My earliest steps were practiced on the sands of Cocoa Beach, Florida. At every turn of my childhood, there remains a beach-infused moment that is enshrouded in nostalgia. I graduated high school in Virginia Beach, and spent my 20s in Coronado, California, only a block away from the cold Pacific Ocean. I am a child of the water.
Which is why it brings me great sadness seeing the mass privatization of so many beaches. I know the feeling of sand beneath your feet, and the seaside wind on your face, and playing in the water with friends, will become a luxury, rather than a right. The exclusion isn’t happening in one sweeping ban. It is a product of incrementalism and classism at its finest. The sad truth is that there could well come a day when you are “too poor” to go to the beach.
I was recently walking along the street in downtown Clearwater, which is only 30 minutes from my home in Tampa. The city and its beaches were mostly public, but are now being slowly over-run by the Church of Scientology (it’s headquartered there) buying up huge swathes of coveted real estate. This is compounded by the commercialization of the city and mansions springing up along its waterfronts. As I walked through Clearwater that day, I came upon two parents and their two children, both under the age of 10. They had their beach umbrella, and bags with all manner of fun toys to play with. In front of them was a private property sign, blocking access to an obvious sand trail to the beach. Disappointment was written all over their faces as they turned around with their beach gear and cooler in hand, continuing their quest for a beach day.
A dystopian vision swept over me and I saw people buying access to beaches through vending machines, and getting arrested for touching sand without a permit. It doesn’t feel far from a potential reality.
Per the Public Trust Doctrine, some portion of every beach in each state is open to the public. “Some” becomes the operative word, and is subject to endless complications. Lido Beach, in New York, is ground zero for these complications. Technically, it is open to the public — to its high tide line. But getting access to many parts of it is near impossible without trespassing on someone’s property. One boardwalk allows access only for residents, who have a key fob they swipe on an electronic gate. Your only other alternative is to stay at a prohibitively expensive hotel on that beach.
Here in Florida, only 40% of our beaches are considered public. Just before Rick Scott left office in 2019, he overturned a law which all but ensured current beaches stayed public.
Yet Florida’s 40% access is still better than many states. As you move north, access tends to get worse. In Maine, only 6.5% of beaches are open to the public. In Massachusetts, the public has access to less than 12%. One key issue is that cities often lose revenue by leaving beachfront acreage open to the public. Beachfront homes in expensive areas are a boon for property tax revenue, so the incentive is to side with wealthy home owners, whose property tax can easily exceed $1 million per year for a small plot. Yet one could argue this choice degrades tourism, culture, and industries that accommodate visitors.
Beaches are a proven source of happiness for many people. One study found a direct link between happiness and our time spent in natural environments. Even further, the study shows that people near coastal waters score 6 points higher on happiness relative to those in urban environments. Humans have long been drawn to water for the survival advantages it confers, and it’s only fitting that we get so much satisfaction being near it. A friend of mine, who is quite successful and owns a beach front property, said that the one thing about wealth that doesn’t get old is a good water view.
Even where public-friendly laws are at work, private home owners are still being exclusionary. For example — in Malibu, California, beachfront home owners were putting private property signs on their sections of the beach (along with fake “no parking” signs) to deter people from walking near their homes. One fake sign, written on a wooden board, proclaimed, “NO PARKING ANY TIME — TOW AWAY ZONE”. Many of the signs were so realistic that cops and tow companies mistook them for being real.
The city was stuck with a predicament of having some of the nicest beaches in the country, that only multi-millionaires and billionaires could access. City officials would rip down these fake signs, only for the residents to put new ones up. And to the credit of the city, they passed an ordinance authorizing them to fine owners who put fake signs up. They also sent letters ordering the signs removed, which has alleviated the problem.
From the perspective of resorts, some have argued they do this to remove liability. In Siesta Key, Florida, one resort’s beach had a non-guest teenager who was found unconscious and in need of an ambulance, leading to no trespassing signs being put up. The teen proved healthy, but the resort said they could have faced liability over this incident, and that it is safer for everyone to have public-private separation.
Having worked on the business side of real estate construction, I’m extremely skeptical of the resort’s perspective. In my view, resorts are only doing this to boost the customer experience and charge more money to guests. The true liability to them, is the loss of profit.
Several organizations are advocating for open access. The Surfrider Foundation monitors beach access laws and openly challenges claims to public beaches by for profit and privately held entities. They recently went to legal war with billionaire, Vinod Khosla, who bought an 89 acre property on Martin’s Beach, south of San Francisco, and promptly shut down its only public access boardwalk. Surfrider won its claim against Khosla, whose appeal was then declined the by the US Supreme Court.
Historically, beaches in the United States were almost entirely democratized, with anyone and everyone having access to most beaches. It wasn’t until the commercialization of real estate in the early 20th century, that the working class, and minorities (black, especially) were pushed away from beach access. In 1924, California officials seized a property owned by a black family, Willa and Charles Bruce, saying it was needed for a public park — and then left it unused for three decades. Just this year, they have returned the property to the Bruce’s two closest living heirs, who are selling it back to the county for $20 million.
The point being: there is still room for states to right the course, and reverse damage already done. My hope is for a more equitable middle ground whereby those who want to, can enjoy their success and have beachfront homes — without denying access and turning beaches into a club for the rich.
We should remember the Public Trust Doctrine, and its promise to keep beautiful beaches, lakes, and streams open to the public. These are cultural resources, not objects to be monopolized and walled off. I hope to see a future where many more kids, regardless of wealth and skin color, can hold the beach close in their heart just as I do in mine.
I’m a former financial analyst turned writer out of sunny Tampa, Florida. I began writing eight years ago on the side and fell in love with the craft. My goal is to provide non-fiction story-driven content to help us live better and maximize our potential.
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Publish date : 2024-09-27 05:26:00
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