Galvanized signature go-getters have until Friday, Jan. 4, to gather the 30,209 vetted signatures of registered San Diego voters if they wish to stop the coming beach alcohol ban until the city votes on it.
Until then, petitioners will hit the trails asking for signatures at public events throughout the city, including sites in Mission Beach, Pacific Beach and Ocean Beach.
A web-based organization, bantheban3.org, officially launched the movement to repeal the ban the day after Mayor Jerry Sanders signed it into law Wednesday, Dec. 5. The legislation would outlaw beach booze after the start of the new year.
The signature gatherers’ goal is to submit twice the number of signatures needed to make sure they fulfill the legal requirements thereby stopping the ban.
“We want to send the message of how important these personal freedoms are to people,” Ann Kelsey, a longtime Ocean Beach resident and bantheban3.org representative said. The name of the organization signifies the number of times the issue has come before the city in the past, she said.
San Diego voters last voted against a ban by a slim margin in November of 2002.
Since its official launch Thursday, Dec. 6, the organization has held a rally at North Ski Beach at Mission Bay, with about 80 volunteers showing up, she said. Gatherers will also be blanketing Qualcomm Stadium Sunday, Dec. 16, during the Charger matchup against the Detroit Lions, as well as other events around the city, she said.
Other local political organizations like the local chapter of the California Young Democrats have also come on board in support of the anti-ban rush for signatures.
“Basically, we are against the ban as it was voted on by the City Council,” said Patrick Finucane, treasurer for the Young Democrats.
The group’s eligible voters decided unanimously on Finucane’s motion against the ban on Nov. 28 at their regularly scheduled meeting, he said.
Although they decided as a group against the ban, the Young Democrats do not plan on spending any money toward signature collection efforts, Finucane said. They plan to campaign mostly through email, he said.
Representatives from activist group Freepb.org have also spoken at University of California, San Diego and San Diego State University to rally support, Jacob Pyle, a board member of Freepb.org, said.
As a nonprofit organization, Freepb.org has limits as to how much time and money they can use toward a political cause. Some from the group, however, have volunteered their own time and money, Pyle said.
While opponents will be hard at work gathering signatures through the month, those in favor of the ban will be watching closely.
Marcie Beckett, Pacific Beach resident and member of SavePB.org, said she’s confident San Diego voters would vote to keep the ban as it was passed by the City Council Nov. 20. She also said many residents don’t fully understand the impact of unregulated public drinking at the beach.
“Unless you live here, a lot of people don’t understand what goes on,” she said. “They don’t understand that our beaches have become a magnet for binge and underage drinking,”
Craig Klein, a business owner and Ocean Beach resident, also said the issue revolves around public safety and economics because problems from alcohol on the beach can drain resources from police, fire and rescue personnel.
“Right now, unless alcohol is banned “¦ you’re going to be paying for congregations of inebriates,” he said.
Klein said he helped lead the campaign against Proposition G because it would have moved the problem to “designated drunk zones” rather than an outright ban, which is what the current legislation enacts.
Klein, Beckett and hundreds of community members across the city have joined forces with www.safe beaches.org, a web-based community dedicated to taking alcohol off the beach.