Posted on 01/09/2002 4:45:49 PM PST by Utah Girl
A money-soaked battle is bubbling up along the Malibu coastline, pitting old-time liberals like David Geffen, Barbara Streisand, and Jeffrey Katzenberg against, well, everyone else.
The elite property owners of Malibu, who wouldn't be out of place at an Al Gore fundraiser in Hollywood, have suddenly become the forceful defenders of property rights — their property rights, that is — along the beautiful Southern California coastline. And let me tell you, it's fun to watch.
At issue is public access to the sand and surf. But how does the suntan crowd get to the sand if those living the life of luxury find outsiders distasteful and block the paths to what is essentially a public backyard?
Steven Spielberg, Katzenberg, Streisand, Geffen, and Nancy Daly Riordan (the wife of Republican gubernatorial candidate Richard Riordan), are all prominent Democrats and Malibu homeowners who raise big bucks for liberal causes to help "the people" — but prefer that the public not actually roam too close to their fabulous homes.
The problem here is that the beach ain't their property. As far as I can tell, the actual ocean is not sold along with a seven-figure beachfront home. So, entertainment moguls have taken up the fight with the California Coastal Commission, which often wields a heavy regulatory hand. Somehow I doubt that these claims reflect any great philosophical longing for strong property-rights laws in California.
There are, in fairness, real concerns about upkeep, sanitation, and parking. However, these stretches of beach are generally out of the way and not family friendly anyhow, making some of the arguments about congestion problems disingenuous. And there are legitimate safety issues: David Geffen has found random people in his living room who entered his home along the beach.
As someone who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, the San Fernando Valley, I lived at the non-ocean end of Malibu Canyon and have, well, immersed myself in the issue. Almost 30 years ago Californians passed the California Coastal Act, ensuring that "development shall not interfere with the public's right of access to the sea."
As a Valley girl of 16, I finally had both a car and a high school located on Mulholland Drive, which provided an important educational stop each day on the way to the beach.
I spent many an after-school hour (or sometimes during what I considered "non-essential" classes) jogging, swimming, and maybe doing my homework on the beach. At the secluded Broad Beach, which wasn't listed on any tourist map, I was often asked to get lost. I used my 16-year-old legal knowledge to stand my ground.
The beachgoer is legally entitled to remain on the sand up to the mean high-tide line. Of course, nobody really knows where that line is. So I often found myself, when facing the ire of a bikini-clad homeowner, pointing to the various color gradations between the wet and dry sand that could mark the mean high-tide line. Usually, this meant I would move my towel a foot or two before the disgruntled homeowner stalked off.
Fess Parker, best known for his lead roles as television's Daniel Boone and in Disney's 50's-era Davy Crockett show, owns coastal property in Santa Barbara, along with a winery and ranch land. The man who played Davy Crockett has become king of another wild frontier, the California Coastal Commission. He has been largely alone in fighting for private property rights for years. Suddenly though, he has plenty of company.
Parker, who's probably had to give up more of his own land than anyone in the history of Santa Barbara, says that dealing with the state bureaucracy takes "brain surgery" skills because so much can go wrong. "Some people have a belated conversion," Parker remarked. "It's always an interesting thing when your ox is getting gored." Parker expressed amusement with the new converts over "the sense of entitlement or the willingness to make an exception" for themselves. That, he said, was "a little too much."
The Malibu NIMBY Coalition — championing a much more fashionable cause than trying to keep landfills or chemical plants out of their backyards — doesn't want to brush shoulders with less well-heeled interlopers. "Some of the best, most liberal people in Malibu turned their backs on me over this issue," said Steve Hoye, a former head of the Malibu Democratic Club and now a champion of open beaches, told the L.A. Times. "They don't want people coming in."
These days, I swim with a group of friends near the tony restaurant Gladstone's, at a stretch of beach where public access is legally guaranteed. Every so often we get glares from the management for using the oceanfront property, despite our propensity to splurge afterward on a $2.50 coffee. When they dare to suggest that we relocate to another venue, we sic our swimming lawyer on them. It comes in very handy these days to go to the beach with a lawyer. In fact, it's almost necessary.
Needless to say, there's a longish German word for it. Rough translation: I feel your pain, and am grinning ear-to-ear.
One of the funnest things my friends and I do each year is to go to Park City, Utah during the Sundance film festival. We'll get a table overlooking Main Street, order dinner, and laugh at all the Hollywood types roaming the streets. They sure can be weird looking and their behavior is really something to behold. They all truly think they are God's gift to the world.
Just a teensy, weensy little bit? :-)
yup. he might have had to slap them silly. oh, the humanity.
How delightful...:)
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