A large alcohol-oriented floating party on Mission Bay drawing an estimated 2,500 Labor Day weekend participants who floated around the beach alcohol ban Sept. 5 still has residents talking. Dubbed “Floatopia” after a similar event thrown by college students in Santa Barbara, the recent Mission Bay version left some neighbors wading through trash, concerned about safety and worried about the environmental impact. The bay is home to sensitive eelgrass habitat which can be disturbed by boats. Some residents, like homeowner and six year Sail Bay resident Rosalie Schwartz, were annoyed with the trash and safety hazards.\u00a0 “It\u2019s not a huge issue one or two days out of the year. It wasn\u2019t a problem the rest of the (Labor Day) weekend \u2026 if it would happen all the time then it would be an issue,” Schwartz said.\u00a0\u00a0“It\u2019s the health and safety (problems) that\u2019s my main concern.” Patricia Benesh, a Pacific Beach resident of 16 years, lives near the bay and walks it often. She said she noticed beer cans and potato chip bags floating days later. “What if hordes of people came to your neighborhood to drink? That\u2019s what\u2019s happening,” she said. San Diego Police Department officers handed out 52 citations for mostly alcohol-related and littering violations. Police arrested two during the event, Assistant Chief Shelley Zimmerman said. San Diego Lifeguard Services also trotted out extra resources including three lifeguard boats to handle the crowds. Lifeguards performed 18 rescues including two separate critical incidents, according to Lifeguard Sgt. John Strandmeyer with the boating safety unit. “We had to drag (one male) out of the water, monitor his airway and transport him to an ambulance,” Strandmeyer said. “He couldn\u2019t stand or swim and was in danger of drowning.” Lifeguards found another, a female, intoxicated,\u00a0“nearly unconscious” in the water and transported her to a hospital, he said. Small groups gathering in coves around the bay are not the problem, Strandmeyer said. It\u2019s when thousands get together with the purpose to drink when safety becomes an issue, he said. The issue surfaced briefly at a recent Pacific Beach Town Council meeting where police officials said they don\u2019t expect another flotilla until spring and summer. But because drinking on floating devices such as innertubes on the bay does not violate the city ordinance prohibiting drinking on the sand, the most concerned residents find themselves swimming against the tide. While neighbors feel the heat of thousands converging at Fanuel Park and Sail Bay, organizers of the event, networking through internet social networking sites Facebook and Twitter, could also find themselves in hot water. The San Diego Police Department Asst. Chief Shelley Zimmerman said the department will try to recover the cost of public safety staffing for the unpermitted event from the organizers. City special event regulations require event organizers pay for extra police during large events at a cost of about $75 per hour per police officer or lifeguard, according to city documents. An organizer of a previous floatilla in August called “Innertubapallooza” denied affiliation with the September party. Floatopia organizer Joe Schonert\u00a0confirmed the events are not connected. The 24-year-old East County resident said he\u2019s not worried about police calling him and that he shouldn\u2019t be held liable if other people leave trash behind. He said the group plans to continue the event on a monthly basis as long as weather permits. “We\u2019re not really doing anything illegal,” Schonert said. “More or less it was about being able to return to the beach and legally enjoy a beverage.” District 2 City Councilmember Kevin Faulconer declined to comment. Office Communications Director Tony Manolatos said the councilmember\u2019s office received about half a dozen calls and complaints about the party.\u00a0 Faulconer pushed for the 2-year-old beach alcohol ban. City voters approved a permanent prohibition in November after a temporary ban took effect in November 2007.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A large alcohol-oriented floating party on Mission Bay drawing an estimated 2,500 Labor Day weekend participants who floated around the beach alcohol ban Sept. 5 still has residents talking. Dubbed “Floatopia” after a similar event thrown by college students in Santa Barbara, the recent Mission Bay version left some neighbors wading through trash, concerned about […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"Residents and officials note the dangers of floating alcohol parties","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,11551,11593],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-298648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-news","category-no-images"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298648\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}