Nighttime Frolickers May Get Gate Lowered on Mariner’s Point Fun

The parties start about 10 p.m. on Mariner’s Point in Mission Bay Park, where several hundred young people gather almost every night to drink beer around the fires that dot the shore, crank up their car radios and mingle until the early morning.

The sandy spit of land in Mission Beach, used by day for volleyball, fishing and over-the-line tournaments, is one of the most popular nighttime hangouts in San Diego.

Teen-agers like the dark, secluded strip off West Mission Bay Drive because they can drink and party there in relative freedom from police interference. Young adults who gather there say they prefer the ambiance of Mariner’s Point to the superficial social scene at local bars.

And, with the closing last year of Fiesta Island to late-night vehicle use, the point has become one of the last isolated spots in San Diego where people can drive their cars and trucks right up to the shore at night and socialize.

But the young people may soon have to find a new place to party.

Complaints Lodged

That’s because the San Diego Park and Recreation Department, in response to public complaints about rowdiness, loud music and the lack of security at the hangout, plans to install a gate, preventing vehicles from entering Mariner’s Point at night.

The gate, which is scheduled to be installed by Aug. 8, will prevent vehicles from traveling down a dirt road to the tip of the point. The gate will be locked from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. every night until Oct. 31, and then only on weekends from Nov. 1 through next April 30, said Terri Carroll, deputy director of the park department.

Complaints about Mariner’s Point have come from nearby hotels, marina users and citizens, such as Jeanne Wright, who lives near the point.

“My main complaint is noise from the little trucks, where the whole back� of some has been converted into a loudspeaker system, Wright said. “You can hear it on the bay side. We should be able to go to sleep eight hours a night, but we can’t anymore.�

She also complained about crime spilling over from Mariner’s Point onto nearby streets.

Police Patrols

Police have difficulty patrolling Mariner’s Point because there is only one road--Mariner’s Way--into and out of the area, said Dave Crow, commanding officer of the Police Department’s Northern Division. Thus, criminals can easily spot police cars and stop illegal activities before officers have a chance to arrest them. And, police say, their ability to patrol the rest of the area, particularly Mission Bay Park, has been strained because of the attention they must give to Mariner’s Point.

“Approximately 90% of our beach team is concentrated on Mariner’s Point,� Crow said

Crow said there were 55 arrests, 723 misdemeanor citations and 92 traffic citations at Mariner’s Point in the first six months of this year. Twenty-two of these crimes had victims, he said. Among them were one rape, four burglaries, six auto thefts and four assaults with a deadly weapon.

But, on a recent night, several people who regularly gather at Mariner’s Point said complaints about their hangout are exaggerated. Melissa Randall, 20, a student from Alpine who, for five or six years has bummed rides or hitchhiked 34 miles to the point, said residents across the waters of the Mission Bay Channel are too sensitive to noise.

“They can’t hear a thing,� she said. “If they do, they’ve got their hearing aids on ‘high-tone.’ �

Randall disputed residents’ claims of rampant crime. “If what they’re concerned about is the drug traffic, it’s everywhere,� Randall said. “There might be things out here that people don’t like, but if they don’t want to (get involved), they don’t have to.�

‘Pretty Isolated Place’

“This is a good spot,� said Jeff Quigg, 25, a San Diego air conditioning and refrigeration technician. “It’s away from housing. I think this is a pretty isolated place.�

Others said a gate probably wouldn’t stop them from partying at the point. “I’d just pull it down,� joked sailor Dave Browning, 20.

“It’s a nice place,� Browning explained, as he drank beer with his friends. “I can kick back, I can do what I want. I get to feel free, get to drink beer.�

Randall said that, when the gate is installed, she and her friends might have to find a new spot nearby to drive their cars and be close to the water. The alternative would be finding a place indoors, something she is loathe to do.

“The bar scene is like Barbie and Ken,� she said. Leaning back on the hood of a car parked by a fire, she mocked, “ ‘I’m so fake. My Porsche is in the shop, so I’m driving this VW.’ �

City officials say that, even if the young people find another outdoor gathering spot, it’s likely it won’t be big enough to accommodate the kind of large crowds that form at the point and attract the complaints. The police don’t have problems if revelers are in small groups in other areas of the park, said Carroll.