After an alcohol-fueled riot on the beach at Pacific Beach during Labor Day weekend 2008, the council voted to impose a one-year ban on alcohol consumption on city beaches. In November of that year, city voters approved a measure to make the ban permanent. San Diego isn't the first beach community to grapple with Floatopia, though the city's parties are unique in that they were created purely to dodge the law.  The San Diego City Council on Monday voted unanimously to ban drinking on Mission Bay in an effort to stop the "floatopia" booze parties that have exploited a loophole in the city's ban on drinking on beaches.
– San Diego's city council has closed a loophole that allowed partygoers to dodge a ban on drinking on the beach by boozing just offshore instead. Wording in the original ban defined beach as land only, leading to "Floatopia" parties which saw thousands of people drinking on rafts and inner tubes just a few feet offshore, the Los Angeles Times reports. The updated law now says "bathers" need to be one marine league—around 3.5 miles—offshore before they can drink alcohol. City leaders say the floating parties were a disaster waiting to happen, and even partygoers say the law probably isn't such a bad idea. "Unfortunately, it makes sense," a college student taking to his air mattress for a final few beers told the Wall Street Journal. "Floating? Drinking? That's just not going to work out."