the drive, which will cost an estimated $30,000, Glaser said.