Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Mission Bay overnight camping penalties upped

At $25 it's cheaper than Campland

Vacationers and the homeless have long been spending their nights inside campers or recreational vehicles parked along Mission Bay’s shores. In doing so these civic freeloaders have been ignoring the well-placed signs that warn of “No Overnight Sleeping-Camping” in the parking lots overlooking Ski Beach, Vacation Isle’s North Cove, and Crown Point Shores Park. Neighboring homeowners complain, but the campers keep arriving. Since May 1, police have ticketed or warned 219 of the illegal campers.

Besides their being outnumbered by the campers, the beach-area cops say issuing illegal-camping citations is a bother. The tickets can’t be left on the vehicle windshield – violators must be roused from sleep and handed the ticket face-to-face. One police officer who issues five such citations on a busy night, says she always lets the lawbreakers go back to sleep after handing them the ticket.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Bail for the misdemeanor violation is just twenty-five dollars, equal to the nightly fee for some of the 600 spots at Campland, the private recreational vehicle park on the north shores of Mission Bay. (Campland’s twenty-five dollar sites do have camper hookups, but overnighters wishing prime, bay-front spaces must pay thirty or thirty-five dollars for a Campland spot.)

City Councilman Mike Gotch figures the best way to discourage the illegal overnighters is to increase the penalties, and in 1980 he asked a panel of municipal court judges who set bail amounts to triple the camping violation fine to seventy-five dollars. The judges’ panel declined to increase the fine, telling Gotch that because the campers posed little threat to persons or property, twenty-five dollars seemed adequate. But Gotch will try again this fall to have the bail amount raised, this time to ninety-five dollars. (Any fine over one hundred dollars requires an in-person court appearance by the violator, which both police and judges want to avoid.) Gotch hopes that letters from police commanders and a city council endorsement of the fine increase will persuade the judges to agree.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Navy solves San Diego homeless crisis by retiring four locally moored ships

Decommision Accomplished

Vacationers and the homeless have long been spending their nights inside campers or recreational vehicles parked along Mission Bay’s shores. In doing so these civic freeloaders have been ignoring the well-placed signs that warn of “No Overnight Sleeping-Camping” in the parking lots overlooking Ski Beach, Vacation Isle’s North Cove, and Crown Point Shores Park. Neighboring homeowners complain, but the campers keep arriving. Since May 1, police have ticketed or warned 219 of the illegal campers.

Besides their being outnumbered by the campers, the beach-area cops say issuing illegal-camping citations is a bother. The tickets can’t be left on the vehicle windshield – violators must be roused from sleep and handed the ticket face-to-face. One police officer who issues five such citations on a busy night, says she always lets the lawbreakers go back to sleep after handing them the ticket.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Bail for the misdemeanor violation is just twenty-five dollars, equal to the nightly fee for some of the 600 spots at Campland, the private recreational vehicle park on the north shores of Mission Bay. (Campland’s twenty-five dollar sites do have camper hookups, but overnighters wishing prime, bay-front spaces must pay thirty or thirty-five dollars for a Campland spot.)

City Councilman Mike Gotch figures the best way to discourage the illegal overnighters is to increase the penalties, and in 1980 he asked a panel of municipal court judges who set bail amounts to triple the camping violation fine to seventy-five dollars. The judges’ panel declined to increase the fine, telling Gotch that because the campers posed little threat to persons or property, twenty-five dollars seemed adequate. But Gotch will try again this fall to have the bail amount raised, this time to ninety-five dollars. (Any fine over one hundred dollars requires an in-person court appearance by the violator, which both police and judges want to avoid.) Gotch hopes that letters from police commanders and a city council endorsement of the fine increase will persuade the judges to agree.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Flowering pear trees in Kensington not that nice

Empty dirt plots in front of Ken Cinema
Next Article

Didja know I did the first American feature on Jimi Hendrix?

Richard Meltzer goes through the Germs, Blue Oyster Cult, Ray Charles, Elvis, Lavender Hill Mob
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.