Statement: “We’ve had alcohol-free beaches for three summers. What has changed in the beach areas? Alcohol-related crime is down,” Willis Allen, whose family owns the Crystal Pier Hotel and Cottages, and Monica Green, a longtime resident of Pacific Beach, wrote in an editorial published by the Union-Tribune June 24.
Analysis: Following a drunken beach melee on Labor Day four years ago, the City Council temporarily banned alcohol from all city beaches. Then, before the ban expired, voters made it permanent through a citywide ballot measure in November 2008.
Fact Check: Booze Crime after the Beach Ban
['Pacific_Beach,_San_Diego', 'U-T_San_Diego']