Alcohol issues monopolized the Pacific Beach town hall meeting, Tuesday, Aug. 8 ” which was no surprise the audience, considering the recent actions taken by community organizations to regulate bars and encourage an alcohol ban on the beach.
District 2 Councilman Kevin Faulconer, Mayor Jerry Sanders and Police Chief William Lansdowne were all on hand to field questions from the audience during the event, which was hosted by the Pacific Beach Town Council (PBTC).
After a rocky start ” entrance to Pacific Beach Middle School was delayed 30 minutes because no one in attendance had a key to the locked facility ” the 200 or so people waiting out front poured into the auditorium for what PBTC President Don Mullen called “the largest community gathering ever held in Pacific Beach.”
On the subject of alcohol, Faulconer announced that an alcohol task force comprised of residents, community leaders and city officials would convene for about six months to address problems associated with the beach drinking culture. He said the group would look at enforcement, licensing, the Department of Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) appeal process and conditional use permits relating to the alcohol problem.
While Faulconer identified ABC liquor licenses as the main culprit, all three leaders lacked definitive solutions to reducing the number of such permits. Lansdowne said the police department has firmly opposed all new license applications in the area for the past four years and will continue to do so, but there is currently no quick way of decreasing already-granted licenses.
Sanders suggested that the task force consider creative regulations, as licenses currently do not carry expiration dates and can be passed from owner to owner. He said canceling licenses when a business closes or its owner dies is the only way to reduce the numbers.
Sanders also urged the community to be pro-active in reporting negligent and unscrupulous establishments.
“The ones that are creating the problem can be put out of business legitimately through working with the police department,” Sanders said.
Community efforts to limit the scope of the problem are already underway. Just four days before the meeting, the PBTC endorsed a beach alcohol ban and Discover Pacific Beach signed a good neighbor agreement with local bars.
The agreement, or Pacific Beach Community Covenant, involves 13 practices that encourage the responsible sale and use of alcohol in local bars and nightclubs, including a promise not to advertise $2 drinks or two-for-one specials. Lansdowne, Faulconer, fire and police department representatives, the Pacific Beach Business Association, Savepb.org and residents helped develop the covenant.
The covenant was voluntarily signed by 25 of 40 established venues with a liquor license, including Moondoggies, Tower23, Gringo’s Cantina, PB Bar and Grill, Tavern at the Beach and Plum Crazy.
That same day, the PBTC requested that the City Council consider an alcohol ban for city beaches and Mission Bay Park. The request came after a controversial mail-in vote among town council members showed a narrow majority in favor of a ban, and included other suggestions such as doubling fines for alcohol-related crimes and imposing a moratorium on new and transferred liquor licenses.
While Faulconer expressed support for some of the proposals, he stated that he did not agree with a beach-wide ban.
“It’s fairly divisive to put it mildly,” Faulconer said of the ban. “We need to get together to talk about options.”
Lansdowne and Sanders agreed that preventing drinking on the beaches is not a long-term solution.
“If you ban alcohol at the beach, my professional opinion is that then we’ve got a problem inland,” Lansdowne said.
Another issue receiving a lot of attention was crime. Police Capt. Boyd Long of Northern Division responded to a question about the area’s increasing crime rates by saying that the numbers were in fact falling, despite misinformation to the contrary.
“I can’t stand here and say [Pacific Beach has] the highest crime rate because you do not,” Long said, pointing a 13.5 percent decrease for Pacific Beach’s crime index total from July 2005 to July 2006.
Long also said that the high number of D.U.I. arrests were the result of increased enforcement, not a jump in the number of people driving drunk. San Diego receives regular help from other county law enforcement agencies, including highway patrol and officers from Chula Vista and Carlsbad, as part of a state grant that funds police overtime pay for increased patrol.
He tempered his assessment, however, by adding that break-ins and alcohol-related sexual assaults are a big problem in Pacific Beach, and one receiving attention from the police department.
Long said that “bait cars” will soon be placed in the neighborhood, allowing officers to lure car thieves into breaking into the modified vehicle, then trap the criminal inside.
Commenting on other issues, Faulconer said the city will soon pilot the oversize vehicle ordinance in Pacific Beach, the detox center will not come to the area, the smoking ban will require council action to add the boardwalk, parking for condo conversions will now be stricter and funding for the sea wall restoration is not yet complete.
The only questions to catch the guests off guard included an inquiry about limiting the number of smoke shops concentrated in Pacific Beach and another about lowering the waiting period required before residents can paint over graffiti from 60 days to two weeks. Faulconer said he would look into both suggestions.