Loophole in beach booze ban inspires “Floatopia”

photo from "Tee Sam" via Flickr

Over Labor Day weekend, many beach-goers found a way around San Diego’s ban of alcohol at city beaches by participating in “Floatopia”.  A social event reported to have originated from college students in Santa Barbara, San Diegans adopted the party as a way to drink on the beach, while still cleverly following the law (the ban prohibits alcohol on the beaches, but not in the water).

An estimated 2,500 participants lounged aboard makeshift rafts at Fanuel Street Park in Pacific Beach, while police worked to ensure that all other alcohol laws were being followed.  Police arrested some people for public drunkenness when they came ashore, and citations were also issued for having open containers and littering.

Floatopia is without a doubt an expression by the citizens on their discontent with the alcohol ban on all San Diego beaches. Despite the brazen move by the community, it will undoubtedly make the law be redefined not removed. The law was established in a direct correlation with the abuse of alcohol on San Diego beaches which led to violence, crime, littering, and an over all scenery of deviant behavior.  The loop hole that Floatopia was based on in San Diego was an ingenious expression of freedom and liberty, but a failure in getting a point across.

The best way to go about petitioning a law is not to inebriate the community, instead you should enlighten. Show the city that we can be responsible, and we will not abuse the use of alcohol anymore. Floatopia shouldn’t be celebrated, it should be scorned, the messages isn’t “if we can’t drink here, we’ll just do it somewhere else outside of the law and create the same problems”, instead it should be one of responsibility and gaining back the trust we lost.

All though it was successful it only hurt the ultimate effort, and will lead to more sanctions and changes by the city of San Diego in order to squelch the uprising of events such as Floatopia.