Part One: Our Beaches and Alcohol
July 13, 2007 6 CommentsThis is the first installment of the general topic: The Predominant Culture of Alcohol in Pacific Beach, CA . Please feel free to contribute to any section posted, which you will see below. To read other’s comments click the link at the end of this section.
The purpose of this discussion is to ask: Do you feel that the residents of Pacific Beach are being good stewards of your beach community?We all share the beautiful beaches and parks of San Diego equally. However, as a resident of Pacific Beach, I and many others feel a responsibility towards the residents of San Diego, our guests from Arizona and around the world to help maintain Pacific Beach as a clean, safe and fun environment. I don’t think we as a community have achieved the level of cleanliness and safety that I believe our guests or, your family and loved ones deserve.
Over the last many years, Pacific Beach, has earned many dubious distinctions centered around alcohol. That is, Pacific Beach has more drunk driving arrests, alcohol-related citations, vehicle accidents, many alcohol-related petty crimes as well as deaths than any other community in San Diego. This is not a distinction I am proud of and I’m wondering what you think.
Party Town or ‘Entertainment District’ Reputation
Many young people see PB as the place to come, get plastered-drunk out of their minds and then head back to their own homes. We have an over-abundance of alcohol licensees — both in bars as well as package stores. Although summer is the busiest season, we still have year-round house parties, pub crawls and many bar-sponsored events; some centered around holidays while others just created to help generate sales for the bars.
Alcohol marketing is everywhere. Billboards, signs and banners on bar and liquor store storefronts, in our supermarkets, airplane banners, scooters, billboard-trucks; all promoting everything from beer to hard liquor.
Crime and Safety
I often wonder how safe people feel in PB. We have had a number of stabbings, fights, assaults, a sharp increase in rapes — many, if not most, taking place by participants under the influence of alcohol.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that if thousands of people are drinking during the day at the beach, in house parties and for an evening on Mission Blvd. or Garnet Ave. bars, or a combination of these three, many people are driving under the influence of alcohol, and many, many over the legal limit.
Many quality-of-life crimes, which are experienced every week by many PB residents, especially those closer to the beach, include people going to the bathroom in our yards, consistent levels of alcohol and food container litter, people yelling, car stereos blasting, un-ending house parties, graffiti, vandalism, broken windows … the list goes on and on. Does this happen in your neighborhood?
Many good residents of PB have left for other more calm destinations around San Diego. Many other good residents of San Diego wouldn’t step foot in PB because of the party-town climate.
Are we in the business of repelling good responsible citizens, and keeping away shoppers, guests and friends because we are so concerned with maintaining the extremely liberal alcohol-tolerant environment? Or, do we want to temper our alcohol-climate so that everyone can visit their beach community in relative safety and comfort?
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I moved to PB from Monterey in March. I have lived in several places both in California and elsewhere, and I have never seen anything like the alcohol culture in PB.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a drink now and again, and I certainly drank more than I do now when I was in college and my early 20′s. But the level of public drunkenness and the resultant anti-social behavior I see here is nothing like what I ever experienced or participated in. And it seems to be widely tolerated – the trash, the loud parties, the attitude that all of the residential space near the beach is just a place to scream, drive fast and do whatever you please.
If I owned property here, I would be even more horrified.
Having said all of that, I love it here despite the problems. But I see the alcohol use here as a huge detraction, and one that has given PB a terrible reputation – which is a shame, as it is a lovely community overall.