The first meeting of the Beach Alcohol Task Force was held Monday, Oct. 30, at the Earl & Birdie Taylor Library, with a room full of community members from Pacific Beach, Ocean Beach and Mission Beach.
In August, District 2 Councilman Kevin Faulconer pledged to assemble a task force to address widespread concerns about the impact of alcohol in the beach areas and to develop specific recommendations to deal with them.
Faulconer began the meeting by reiterating his goals and intentions for the group.
“Without question, the issue of alcohol and its impact on the community have been around,” he said. “Some of the issues have been incredibly divisive. People care about what’s happening in our beach communities, what should we be doing as a city, what should we not be doing as a city.”
He explained that he wanted a focused discussion on the issues and that the first meeting’s goals were to establish an agenda for future meetings.
Faulconer said that the next meeting would focus on alcohol licensing and will include a presentation from the Department of Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC).
“It will be a sort of ABC 101,” Faulconer said.
After introductions from the task force members, the audience was given time to share their comments.
Most comments focused on the issue of the overabundance of alcohol licenses issued in the areas, crime rates and public safety, and the increasing number of house parties and noise problems in the neighboring communities.
Many community members voiced their concerns about the six- to nine-month time frame Faulconer has set for the task force, insisting that the issues can be addressed in well under six months. Faulconer explained that he wanted time to cover each issue thoroughly.
Following the public comment portion of the meeting, Faulconer thanked the audience for speaking calmly about such contentious and divisive issues.
“Thank you for the tone of the discussion everybody had with your comments tonight,” he said. “That hasn’t always been the tone in some other meetings over the years and that’s the tone I want to try and set, which is: Let’s have open discussion, let’s not yell back and forth.”
The task force then began a roundtable discussion, during which many task force members agreed with the audience’s comments.
Scott Chipman of SavePB.org spoke about the “culture of alcohol use and abuse” that is present in Pacific Beach and how it is affecting the local schools. He also agreed that the issue of alcohol licensing is important and that his concern with the six- to nine-month time frame is the number of alcohol licenses that will be given out in that time.
Carol Janks, owner of Zanzibar Café in Pacific Beach, agreed that alcohol is a problem; however, she said she believes that there must be a balance and that all alcohol licenses should not be viewed equally.
“I think that one has to look at every aspect and say where are the problems coming from,” Janks said. “I don’t think if you have a restaurant that serves chicken and roast beef and closes at 10 (p.m.) but has a beer and wine license is going to create the same type of problems as a bar that is open until 2 (a.m.) in the morning.”
Faulconer explained that future meetings will include presentations from the police department on crime rates and enforcement in the areas and that he wanted to speak with other beach communities across California who have banned alcohol on the beach and see how it has worked for them.
He also explained that future task force meetings will be scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on the last Monday of each month and the location will rotate in each of the communities. Every meeting will be open to the public and public comment will be on every agenda.
The next meeting, which will include guests from ABC, will take place Monday, Nov. 27, at 6:30 p.m., at the Ocean Beach Masonic Center, 1711 Sunset Cliffs Blvd.