VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — After thousands of people got drunk at "Floatopia," the ten tons of trash left on the beach wasn't the only issue that angered Ocean Park residents.
"I looked over to my flower bed, there were two young girls bending over. I thought they were throwing up," said a neighbor. "I walked over to them, and they were pulling up their thongs. They were peeing in my flower bed."
Well over 100 people criticized the city of Virginia Beach at the Ocean Park Civic League meeting over their mishandling of "Floatopia."
"This event is too large for this neighborhood,” said one resident.
"There was no law enforcement, alright, none," another resident said.
From the trash to the parking, to the public drunkenness, residents said "Floatopia" wasn’t a festival, it was a criminal act in their neighborhood.
“The city doesn’t care about our community,” one neighbor commented.
While another neighbor said, "You aren't helping me live in a city that I want to be proud of that we all work so hard to maintain."
They said their biggest concern was public safety, driveways and in some cases, entire streets blocked by illegally parked cars.
"If they would have needed emergency vehicles, they would have been out of luck," a neighbor commented.
They said the blatant illegal consumption of alcohol was ignored by police on the beach which led to panic on the streets outside their homes.
“Set up your checkpoints at either side of the bridge because they are a danger to people leaving our beach that are going to go kill someone in another community,” said a resident.
The city said they had a total of 11 officers in uniform at the event who handed out 61 tickets and made 13 arrests. City Manager Dave Hansen acknowledged more needed to be done.
“This thing certainly did blow up on us. I did not have knowledge that it was going down this week,” said Hansen.
Hansen said they’ll be ready for the next "Floatopia" event, planned for the Fourth of July. You can expect to see strict enforcement on the beach, DUI checkpoints on the roads, and tow trucks standing by ready to be used.
“So that people who come here with bad intentions will be discouraged from acting the way that they are because they are going to be faced with a significant enforcement effort that they have not seen before,” said Hansen.
Hansen also said they are looking into possible legal action against the organizers of "Floatopia," but also said the worst that will happen is a misdemeanor.