The ban of alcohol on the beach has been an interesting experience for San Diego. From Police Officers combing alleys for loiterers with beer to the banning of Floatopia, it seemed like liquor enthusiasts would never truly be gone from the sand. Finally, after much effort, people moved on and public parks became the new scene for those wishing to have a drink with friends while enjoying a view. Now, even this has become a problem, such a problem in the case of Kate Sessions Park that the San Diego City Council (SDCC) is contemplating the implementation of an ordinance that would ban alcohol consumption at the park. Who are we helping anymore with the beach ban on alcohol?

The fact of the matter is that the ban against drinking on the beach is now causing spill over problems that are affecting our neighborhoods. Kate Sessions park was originally designed as a place for people who lived in the surrounding neighborhood. A quiet neighborhood intended for families and those wishing to retire to find a degree of calm away from the loudness of nearby Pacific Beach.

Even if the SDCC does ban drinking at Kate Sessions park, it doesn’t stop the trend, alcohol enthused party goers will just find a new spot. And with the beach taken away, they can only go inland towards communities that were not designed for them.

This was the beauty of being able to drink on the beach. Yes there was trash, and on very rare occasions a fight would break out, however the beauty of these things happening at the beach was that it kept everybody involved away from small communities and neighborhoods where their joviality is out of place and it gave them somewhere to do their thing.

Every plan that has been implemented to fight the problems attributed to drinking on the beach haven’t been solutions, they’ve simply moved the problems elsewhere. Instead of trash on the sand there is now trash in small neighborhood parks and instead of loud parties at the beach far removed from any residences there are loud parties in small urban communities where everybody for ten blocks can hear.

At this point whether drinking on the beach or not caused problems is irrelevant, that’s a debate for another time. The issue at hand is that whatever problems drinking on the beach may have caused, the solutions have only made things worse, and there is no reason to assume this trend is going to change.