New Limits on Alcohol at Beaches Urged : Drinking: City manager, council members propose adding to night ban and 24-hour prohibition at some parks, boardwalks.

Hoping to curb the growing violence and rowdiness at beaches, San Diego City Manager Jack McGrory and two City Council members Friday proposed banning alcohol an additional four hours at all city beaches and imposing 24-hour drinking prohibitions at several parks and oceanfront boardwalks.

Spawned in part by two gang-related killings in Mission Beach last weekend, the proposed emergency ordinance would ban alcohol from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. on beaches stretching from Sunset Cliffs Park to the southern boundary of Torrey Pines State Beach.

Twenty-four-hour bans on alcohol would be imposed at La Jolla Shores, the Mission Beach boardwalk and the boardwalk adjoining the Ocean Beach Pier. The total ban on alcohol also would apply to half a dozen parks, including North Park, Kellogg Park, Pacific Beach Park, Mission Beach Park, South Mission Beach Park and Ocean Beach Park.

If approved Monday by the necessary two-thirds margin--six of the nine council votes--the measure would take effect immediately. McGrory, however, explained that enforcement might be delayed for a week or two to allow time to inform the public of the new laws. Drinking at beaches now is banned between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.

“We clearly have an emergency when gangs have carved their turf on the sands of our city beaches,” Councilman Ron Roberts said. “We’ve got to assure that our beaches are safe so that families and the law-abiding can enjoy them.”

The proposal, however, quickly drew sharp criticism Friday from a group that recently collected about 30,000 valid signatures on petitions to put an earlier ban on alcohol at city beaches and parks on the ballot. Rather than scheduling a special election that would have cost about $450,000, the council rescinded the ban last month.

“It sounds like they’re trying to push the same ordinance through again,” said Bob Glaser, who engineered the earlier petition drive by People to Ban the Ban, which was financed largely by local beer distributors. “If that’s the game they want to play, we’ll see them in court.”

When the earlier ban was rescinded in May, leaders of the anti-ban group expressed concern that the council might simply enact another similar measure as a means of circumventing the referendum drive.

To avoid legal pitfalls, any new prohibition on alcohol at beaches must be “substantially different or distinguishable from” the earlier ban, according to Assistant City Atty. Curtis Fitzpatrick.

Noting that the proposed emergency ordinance would establish only an overnight ban at most beaches, as against the total ban created by the earlier measure, McGrory argues that the proposal meets that legal test. The emergency measure would be in effect for one year, after which its effectiveness and possible continuation would be evaluated by the council.

“This allows alcohol use for half of the 24-hour period on the beaches, and targets specific areas where we’ve had problems,” McGrory said. “It’s very different.”

Not surprisingly, People to Ban the Ban officials have a different view on that critical question.

“This is strictly a rehash that they’re determined to cram down our throats, despite the fact that 45,000 people (who signed the petitions) said, ‘Don’t do this,”’ said lawyer Rick Miller, co-chairman of the anti-ban group.

“They’ve certainly violated the spirit of the City Charter and referendum process,” Glaser added. “But they won’t get away with it.”

In endorsing McGrory’s proposed emergency measure, Roberts and Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer, whose districts include most of the city’s beaches, largely repeated arguments heard during earlier rounds of the increasingly contentious debate.

Ban supporters argue that the restrictions are needed to reduce criminal activity and unruliness at the beaches attributable to alcohol. Police supervisors estimate that more than 80% of all reported crimes occurring after 8 p.m. in beach areas are related to alcohol, with either the victims, suspects or both being under the influence of alcohol, according to a report by McGrory’s office.

“We’ve got to put a stop to the all-night drinking bashes at La Jolla Shores,” Wolfsheimer said. “The residents are tired of having bottles thrown through their windows and having people throw up on their lawns.”

Considerably more serious problems also have been linked to alcohol, according to police and other city officials. Last weekend, two men were stabbed to death in a parking lot next to the Bahia Resort Hotel on Mission Bay. Those two killings, which police said involved gang activity, followed by nine months the shooting deaths of a 21-year-old man in the same parking lot and a 17-year-old girl in a nearby parking lot.

“When you’ve got four people dead in less than a year, I’d say that shows there’s a need to do something,” said Ray Hamel, owner of a Mission Beach sporting goods shop.

Like some other beachfront businessmen, Hamel advocates a total ban on alcohol at beaches, but called the proposed emergency ordinance “a step in the right direction that I’m willing to give a try.”

Opponents of the ban, however, characterize the proposed restrictions as an infringement on the rights of law-abiding people who enjoy drinking responsibly at the beach and as an overreaction to a minor problem that has been exaggerated by beachfront homeowners eager to keep “undesirables” out of their neighborhood.

“They want to turn the beaches into exclusive, elitist areas,” Miller said. “The beaches are a showcase for the entire city, but they don’t want to let the city in.”

Mayor Maureen O’Connor, the council’s most vocal ban opponent, also argues that stricter enforcement of existing laws against public drunkenness could preclude the need for more restrictions on drinking at the beach. Others contend that gangs have more to do with problems at the beach than alcohol.

McGrory and Roberts, however, contend that the ban would complement the council’s recent decision to close parking lots at Bonita Cove and Ventura Cove overnight in an effort to stem the beach-area crime problems. Police also argue that gangs often congregate near beaches to drink and socialize, gatherings that later generate criminal activity.

“These personal liberties that (ban opponents) talk about so much don’t exist for the average guy or average family wanting to use the beaches,” Roberts said. “That’s what we want to return to. This wouldn’t stop you from drinking at the beach. It just would prevent that from happening in an abusive and dangerous way.”