Free the beaches
Apr. 11th, 2006 10:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gordonzolaThere are bigger issues of course. The incredibly huge Immigrant rights protests all over the country… French workers winning against their government… College jock rapists abusing women… about a million other things. And you should be thinking about them more than what I’m going to tell you about in the next paragraph.
But there’s a local issue which is really fucked up right now. It seems like just a party issue, partly because it’s how Burning Man began. However, and this is when I know I’m a Californian, the attempt by to ban bonfires at Ocean Beach is something that we also cannot put up with. In the last decade, California beaches have gone from free and unregulated to pay-for-use and increasingly controlled. The beaches belong to us. We cannot let government take this much control of what we hold in common. Free the beaches!
Here’s where to send your letter and here’s the official solicitation of comments don’t be fooled by the reasonable and mild language, a fire ban is what, word-of-mouth-wise, seems to be going on.
GGNRA,
I have just learned that the GGNRA is considering banning fires on Ocean Beach. As a lifelong resident of the Bay Area, I urge you not to take this drastic step.
We are a beach town no matter how metropolitan we may be in other ways. If there was ever any doubt of this, think back to the crowds that gathered a couple of years ago when the dead whale washed ashore. Even though "Big Stinky" the whale was hard to be around, people from all over the city came to say goodbye, lining the Great Highway with cars and filling up the N Judah and L Taraval MUNI lines.
I bring this up to remind you that those of us who grew up near the Pacific Ocean, whether urban, suburban, or rural have ties to the beach. Beach bonfires are the way that many of us celebrate where we live. Maybe the fires are for birthdays, wedding receptions, wakes, anniversaries or just parties, but they are part of our culture. And by "our culture" I mean the geographical culture that we develop by living together in one area, even if we originally came from different parts of the world, have different beliefs etc.
When I was younger there used to be concrete fire pits at some beaches (Fort Cronkite comes to mind). I don't understand why certain areas of the beach can't have designated fire pits if fire debris is the problem.
There would seem to me to be many solutions. To be honest, I am only learning right now that certain objects are banned from beach fires (pallets etc) at all so perhaps an educational campaign would be in order before a banning of bonfires.
I hope, at the very least, that more time for comment is allowed before any decisions are made.
Thank you for reading,
But there’s a local issue which is really fucked up right now. It seems like just a party issue, partly because it’s how Burning Man began. However, and this is when I know I’m a Californian, the attempt by to ban bonfires at Ocean Beach is something that we also cannot put up with. In the last decade, California beaches have gone from free and unregulated to pay-for-use and increasingly controlled. The beaches belong to us. We cannot let government take this much control of what we hold in common. Free the beaches!
Here’s where to send your letter and here’s the official solicitation of comments don’t be fooled by the reasonable and mild language, a fire ban is what, word-of-mouth-wise, seems to be going on.
GGNRA,
I have just learned that the GGNRA is considering banning fires on Ocean Beach. As a lifelong resident of the Bay Area, I urge you not to take this drastic step.
We are a beach town no matter how metropolitan we may be in other ways. If there was ever any doubt of this, think back to the crowds that gathered a couple of years ago when the dead whale washed ashore. Even though "Big Stinky" the whale was hard to be around, people from all over the city came to say goodbye, lining the Great Highway with cars and filling up the N Judah and L Taraval MUNI lines.
I bring this up to remind you that those of us who grew up near the Pacific Ocean, whether urban, suburban, or rural have ties to the beach. Beach bonfires are the way that many of us celebrate where we live. Maybe the fires are for birthdays, wedding receptions, wakes, anniversaries or just parties, but they are part of our culture. And by "our culture" I mean the geographical culture that we develop by living together in one area, even if we originally came from different parts of the world, have different beliefs etc.
When I was younger there used to be concrete fire pits at some beaches (Fort Cronkite comes to mind). I don't understand why certain areas of the beach can't have designated fire pits if fire debris is the problem.
There would seem to me to be many solutions. To be honest, I am only learning right now that certain objects are banned from beach fires (pallets etc) at all so perhaps an educational campaign would be in order before a banning of bonfires.
I hope, at the very least, that more time for comment is allowed before any decisions are made.
Thank you for reading,
