San Diego City Council votes to sink 'floatopia' booze parties

The San Diego City Council on Monday voted unanimously to ban drinking on Mission Bay in an effort to stop the "floatopia" booze parties that have exploited a loophole in the city's ban on drinking on beaches.

Police and lifeguard officials told the council that the "floatopia" parties,  at which hundreds of college-age people drink while floating on rafts, inner-tubes and other devices, are a menace and could lead to drownings because of drunkenness and injuries from broken bottles.

But opponents of the ban said that further limitations on drinking could hurt tourism. The council was not swayed by that argument.

"This is not the San Diego City Council saying no-no-no to things," said Councilwoman Marti Emerald. "This is the San Diego City Council trying to keep people alive at our beaches."

After an alcohol-fueled riot on the beach at Pacific Beach during Labor Day weekend 2008, the council voted to impose a one-year ban on alcohol consumption on city beaches. In November of that year, city voters approved a measure to make the ban permanent.

But the ban did not cover drinking in the water. Monday's ban on drinking in the water is set to become effective immediately. The ban does not include drinking on boats.

-- Tony Perry in San Diego

Photo: "Floatopia" party on Mission Bay. Credit: Nelvin Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune

Comments

[CNReporter]

I'm curious as to how the city has jurisdiction?

The border of the County ends at the tide line and so should any city boundary. Everything on the seaward side of the tide line for three miles out is the California Territorial Water.

Sixty years or so ago the county of Los Angles tried to claim that part of its "coastline" extended more than three miles out to sea. The US Supreme Court slapped the county down.

It seems to me that the City Attorney doesn't have enough work to do and is inviting lawsuits.

[Sophie]

Wow. Was this a no-brainer or what?

[Alan Anderson]

The last line indicates that this year, the event will be called Boatopia.

[james andrews]

How did the city get control of the water. I thought navigable waters were preempted by federal control? Will the DOJ sue San Diego for trying to interfere with federal regulations like they are with Arizona?

[John L Mendez]

Amen, to the City Council keeping people, even those irresponsibly drinking, alive at San Diego beaches. What an absurd argument the other side made in saying the alcohol ban will hurt tourism! Who would want irresponsibly drinking tourists anyways?

[Marco]

Yet drinking on conventional boats remains.

[Bob]

>>> The ban does not include drinking on boats.

Boatopia!

No, but seriously. This is a good thing. Young people often don't have the experience to know when something is dangerous and often overdo things...like drinking.

We has a similar situation up here in Santa Barbara, The police blocked the beach this year, if I remember correctly.

[Jim G.]

SD City Council just saved some lives. People with a blood alcohol level of .10 have about ten times the risk of dying on the water as people who haven’t been drinking. Check out http://bit.ly/floatopiasd at atodblog.com.

[Dereck]

Palm Springs learned a valuable financial lesson in the 1980s when then-Mayor Sonny Bono pushed through city law to ban college Spring Break activities. The city and the Coachella Valley lost hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue from the free-spending collegiate crowds. Palm Springs has never recovered from Bono's blunder. Now, San Diego has enacted an elitist ban on drinking off its shoreline during a recession? San Diego is talking about charging for parking at the San Diego Zoo, charging its residents for 9-1-1 calls, but wants to ban shoreline drinking? Talk about a buzz kill.

[jp]

San Diego has a pattern of over-regulating crowds and banning many types of public gatherings and activities. If I wanted to live in a police state I would move to one. If someone acts irresponsibly and endangers others, cite and/or arrest him/her. Do not pass blanket rules that limit the rights of responsible, law-abiding, tax paying adult citizens who want to enjoy moderate alcohol drinking at THEIR BEACHES AND OCEANS as part of enjoying the place they live and pay for.
The culture of repression and over-policing of public areas in San Diego has produced a sterile and sanitized effect that makes enjoying ourselves only ok in caged off areas and in commercial/sales situations (beer gardens, inside a bar, in a fenced off parking lot, etc. Our founding fathers would be appalled.

[Mark]

Good god. Heterosexuals everywhere. No thanks.

[ben martin]

I'd like to see the statistics concerning alcohol related deaths per year on the beaches of San Diego versus how many drinking occurrences take place yearly (number of people who drink on the beach multiplied by how many times per year those people drink). My guess is that the percentage of those who actually lose their lives is well below 1/1000th of 1%, which in every other case would be much too low to even spend tax payers' dollars on the vote, let alone deem it a city-wide problem. More over, that's not to say that this ban can even make a significant improvement on the the number 1/1000th of 1% (.00001) by the ban. Of course, if there are 10 deaths per year (for argument's sake) before the ban and post ban we are only seeing 7 deaths, the news will explode with the wonderful news that the city council has reduced the number by 30%. Why not just come out and say that the city is broke and we cannot afford the fire dept, emt's, ambulances, police and coast guard staff to answer calls. At least it would be an honest argument.

[Tony Macaroni]

It is a shame that the American 'youth' cannot monitor themselves and drink in a way that is kept in check so they don't go overboard, (no pun intended) . All have to be punished for the sins of a minority of people that can't handle their alcohol. They need police to monitor their behavior and babysit them. This costs a lot of $$$. There are ways to enjoy the beach and have a holiday without getting blitzed out of your gourd. Too bad this generation can't handle it. They ought to travel and witness other cultures like Italians, French, Spanish enjoying wine moderately and consuming in public and no social embarrassment of drunkard behavior...why can Spanish run with the bulls and we can't even handle a day at the beach? How strange.

[Alec (19)]

As a college-age individual, let me say this: If you need a certain beverage to have a good time at the beach, you have problems. This is what the people voted for in 2008, not the floatopias. The problem extended beyond people dying. Drinkers left a good deal more trash than average, their parting got out of control and annoyed the locals (remember, locals always have priority, they're the ones paying high taxes to live there), and people were getting hurt. I'm glad the City Council did what was necessary. If this boat thing ends up being a problem, I hope they close that loophole too.