So here’s the ordinance that details the fines and punishments that will be doled out to San Diegans for drinking on the beach.
Some of the highlights:
- Booze isn’t banned 24 hours a day in every park in the city. There’s a 24-hour-a-day ban at many of the city’s parks and all the city’s beaches, but some of the city’s parks, including some coastal parks, are only subject to a 12- or 16-hour ban.
- So, for example, San Diegans are banned, 24 hours a day, from drinking on the boardwalk in Mission Beach or on the Ocean Beach Pier. But drinking is allowed at other “coastal parks” (most of which are in La Jolla) between certain hours. So a drink at sunset, sitting on a bench on the bluff overlooking WindanSea Beach in La Jolla, for example, is acceptable (as long as the sun doesn’t set after 8 p.m., when the ban comes into force, and as long as you’re not on the beach itself.) At some community and neighborhood parks, drinking is permitted from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
- A section of the ordinance specifically bans keggers on the Fourth of July in any designated public areas.
Aguirre’s office also clarified the punishments that will be doled out for drinking on the beach or in public areas outside the allowed time. Those are contained in the City’s Municipal Code, Section 12.201:
- Infractions (usually first-time offenders) are punishable with a $250 maximum fine.
- Misdemeanors (multiple offenses or chronic offenders) are punishable with a $1,000 maximum fine and/or 6 months jail time.