Trouble in paradise | Alcohol ban could avert July 4 violence

The San Diego Union – Tribune. San Diego, Calif.: Jan 18, 2004. pg. G.2

The San Diego City Council needs to start moving now to institute a 24-hour beach booze ban for the July 4 holiday. The massive crowds and vast amount of beer consumption last summer in Mission Bay Park, and particularly around Sail Bay, created a very dicey situation. It’s only a matter of time before a minor incident touches off an alcohol-fueled riot. And then everybody will demand to know why this situation was allowed to get out of control.

According to police, the number of people partying at Mission Bay and the beach areas jumped from about 300,000 on July 4, 2002, to a whopping 750,000 on July 4, 2003. Sail Bay was touted over the Internet as the place to party on the West Coast. The cops were overwhelmed; although they had three times the normal number of officers for a summer weekend afternoon, a few regiments were needed. There weren’t many arrests because police were focused on preventing an outbreak of violence and couldn’t stop to arrest every underage drinker, every drunk and disorderly person or every person urinating in public. We don’t have enough cops in the city to enforce the law in such a situation.

The city had banned kegs on beaches, but it was a failed experiment. People literally brought truckloads of beer cases. Commercial sales were going on at several places; trucks from beer distributors drove up and offloaded supplies to waiting customers. Afterward, the beaches were utterly trashed. The cleanup took four days and a phalanx of trucks, all at taxpayer expense.

The sanitation situation was grotesque. The dozens of extra Porta Potties at Sail Bay were overflowing before dusk. Streams of raw sewage flowed across the boardwalk onto the sand and into the bay. Council member Michael Zucchet, who represents the beaches, says he’s waiting to hear from the major community groups in the beach area before he brings up a July 4 booze ban. He acknowledges that Sail Bay on July 4 is a riot waiting to happen. Town councils should be concerned that when the inevitable occurs — and the media will cover it — that Mission Bay will become known nationwide for drunken violence in paradise.

Banning alcohol on July 4 won’t end the party. It will just stop being an out-of-control Mardi Gras. Families could even feel safe bringing their children to the beach to celebrate Independence Day. Wouldn’t that be nice?
[Illustration]
1 PIC; Caption: The trash-strewn beach at Sail Bay after last year’s July 4 festivities.