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| 23 July 2001 - The San Diego Union-Tribune Try beach ban Alcohol and parks don’t mix, public finds Ask juvenile court judges about underage drinking, and they’ll tell you the beach is a favored spot for kids to abuse alcohol. Why? Because there are already are a lot of young adults at the beach abusing alcohol, so kids have ready access to people who will buy them booze. Because most people don’t take their wallets to the beach, the cops often can’t ascertain drinkers real ages. Meanwhile, the police will tell you there’s an epidemic of alcohol-fueled crime at the beach, and that Mission Beach has the worst problems of all. Mission Beach has a violent crime rate that’s three times that of the entire city. Almost 20 percent of the city’s alcohol-related arrests are in Mission Beach – a community of only 7,500. Is there any question that alcohol abuse at the beach is the source of this community’s crime problem? What if it were your neighborhood? The fact is that most neighborhoods have banned alcohol in their local parks. At parks throughout the city – La Jolla Shores, Chicano Park, North Park Community Park, Paradise Hills Park, Mission Trails Regional Park, Linda Vista Park, Marian Bear Memorial Park and a dozen others – alcohol is banned 24 hours a day. The reason is because people hanging out and getting drunk caused problems, and the cops were constantly being called out, just like in Mission Beach. Neighbors complained, alcohol was banned, and the problems were solved. After alcohol was banned at La Jolla shores, the number of Police calls decreased significantly, according to lifeguards and the police. Today, the San Diego City Council will consider whether to put the trial alcohol ban for Mission Beach and Pacific Beach on the primary ballot in March 2002. It’s sad that this matter has to go to the ballot, since the council already approved it earlier. But a group backed by liquor storeowners, some beach-area merchants and a few community political organizations paid enough to collect the required signatures to send the measure back to the council. The council’s choice is either to rescind the ban or put it on the ballot. Council members should put it on the ballot and let the voters decide this issue. We wish this measure had been enforced, so everybody could see what a good thing it would be. If Mission Beach and Pacific Beach were to go alcohol-free for one week this summer, most beachgoers would like it. You don’t hear any clamor to rescind the ban at La Jolla Shores, Imperial Beach, Chicano Park, Southcrest Park or other parks. That’s because once the bans are in place, the drunken rowdies are gone; the beaches and parks suddenly become places where families and others who like peaceful surroundings want to go. San Diego needs to give this trial ban a chance. It’s only for 18 months. The only people who would lose out would be the drunken rowdies and underage kids. No liquor merchants in the beach area would go out of business that’s for sure. The City council should support this wise public policy by putting it on the ballet. |
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