For the first time in 59 years, the sea of kites seen flying high in Ocean Beach during the first week of March will not be paraded down Newport Avenue. The annual Ocean Beach Kite Festival, sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Ocean Beach, has decided to forgo the parade “” though it will still host the festival itself on Santa Monica Avenue “” due to lack of support from the Ocean Beach MainStreet Association (OBMA), which took issue with the city’s decision to tow and ticket cars parked along the parade route.
OBMA and Kiwanis claim that towing, while a familiar requirement of the permit issued for the parade each year, has not been strictly enforced in the past.
According to Marion Miller, event coordinator for the Kiwanis Club, the city of San Diego worked with the club to help make the parade, which runs down Newport Avenue from Ebers Street to the beach, happen every year for the past 58 with minimal consequences.
“In the past we’ve sort of had a handshake with the city,” said Denny Knox, executive director of the MainStreet Association.
Lt. Dan Christman, spokesman for the San Diego Police Department special events unit, said in previous years, traffic controllers did not close the street until 10 or 15 minutes before the start of the parade, though the officers arrived on the scene well in advance. Once the parade began, Christman said police redirected traffic and did not ticket or tow vehicles already parked on the street. The total closure time on Newport Avenue averaged about 30 minutes, he added.
This year, however, the parade permit for Kiwanis stipulated full street closure for four hours, standard protocol for similar events throughout the city.
Christman said the additional time “” allowing officers to remove vehicles and secure the street “” was necessary because Miller anticipated a larger parade than in years past.
“It’s been a borderline issue, and because of the increase in size, it raised concerns in the office, particularly on the part of the officer who plans the event, and that’s why the decision to ‘no park’ was made,” Christman said.
But Miller said Kiwanis plans to expand the 60th anniversary parade, which will take place next year. And while she was not pleased with the idea of potentially ticketing and towing as many as 50 vehicles, Miller said the club was willing to make the sacrifice to provide a parade. But the Ocean Beach MainStreet Association was not so willing, anticipating that the towing would anger Newport Avenue businesses and customers.
Knox explained that because the ticketing and towing would be very expensive for Newport Avenue patrons, OBMA decided not to endorse the event this year.
“I polled the board of directors, and they absolutely support the kite festival,” Knox said, “but they can’t, in good conscience, support the city’s actions to tow and ticket all these cars.”
A special events permit in Ocean Beach requires at least two letters of support from community organizations, which the Ocean Beach Town Council and MainStreet Association have provided in the past. Without both groups’ endorsement, Miller said Kiwanis would not proceed.
OBMA does close Newport Avenue from Cable to Bacon streets every Wednesday for the farmers market, occasionally ticketing and towing vehicles but Knox said that situation is different.
“We do the farmers market, but that’s later on in the afternoon,” Knox explained. “It’s a little easier and it’s only one block.”
She added that the permanent city parking signs have the farmers market notice on them, and residents are familiar with the event.
“It’s not ingrained in people’s memories,” Knox said of the once-a-year kite festival. “We try to protect the public as much as we can. It would be different if the towing fee was $75 or $100, but $300 is something [that] could mean the difference between somebody paying their rent or not paying it.”
According to Knox, OBMA suggested walking the kids down the sidewalk as an alternative to the parade. The idea stuck, and Miller said children will walk with festival volunteers to the beach, where they will fly their kites.
“There’s just not enough time to fight this battle this year,” Miller said, adding that she plans to meet with representatives from special events and possibly even the city attorney’s office in April to find a solution to this problem. “Maybe next year if [the city] has enough pressure from the community we’ll get the parade back,” she said
And while the parade has gone with the wind, the festival itself will continue, providing children of all ages the opportunity to personally design and create their own kites. The festival runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 3, at the Ocean Beach Rec Center, 4726 Santa Monica Blvd. All materials and lunch are provided free of charge. Kites will be judged in seven categories based on the contestants’ age. Winners will receive a $5 certificate for ice cream at the Point Loma Lighthouse and will be announced before 2 p.m.
For more information and a complete schedule of events, visit www.sandiego.gov/park-and-recreation/center/oceanb.shtml or call Marion Miller at (858) 274-2016.