Popular remote work meet up on the beach declared illegal by city of San Diego

A remote work meet-up in Pacific Beach made a big splash back in March.

“This is as PB as it gets here. This is life,” said one remote worker.

Scott Muirhead organized the inaugural meeting on social media.

He was about to host another one last Friday, until he said the city sent him a notice telling him the meet-up is illegal unless he gets a permit.

Though Muirhead posted the notice and made light of the situation on his Instagram page, saying, “Abort mission, HR called the city,” he plans to meet with city officials Tuesday to work on complying.

“I’m totally on their side. I mean, I understand that, you know, there was some trash left on the beach, and, you know, we did have quite a few people,” Muirhead said.

The city of San Diego told NBC 7, “Organized events at parks and recreation facilities with more than 49-people requires a permit. The permitting process includes payment of fees and adherence to requirements that vary based on the type of event, including insurance coverage, security and more.”

“Don’t get me started on the city, right? They force everybody to do everything, right,?” said Jenny Lange.

Lange said she used to work from home and recently opened a health and wellness business. She was excited to run into Muirhead during our interview, since she’s been anxious to attend one of his events.

“I feel like there’s a loss of community when you just sit at home in your four walls. So getting out and getting people involved in different ways brings back a sense of community,” said Lange.

Muirhead’s remote work event isn’t the first time the city has flexed its permit enforcement muscle.

Beach yoga classes like Namasteve’s were banned in 2024. But a federal appeals court ruled teaching yoga is protected speech.

And in 2025 you may have heard the record scratch when the city closed pop-up DJ events in Golden Hill because of permitting issues.

“We have such a special opportunity. We need to get people out of their house. People on Instagram, they’re reaching out to me like, hey, can I come out the network and see what other people do for work? You know, I could potentially work for those companies,” said Muirhead.

In the meantime he says he’ll continue content-creating and working his marketing job for a supplement company from his beach-front office, while working with the city to get the remote meet-ups on the beach permitted to keep the networking going.

Muirhead said he is working to have another big event on May 27.