Dateline: Tuesday morning, Oct. 25, 2016 between approximately 9:15 a.m. - 9:30 a.m., we conduct our #beachtrash audit between the Santa Monica Pier and the Pico-Kenter Storm Drain, a distance of perhaps 1/4 mile, by walking along the water's edge and taking photos of the #beachtrash uncollected as yet by the City of Santa Monica...
In all fairness, the beach adjacent to the Santa Monica Pier and on down toward the Pico-Kenter storm drain was fairly clean this morning. It is apparent that someone has cleaned up the atrocious amount of #beachtrash that we witnessed this past Sunday, Oct. 23rd and which we previously blogged about on this same blog. Who cleaned it up? We have no idea but based on past experience it was probably not the City of Santa Monica, but a good samaritan.
In any case, below are the photos from this morning.
Half way back on the beach in the soft dry sand, one can see that the City has raked this area of the beach with its tractors and rakes (in the 4 photos immediately below)... A nice effort but this is where all the attention is given and where basically NO ONE sits on the beach. All the action, e.g., people, blankets, beach towels, umbrellas, is by the shoreline... and this is precisely where the bulk of the #beachtrash is left uncollected by the City of Santa Monica.
Once you approach the shoreline, however, this is where we find the vast majority of the #beachtrash and which continues not to be handpicked or otherwise collected and disposed of by the City!...
The following 5 photos were taken at the outlet of the Pico-Kenter storm drain which is where we turned around before walking back toward the Santa Monica Pier...
On our way back toward the pier, we observed additional #beachtrash...
And last but not least, a watermelon with an empty can of MODELO® beer, the latter being the most likely beer brand to be discarded as #beachtrash in Santa Monica.
All is all the beach was fairly clean and we would have to give it at least a grade of C. There was still #beachtrash present that had not been handpicked or otherwise disposed of by the City of Santa Monica so a grade of "B" was not earned.
An "A" grade is simply out of the question since we do not think and have never seen a team of city workers out walking along the water's edge hand picking up #beachtrash, though the City has said that this occurs... which, of course, is simply not the case at all.
We continue to hope that the City of Santa Monica will wake up and realize that its sanitation department is not sending out its staff to hand pick up #beachtrash by the water's edge and that the City will take steps to see that this is done on a regular basis so that the beach going public does not have to contend with it and all that it portends, e.g., it is unsightly, it is unsanitary, and it is unsafe.
Respectfully submitted,
William Maguire,
Santa Monica, Calif.
(All photos by and Copyright William Maguire 2016.)
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