About Us

The City of San Diego is one of only a handful of beaches that still allows alcohol on their beach.  Other State, City and County beaches that have made their beaches alcohol free have noted increased safety, reduced enforcement costs and increased attendance.  An alcohol-free beach policy is the most effective and economic strategy for maintaining a safe and family-friendly environment.

Who Are We?

Our Launch Announcement

This is the statement read by Scott Chipman to the media announcing SafeBeaches.org on September 24, 2007:

Hello and thank you for coming.

I am Scott Chipman, 33 year resident and active community member of Pacific Beach. I am here with a number of concerned citizens and business owners from Ocean Beach, Mission Beach and Pacific Beach. I have been asked to announce the formation of a new organization, Safe Beaches.org.

Safe Beaches.org is a growing coalition of city residents, concerned citizens, regular visitors, businesses, and community groups who support Councilman Kevin Faulconer and other San Diego City Council Members in their leadership to have alcohol-free beaches and parks. Our website provides an opportunity for San Diegans to easily obtain information on the call for alcohol free beaches and a way to easily contact the city council and mayor to express support.

Although the Labor Day alcohol fueled incident has received much local and some national attention we know that incident just focused attention on conditions that are impacting public safety year round. The areas along Pacific Beach and Mission Beach have 26 and 34 times higher alcohol related citations than the city wide averages. These beaches are a year round danger to Public Safety of residents and visitors.

At community meetings the police have indicated that the demand for police manpower at the beach takes them away from the needs of neighboring communities. Those neighboring communities lose the police protection they deserve and pay for because of police focus on preventing alcohol related violence at the beach. And yet with all the good efforts made by the police to prevent alcohol related violence the situation gets worse each year.
 
Mission and Pacific Beach have become synonymous with binge drinking, drinking games intended to induce drunkenness and underage drinking. These activities would be illegal in a bar where children cannot enter but current city policy regarding beach drinking allows these activities to be commonplace on the sand where children and their families come for recreation. These activities fuel crime.

San Diegans are choosing to take their families and visitors to beaches that are alcohol free. The cities and communities of Imperial Beach, Coronado, Oceanside, and La Jolla have alcohol free beaches. Carlsbad State Beach, Leucadia State Beach and all the urban beaches of Orange County, Los Angeles County, and Ventura County are alcohol free. The Beaches of Hawaii are alcohol free. The Mayor of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, this week, wrote a letter to the editor of the Union Tribune indicating the tremendous benefits to public safety, business, and tourism their city has enjoyed in the last 10 years as a result of making their beaches alcohol free. 

SafeBeaches.org is not a prohibitionist organization. Alcohol-free beaches reduce problems.  No city that has alcohol free beaches has reversed that decision; no city has reported an increase in crime in other areas since making that decision. 

If people choose to drink in bars or in private homes, there are bar staff and party hosts who are responsible for controlling their guests.  No such responsibility exists on the beach. 

For these reasons and many more we urge the citizens and businesses of San Diego to join SafeBeaches.org and to express their support of alcohol free beaches to the Mayor and city council and to attend the Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Meeting on October 10th and at that meeting express your desire to have Safe San Diego Beaches.

Thank you.

Safe Beaches is a growing coalition of city residents, concerned citizens, regular visitors, businesses, and community groups who support Councilman Kevin Faulconer and other San Diego City Council Members in their leadership to have alcohol-free beaches and parks.