OpEd...
I. For the record:
A. August 19, 2016, Santa Monica Daily Press (aka, SMDP)
Trash Talk: Dumpers Take Joy Out of Beach Days
Excerpts:
“We have tractors that are out there daily lining up the trash before another machine comes to collect and dump the trash off site,” Constance Farrell, Public Information Coordinator for Santa Monica City told The Mirror. “We also have a small but mighty team of City employees who work on the beach seven days a week. Community service crews also help keep the beach clean.”
Why then the trash lining the shore?
“We can only go to the high tide line with the large equipment that picks up the bulk of trash on the beach,” Farrell explained. “State law restricts equipment near the water line to protect microorganisms. Our team hand picks trash near the water’s edge, but it’s constant work.”
comments:
1) City employees do NOT daily walk the shoreline and hand pick up #beachtrash near the water’s edge.
2) The City does use its tractors near the water's edge from time to time when it is convenient and expedient for them to do so.
B. June 17, 2017, Santa Monica Daily Press
Five ways to keep Santa Monica beach trash free, by Mayor Ted Winterer
Excerpts:
"The City of Santa Monica has a dedicated beach maintenance team that uses specialized equipment and handpicking to keep the beaches clean every day. If you walk or run the beach in the early morning hours, you’ve likely seen our team at work.”
comment: The City does NOT handpick up #beachtrash every day. Far from it, in fact.
C. PHOTOS
1) Saturday, August 26, 2017, at Ocean Park looking toward the Santa Monica Pier
comment: in the photo below, you can clearly see that the grooming done by the City tractor and rake is above the berm and well above the high tide line…
2) Sunday, August 27, 2017, at Ocean Park looking toward the Santa Monica Pier
In the photo below, however, the very next morning you can clearly observe how close the grooming performed by the City tractor and rake is to the water’s edge and is, indeed, below the high tide line in the area where the City has stated (August 19, 2016, SMDP) that it does not operate it’s tractors due to microorganisms in the wet sand near the water’s edge. While I am all for a clean beach, the City is obviously ignoring state law when it is convenient and expedient for them to do so.
Three (3) additional photos below from Sunday, August 27, 2017, which illustrate that the City tractor groomed below the high tide line where the City said in August 2016 that it does not operate its tractors due to state law…
There is no question that the beach near the water's edge was much cleaner on Sunday, August 27th than on Saturday, August 26th due to the fact that the City did use its tractors and rakes well below the high tide line and very close to the water's edge on Sunday morning, August 27th. I am all for a clean beach which improves public health and safety and removes the accumulation of #beachtrash near the water's edge. It is not my job to enforce state law with respect to where the tractors are supposed to operate and where they are not supposed to operate.
Public health and safety is paramount, in my opinion, however. In my opinion, the City should be devoting its human resources to daily walking the shoreline to hand pick up #beachtrash near the water's edge so that glass bottles (broken or otherwise), aluminum cans (crushed and jagged or otherwise), plastic bottles, dead birds, plant debris, etc. can be disposed of properly.
If the City uses its tractors and rakes to groom the sand near the water's edge where the City has said it does not operate due to state law (August 19, 2016, SMDP), then I am all for it because public health and safety is of paramount interest as far as I am concerned.
On the other hand, the City wants it both ways, e.g., the City claims it does not remove trash near the water's edge with its tractors because to do so would be in violation of state law; and yet, when it is expedient to do so, the City actually does operate its tractors and rakes in violation of state law close to the water's edge as it did on Sunday morning, August 27, 2017.
Bottom Line!... I just want the City to daily hand pick up and dispose of #beachtrash, including dead birds, plant debris, lumber, etc. near the water's edge so that public health and safety is protected. The City claims that it has "a small but mighty team of City employees who work on the beach seven days a week"... but I can tell you that they do NOT hand pick up #beachtrash seven days a week near the water's edge. In fact, most days the City ignores the #beachtrash near the water's edge as this blog has demonstrably proven numerous times on numerous days over numerous months and years.
Respectfully submitted,
William Maguire,
Attorney at law, and
Concerned citizen
(All photos by & Copyright William Maguire 2017.)
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