Alcohol Ban Gets Credit at Beaches

A more peaceful, family atmosphere, less litter and a decrease in crime are a few of the changes at some beach boardwalks since San Diego enacted a partial ban on alcohol last summer.

Violent and property crimes substantially decreased in Mission Bay Park and the Mission Beach area since the ban went into effect last year, according to a city manager’s report presented to a San Diego City Council committee on Wednesday.

However, La Jolla, Ocean Beach and Pacific Beach mirrored city trends with an increase in violent crimes and decrease in property crimes, according to the report.

“I would love to say it’s just the hard work of my cops on beach patrol. But the fact is, the cops have worked hard forever and ever and things had just gotten worse and worse until this alcohol ban,” said Northern Division Captain Jim Sing of the San Diego Police Department.

“What the report attempts to show is that the area where the ban is in effect most, even though it’s adjacent to most other areas, has had a reduction in property and violent crimes,” Sing said.

The partial ban, enacted by emergency ordinance last June, prohibited booze on city beaches between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m.--a four-hour extension over a previous ordinance--and implemented a 24-four hour booze ban at La Jolla Shores beach, the Mission Beach boardwalk and the boardwalk next to the Ocean Beach Pier.

The 24-hour ban also applied to Kellogg Park, Pacific Beach Park, Mission Beach Park, South Mission Beach Park, Ocean Beach Park and North Park.

Drinking is still allowed during daylight hours on the sand.

Talk last year of a total alcohol ban at city beaches and parks irked Mayor Maureen O’Connor and sparked a “Ban the Ban” signature drive heavily financed by beer distributors. The total ban was set to go before voters but was quietly abandoned when it appeared that those on both sides of the issue would settle for the partial ban.

“I would not want to chance overturning the whole thing,” said City Councilman Ron Roberts, who pushed for the partial ban. Putting a full ban to voters would have also “involved a lot of time and money,” Roberts said.

However, if it appears that alcohol-related crimes or the public nuisance associated with it are being pushed into areas where the ban is not in effect, he may consider pushing to extend the ban, Roberts said. But that’s a big if.

“I’d want to see the police statistics. We would only do so if it were strongly justified,” Roberts said.

Of all the city’s beach areas, the Mission Beach boardwalk presented the greatest problem and has seen the greatest improvement, Roberts said.

Residents say the change is welcome.

“Families are back on the boardwalk,” said Mission Beach Town Council President Chris Rhoades. “Girls can walk and ride their bikes. All the input I’ve gotten at membership meetings is positive. We had so much trouble on that boardwalk. You wouldn’t want to walk down there in the summer unless you wanted to get harassed and groped.”

Rhoades said incidents of drunk driving in Mission Beach have also decreased.

Although some residents have asked for a total ban on alcohol at all beaches, Rhoades said his group is satisfied with the ban as it stands.

“I think it’s made a hell of a difference as far as the problems we were having around here, with people getting drunk and carousing,” said Zeva, secretary of the Mission Beach Merchants Assn.

“Now, you can go down the boardwalk without it smelling like a bar and seeing litter all over the place. And I don’t have to put up with those slurry innuendoes from alcohol-ravaged dudes sitting on the wall,” she said. “There’s been an improvement in the family orientation down on the beach, which is really nice. It’s just 100% different.”

The improvement may be more substantial than the numbers indicate, said Terri Williams, deputy director of the City Park and Recreation Department. Seventeen weeks into the ban, her department did an in-depth crime analysis looking only at the beaches, boardwalks and parks where the ban was in place. “Crimes against persons and property were uniformly way down in each of the areas,” she said.

“Those were dramatic drops. Even if you lost some of that progress, you’re still talking substantial progress,” Williams said.

This time around, police compiled the statistics including the residential and commercial areas bordering the beaches. In La Jolla and Ocean Beach, violent crimes were up, reflecting a city-wide trend. In Pacific Beach, they stayed about the same.

Williams said incidents of vandalism and the amount of litter have also decreased.

Roberts said that, although the alcohol ban has contributed the most to the crime decrease in the Mission Beach area, there were other contributing factors. Police have begun closing off certain parking lots to the public at night, and a new mobile police command post has helped, he said.

At one time, before the ban, 80% of the police calls in beach areas were alcohol-related, Roberts said.

Critics of the ban last year said there were enough laws in place to deal with the alcohol-related crimes plaguing beach areas.

Chris Rhoades, of Mission Beach, disagrees.

“San Diego was kind of the lone wolf by not having drinking ordinances for the beaches. Other parts of Southern California have 24-hour bans. The laws that were in place were clearly not resolving the longstanding problems.”