Feel for full-time beach residents
There have been many people in La Jolla working with the Safe Beaches group in PB/MB to ban drinking at Windansea Beach when we got caught up in the city-wide issue. More than 150 La Jollans voted and signed petitions to ban booze. Many more from La Jolla Shores and the Barber Tract, where drinking is already banned, lent real and moral support.
We also thank council members Faulconer and Peters for proposing the ban and getting the one-year trial period. We are very pleased to hear that the Ban the Ban people had to resort to greatly fudging their signatures and got caught doing it.
Now we can see what a ban will accomplish. If one is the least bit empathetic, one must feel for the full-time beach residents and the indignities they suffer for the sake of people who want to get drunk at the beach.
Talk about civil rights as much as you want, but when one’s action infringes on the welfare of others, action must be taken.
What’s good for the rest of California should be good for San Diego, unless we want to be known as the place to go to get drunk. If we had continued on the previous path, you could kiss the “world’s finest city” slogan goodbye. Thank you.
John Beaver, La Jolla

Wonder available nowhere else
Re: “Don’t give ’em enough rope: Seal advocates lose the latest turf battle at Children’s Pool” (Village News, Jan. 10, page 1).
In a recent Zogby poll, the vast majority of San Diegans said they wanted the seals at Children’s Pool to be left undisturbed. By lifeguard statistics, over 80,000 visitors per month come to see these seals rain or shine.
They are an invaluable educational tool for our children, a rare chance to see these animals up close in nature, and a precious tourist-attracting resource.
Over 300 local La Jolla business owners in the vicinity of the Children’s Pool recently signed a petition requesting a year-round rope separating visitors and swimmers from seals on the beach.
If there is no rope up during pupping season, pups will die. That is the sad fact.
If dredging takes place the seals may leave forever, taking much needed tourist dollars with them.
And when you think about it, this is the seals’ natural habitat. For us, going for a swim and lying on the beach is just “a day at the beach.” But for the seals this is life and death! And yes, this is the “Children’s Pool.” But many more children delight in the sight of a mother seal and her pup than would ever want to swim there. So why are we allowing one judge and a few elderly swimmers to deny so many others this wonder available nowhere else in Southern California?
Linda Kelson, San Diego

Rivers running off at the mouth a shock
I am writing to you as a life-long North Carolina State Wolfpack fan. I was also a long-time Philip Rivers fan until Sunday. Having followed Rivers’ pro career for the last four seasons, I also became a San Diego Chargers fan. The past few Charger games that were televised in my area have shown a side of Rivers that is not very flattering.
I understand trash talking between players during game time, but the behavior that has been shown on TV lately, featuring Rivers arrogantly taunting players by running his mouth, has been a huge shock as a fan.
Rivers’ behavior at the end of the game against the Colts, when he felt the need to turn to the fans behind the Chargers’ bench and run his mouth some more, is the final straw for this long-time fan.
During his college career, I never witnessed any of this arrogant behavior from him. I’m not sure if he realizes the extent of this new behavior, but I guess I expect more from someone who is a professional athlete, role model and a father himself.
All I can hope is that Rivers will go back and watch the last few games he’s played in and listen to the comments made by the commentators who were as shocked as I was by what the TV camera showed of his mouthy tirade.
Wendy Miles, Frankfort, Ind.

Toilet to Tap comes true?
We have all heard that there are two things certain in life: death and taxes. While it may not occur within our lifetimes, there is another certainty ” anything a government agency does will through the lack of supervision and management at some time fail.
The ‘toilet-to-tap’ plan does have an appropriate name, because with a government agency, the City of San Diego, responsible for the program, it is a certainty that at some point we will get toilet water out of our taps.
Don French, Point Loma

Beach alcohol ban will have ripple effects
Regarding the alcohol ban, we are only going to lose tourism dollars (my mother is a local business owner, not alcohol-related, by the way), increase the homeless problem on the beach and help kill surrounding businesses.
I personally have gone to the beach between Reed Street and PB Drive every day since the riot, and I have not seen one police officer or a riot of any kind.
Nor has there been a need to, I guess. However, I have seen a serious increase in the homeless problem, and they are getting more aggressive towards tourists and locals alike. Isn’t it funny that the people who support the ban make all the money from renting to the partying crowd?
My old slumlord is one of them.
Honestly, to all the people that are for the ban, have you seen a riot or droves of vomiting, cursing drunks parading down your street to urinate on your yard at 6 p.m. on a Wednesday afternoon when the sun goes down?
No, you haven’t. Will you tomorrow afternoon? No, you won’t. Will you see bars overserving people with no sense of responsibility or care for others on a nightly basis? Yep. They’ll probably pee on your car too.
Did you see a bunch of drunken underage losers being served by local establishments on the “three days of hell” in PB? Yes, you did.
Think a little further, we rely on the “drunks and addicts” from all the colleges we support on spring break and during summer. They pay the rent to all the people who support the ban. And now that the taxpaying headshop workers are going to go under, you might as well get your tattoos now. They’ll be gone by February.
Duh. Aguirre and the council do not have a clue.
Gus Kendrick, Pacific Beach

Alcohol consumption on beach should be choice
The issue of alcohol on the beach is not a case of good versus evil, although some would like you to believe that. People who want to enjoy an adult beverage on the beach are not the “bad guys,” just as people who refrain from drinking are not the “good guys.”
It is a matter of taste. It is much like the choice between surfing and swimming at the beach. We, as citizens of San Diego, must share the beach and allow each person to enjoy it in their own way.
How silly would it be to ban surfing from the beach? There are designated “surf” and “swim” zones. Surfers and swimmers happily co-exist. We can’t cater to someone who wants to swim “everywhere” on the beach, as the beach does not belong to any one individual. When there is a reckless surfer, the lifeguard steps in and removes the “reckless” surfer.
When there is a “reckless” drinker on the beach, the cops do much the same. That is how the system is set up to work. We remove the few “bad seeds” so that everyone can enjoy the beach.
Further, while a product such as a cigarette can be harmful to others even if used by the most responsible individual, this is not the case with alcohol.
A responsible person enjoying a beer on the beach is not negatively affecting anyone around him or her. We shouldn’t ban the product when the product is not the problem.
The problem is the few people who abuse the product. Removing these individuals is one of the reasons police patrol the beach. While I do not support any ban, I could understand a ban on the three big holidays to limit the amount of people who are out of control.
These are usually people that are not from the neighborhood and people who lack respect for the local beach.
I just can’t see the logic in an outright ban that would prohibit me from going down to an empty beach during the off-season to enjoy a beer and watch the sunset.
Todd Simonson, Pacific Beach