THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 2013
BEACHANDBAYPRESS.COM
Pacific Beach celebrates life the
Brazilian way T
he sixth annual, soccer-themed Brazilian Day San Diego Street Fair and parade kicks off at 11 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 8 with a festive celebration on five blocks of Garnet Avenue in Pacific Beach. A carnival-style parade with vibrant floats, extravagant costumes and energetic music starts at 3 p.m. and is the highlight of the festival, which runs until 7 p.m. There will also be nonstop entertainment on two stages, including musical bands, dance ensembles, a food court, a vendor’s exhibition and a kids’ zone. Billed as the biggest Brazilian Day on the West Coast, this year’s free festival celebrates the 2014 World Cup in Brazil to be held June 12 through July 13. The 20th World Cup, being held for the second time in Brazil and the first time in South America since Argentina hosted in 1978, is expected to sell 3.3 million tickets worldwide. Held every four years, the last World Cup was hosted by South Africa in 2010. Brazilian Day producer Paulo Batuta said the beaches and the large local contingent of Brazilians makes Pacific Beach the ideal venue to host the South American country’s independence-day celebration. “Brazilians refer to San Diego as the Rio de Janeiro of the United States,” said Batuta. “San Diego is one of the best places for Brazilians to come, many of whom live here.” Batuta said the area’s geography, with its beaches and bays, is reminiscent of Rio. Brazilian Day will bring a touch of Rio to San Diego, promised Batuta. “It will bring the flavor of the Brazilian carnival and the highlights of that event — the music, the dance, the parade, the floats and the colors,” he said, adding the event’s diverse SEE BRAZIL >> PG. 9
SUN, SKIN AND CELEBRATION Brazil Day San Diego brings thousands of people to Pacific Beach to celebrate Brazilian culture, including samba, capoeira and — especially this year — soccer. Photos by PAUL HANSEN
A look at the beach booze ban, six years later Six years after the Labor Day melee that ultimately led to the citywide alcohol ban on beaches, some say the ban has had a calming effect, as well as making beaches safer and cleaner. On Labor Day in 2007, several hundred people crowded the section of Pacific Beach near Reed Street. When police officers responded to reports of fighting in the crowd about 5 p.m., they were pelted with full beer cans, plastic bottles and size D batteries by the crowd. Seventeen arrests were made, offenders were forcibly removed and a call for 70 additional officers to handle the crowd was put out. Mission Boulevard was closed near Reed Street for part of that evening. District 2 City Councilman Kevin Faulconer arrived at the scene at about 6 p.m. to find police in riot gear and a helicopter overhead. A day later, Faulconer held a press conference, durNOT-SO-QUIET RIOT Police showed up in riot gear during a 2007 melee ing which he pronounced, “Never again should we have to in Pacific Beach at which 17 people were arrested. The incident spurred the have police in riot gear walking down our beaches or have to eventual ban of alcohol on all county beaches. BEACH & BAY PRESS ARCHIVES close off our main thoroughfare,” pointing out San Diego
By DAVE SCHWAB
was one of the only counties in California that still allowed alcohol on the beaches. The Labor Day incident motivated Faulconer and the City Council to pass a one-year trial alcohol ban by ordinance. A year later, after years of debate and a year-long taste of alcohol-free beaches, San Diego voters finally drove booze off the beach permanently with the passage of Proposition D. When the measure passed, Scott Chipman, Pacific Beach resident and spokesman for the Yes on D campaign, said the alcohol-ban campaign owed its success to “city residents who saw the difference the temporary ban made.” Six years later, Chipman said the ban has helped, but more remains to be done. “Violent crime, DUI and drunkenness is still way too com-
SEE BAN >> PG. 4