Skip to main content



Property Rights for Southern Californian Beaches

With a climate that allows for many beach days throughout year, it is no surprise that the coast is central to Southern California’s relaxed, surfing infused identity. On especially warm days, the beaches are lined with beach towels and are swarmed with people. General habits of the population in beachgoers usually cause increasingly horrendous levels of pollution. The sand and beaches themselves are slowly degrading in beauty and conditions as general visitors are known to trash the local public areas with litter. Also, some of the most traffic filled areas near the beach cause tremendous amounts of toxic runoff that reduces water quality in extremely dangerous ways. As more and more people spend time on the beaches and the LA streets are flooded with cars, the more the quality decreases. Heal the Bay, a nonprofit that fights to make Southern California coastal waters and watersheds safe, healthy and clean, reports in its own grading system the quality of beaches annually. Some of the most popular beaches such as Paradise Cove and the Santa Monica Pier areas have received year round beach quality grades ranging from C’s to F’s.

IMG_7293-1024x682

Busy public beach in Santa Monica 

dirty-beach-santa-monica-pier1_1-1

This dynamic is similar to the “Tragedy of the Commons” discussed in lecture. With the increased usage of public beaches, the more the quality goes down. The revenue for the beachgoers is consistently decreasing with less opportunity to enjoy the deteriorating coast. Some portions of the larger community have been trying to solve this issue for years. One solution has been charging the beachgoers for parking and limiting space for a certain number of cars. This has not done enough to deter visitors and decrease beach usage. Other measures have been taken in the wealthier coastal areas, such as Malibu. In order to decrease usage of the beaches with surrounding properties, people have attempted to make the areas “semi-private.” Some have done this illegally, warding off the public with fake “Private Property” signs in the sand below their houses. The price for these “trespassers” would potentially be legal action or fines, making it a more difficult decision of whether to spend the day at one of these beaches. On another note, one beach community called Little Dume has successfully made it close to impossible for others to enter their beach. Each property receives a certain number of keys to open gates for private paths down to the very sheltered beach. It is near impossible to access by walking down the sand and therefore residents value these keys very highly. In these private areas spread out in Malibu there is a lot less traffic to cause toxic runoff as well. These beaches can pride themselves with very good quality grades, as they tend to receive consistent A’s all year round. Therefore, these homeowners seem to be finding a nice balance for proper use of resources, especially with such a high price of living.

The never crowded Little Dume beach

The never crowded and somewhat protected Little Dume beach, just a half hour up the coast

 

References:

http://www.healthebay.org/sites/default/files/pdf/beachreportcard/1_BRC_2015_Beach_Report_Card_%28full%29.pdf

https://www.yahoo.com/realestate/blogs/spaces/malibu-homeowners-foiled-app-free-beach-173136058.html?ref=gs

 

Comments

Leave a Reply

Blogging Calendar

December 2015
M T W T F S S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031  

Archives