Daily Pilot:  05.22.03

This editorial appeared in the Daily Pilot, Thursday, May 22 2003:

Fourth Should be Fun, Not Chaotic

It very well may be a case of a few unruly folks ruining things for everyone else. Or it may be the necessary preemptive action that will keep relatively minor problems from turning into something major. Whichever scenario turns out to be the case, it seems certain that the Fourth of July in Newport Beach will never quite be the same.

This year, in response to building problems in the city on Independence Day, city leaders are cracking down harder - but only slightly - on revelers, drinkers and over-enthusiastic partygoers who last year accounted for 162 arrests and 1,344 citations. They have decided to create a "safety enhancement zone" bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the south, 32nd Street and Newport Boulevard on the east, Pacific Coast Highway on the north and 54th Street on the west.

Within this area, police will have more power to break up parties and issue citations that will cost violators $300, up from last year's $100. Landlords might even be held responsible for some tenants' behavior.

Still to be put in place is an amendment to the city's alcoholic beverage ordinance that would forbid stores from selling liquor out of their parking lots or storing it there.

City leaders argue that this enforcement is necessary, a point hard to dismiss unless you are among a group of mostly young, mostly male West Newport residents who have appeared at the past few council meetings to fight rules one of them called "unacceptable and un-American."

Neighboring Huntington Beach is the most obvious example of what could happen if Newport does not crack down. During the mid-1990s, the Fourth of July in SurfCity erupted into a mess of couch burnings, rioting and, in 1995, the shooting death of a 21-year-old man. Police arrested just 40 people in 1992, a number that skyrocketed to 257 in 1993. By 1996, the city's "zero tolerance" policy toward public drinking led to the jailing of 549 people. It also made clear that Huntington Beach was no longer the place to party on the Fourth.

For the past few years, Newport has assumed that dubious mantle.

Fortunately, with it has not yet come a tragedy of riots or deaths. Unfortunately, to avoid that end, tougher rules are needed. Those that city leaders have put in place are a reasonable answer to the problem.

With authorities on the streets enforcing them this July, act reasonably and judiciously. It should be a fine, and fun, Fourth of July in Newport Beach.