Imagine: a typical summer day on the beaches of San Diego. The sun is shining, the waves are awesome, and, actually, unless it’s late August, it’s probably more like 62 and cloudy. So pretend for a moment the skies are atypically clear, and all appears to be well. Suddenly, a loud, droning noise begins, growing closer and closer to the point of maximum irritation. Something blocks out the sun. You sit up from your tanning spot, extremely alarmed. Is it a locust swarm? An unexpected solar eclipse? No, it’s a middle-aged man with a killer farmers tan, deciding that your towel is clearly an ideal place to stand and continue his Smashball game. The horrifying reality sets in: the Zonies have arrived.
Zonies, the slightly derisive slang term for tourists from Arizona, are a major nuisance despite the boost they provide to San Diego’s economy. Tourism is a major industry for San Diego, raking in 8 billion dollars of revenue a year, according to the Los Angeles Times, almost a third of which is from the summer months alone (articles.latimes.com).
Although tourists are drawn to San Diego from all over the country and all over the world, our pleasant climate and close geographical proximity are a major draw for those from our favorite neighboring state, Arizona. Normally resigned to their faux-Spanish style, air-conditioned homes in the 100-plus degree heat, the Zonies eventually suffer from cabin fever and decide to flee. They quickly pack up their Chevy Suburbans and clog up the 8 worse than the plaque clogging their arteries. They descend like vultures, taking up two parking spots and heading to the water (often on the wrong side of the flag) with their Wham-O boogie boards, bad tattoos and hordes of kids. And hordes is no exaggeration: over 2 million Arizona residents visit San Diego annually (signonsandiego.com).
Despite their ire-inducing presence, a summer without Zonies would be an economic disaster for San Diego, a disaster which came close to happening last year. Before the summer of 2010, many cities were openly opposed to Arizona’s controversial SB 1070 anti-immigration law, including San Diego, which passed a city council resolution denouncing the law as unconstitutional. In turn, many tourists who planned to visit San Diego from Arizona staged an informal boycott of the city, said the North County Times, canceling hotel reservations and redirecting their valuable funds (and smashball games) elsewhere (nctimes.com) .
Although this may seem ridiculous, according to the mission statement of the Support Arizona/Boycott San Diego Coalition (SABSDC), which has groups based in San Diego, “The boycott will have the strong support of San Diegans themselves. Most San Diegans think the new Arizona law is excellent. Many local boycott enthusiasts will now choose to go to shopping malls, grocery stores, restaurants, movies, sports events, etc. ONLY OUTSIDE SAN DIEGO CITY LIMITS” (sandiegobrigade.webs.com). The only thing more sensible than boycotting another city? Boycotting your own city! It sounds kind of fun and exciting, until you need to call the fire department. Or the lights get turned off because you won’t pay the electric bill.
Fortunately for our economy, unfortunately for us, summer 2011 is gearing up to be packed with Zonies now that the boycotting spirit has generally died down. When faced with them, as you certainly will within a two mile radius of the beach, try to ignore the farmer’s tans and the undersized Wham-O boogie boards and see the Zonies for their true purpose: a valuable economic asset to our city.