Friends of Kate Sessions held their monthly meeting on Aug. 18 at the Soledad Club to discuss the recent string of illegal activity at the park. The group of neighbors of the Pacific Beach park that has recently turned into a party spot met with city officials and law enforcement to voice their concerns. “We are here to address the community concerns, talk about what’s going on here and work together to come up with a solution,” said SDPD Northern Division Captain Shelley Zimmerman. Along with Zimmerman city deputy director of community parks one Clay Bingham, Scott Chipman of Pacific Beach Planning Committee and a representative from District 2 Councilman Kevin Faulconer’s office attended the meeting. It aimed to provide both short-term recommendations and long-term solutions for what neighbors feel is a problematic situation. Zimmerman said since July 4, SDPD officers have been increasing their patrols at the park. She said officers have been issuing citations and making arrests there. “I know that we’re staring to make a difference because my phone is ringing off the hook the other way,” Zimmerman said. “A few weeks before, I got calls saying we need to increase our police presence there. The calls I’m getting now are ‘I can’t believe I got a ticket for having my dog off a leash.’” Friends of Kate Sessions provided a list of “illegal and nuisance” park activities to those in attendance. This list included glass bottles and trash, public intoxication, underage drinking, public urination, dogs off-leash and uncontrolled, illegal parking, drunk drivers leaving the park, failure to obtain permits, golf carts on the hill, smoking, skateboard ramps blocking walkways and verbal threats from park users. “What we have is that folks that are no longer out on the beach are coming to the closest really nice facility – and that’s Kate Sessions,” Bingham said. As these issues were brought up, the potential relationship between the increase in illegal activity and alcohol consumption was addressed. A long-term solution proposed was an alcohol ban at the park that would be for a 12-, 16- or 24-hour period; Kate Sessions Park does not have an alcohol ban and currently has a 10 p.m. curfew and does not allow drinking after 8 p.m. “I know there’s an interest in going forward and adding that to the alcohol ban and I think that’s something that we agree needs to be done,” Bingham said. “That is a community generated process and this is the community that will start that process by having this meeting here now.” At the meeting, Bingham outlined for residents the process that needs to take place for an alcohol ban to be put in place at the park, which piqued the interests of concerned residents in attendance. The process starts with the community and goes through the local recreation council (Santa Clara Point Council), the area committee and the San Diego Park and Recreation Board before it reaches City Council. “There’s a method for doing that and that’s also something we’re more than happy to help with,” Bingham said. In the meantime, Zimmerman suggested residents call the police dispatcher at (858) 484-3154 or (619) 531-2000 if they see something at Kate Sessions Park that they think is a problem. She said residents should keep a notepad in which to write down the date and time of the call, document what happened and make sure to get incident number from the dispatcher. “Any time you feel there’s a problem,” Zimmerman said, “you should call us.” Friends of Kate Sessions meet on the third Tuesday of each month at 5 p.m. at the Soledad Club on 5000 Soledad Rd. For more information, call Michelle Youngers at (858) 625-9261 ext. 107.