Kate Sessions Bar and Grill On July 4, Kate Sessions Park on Mount Soledad in Pacific Beach was the center of the Independence Day celebration by an estimated 3,000 people, many from long distances including Orange County. While our Pacific Beach area was peaceful and calm due to the alcohol ban, Kate Sessions became Kate Sessions Bar and Grill where alcohol is permitted between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. It was chaotic, and our Northern Division of the San Diego Police Department was present throughout the day. At 8 p.m., a San Diego police helicopter flew by and the loudspeaker announced that no drinking was now in effect. Some male revelers preferred the bushes to the overcrowded men’s room facilities — lines for women’s facilities numbered up to 50 to 60 all day long. Red plastic cups covered the ground and overflowed garbage containers. There were dogs running without leashes. Kate Sessions Park was created to be a family-oriented community park. Following July 4, many groups have held events and picnics, including a prominent insurance company. One organizer said they were there as drinking was allowed. There have been birthdays and wedding events since and also a ski club and the Red Hat Ladies. On Sunday, July 12, the PB Town Council hosted a family fun day with music, kids’ activities and a group of Polynesian dancers. And no liquor was present. People can enjoy this beautiful park and do it without the alcohol. We are concerned about underage drinking as well. Let us also remember the Alcoholics Anonymous group meets regularly on Sundays at Kate Sessions Park. We feel Kate Sessions Park should be included “with our beaches” in the alcohol ban and remain Kate Sessions community park and not Kate Sessions Bar and Grill Park. P.S. Somehow they tapped into the utility building to gain access to the water line to create a waterfall down the hill — to be used as a water slide! The fireworks were synchronized in six locations and were spectacular, followed by SeaWorld’s famous display! Mary Christian-Heising, Pacific Beach Their ignorance is bliss Here we go again! So-called “town council” members and other would-be government agencies calling the beach alcohol ban an outstanding success. Did these people ever take a college course that wasn’t a humanities class? They laud statements like “amount of trash and number of arrests and rescues were down,” and consider it a sweeping success. Any statistician will tell you that the numbers they are looking at wouldn’t pass a single confidence test. In lay-terms that means they aren’t significant. I wonder if any of these “officials” went to Kate Sessions Park this year. Better yet, I wonder if they went to the park the next morning to see the aftermath. Broken tents, barbecues, clothes, trash and, yes, alcohol bottles and cans. And I wonder who was cleaning that mess up. I didn’t see Surfrider or Coastkeeper there in the morning. There was one city worker there from 4 a.m. and I bet he wasn’t happy to see the work in front of him. As our hardworking council members pat themselves on the back and congratulate each other for keeping the beaches “family friendly,” the drunken revelers have simply moved to other nearby areas and come up with better ways to hide their alcohol. I wonder if those council members took part in the multitude of house parties on Law Street. Or maybe they were out the next morning picking up trash, not at the beach, but on the streets just three or four blocks inland from the sand. What’s that, you say? You mean the “beach community” includes more than sand and shops? People actually live there? Yes, well done, council members, on declaring “victory” and silencing the evil “pro-alcohol chanters.” Your ignorance is bliss.  Jason Haelewyn, Pacific Beach