Part Six: Some Questions

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This is the sixth 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.

So, as you can see there are many facets of the alcohol issues in Pacific Beach. Our neighboring communities of La Jolla, Mission Beach, Mission Bay Park and Ocean Beach have also been working with Pacific Beach leaders to learn more about the concerns of the community and to draft solutions.

I’ve presented a lot of personal ideas here and hope to move forward the discussion – especially about the concept of ‘are we being good stewards of your beach?’. I think this is a very important concept and one that San Diego should share their voice so we can all learn.

Some other questions:

1. What do you think about those who say one should just move if they don’t like the PB alcohol-liberal environment? If everyone just keeps moving out rather than facing the tough questions aren’t they just doing a disservice to their community?
2. What levels of crime are you ok with in order to maintain drinking at the beach? How many people getting killed, injured, in accidents, minors in possession and the myriad of citations and arrests is acceptable to you? Shouldn’t we be trying to get these numbers as low as possible?
3. Doesn’t having a test period of no alcohol on the beaches and parks make sense? How else could we compare the results in reducing crime?
4. Did you vote in the early 2000 election referendum which asked for a trial period with no alcohol in certain zones? How did you vote and were you happy or disappointed with the results since that election?
5. Do you think alcohol-free zones is the way to go? That is, some want to explore having certain segments of the beach alcohol-free and others where it’s ok to drink. What about the people who live in the ‘alcohol-ok’ zones? Is it fair to channel all the drinkers into their neighborhoods?
6. Isn’t this a classic case of the few ruining it for the many? Should one group of people, specifically the residents of PB, have to endure the unending set of problems because another group, specifically the problem drinkers, want to drink unabated?