Just Beachy

A few days ago the LA Times ran a story on Malibu residents along Broad Beach (a tiny street, even by Malibu standards lined by multi-million dollar houses on the beach) using earth moving equipment to create sand dunes by moving the sand from the beach onto their properties. Why would Malibu residents go to such nutty extremes? To impede the public's access to the beach of course. If you are hopped up on enough adderall then you probably remember that private property can only run to the mean high tide line, and the public has an easement through private property to that public portion of the beach. [The article explains precisely how the sand dunes erode public access].

The clever Malibuites think that by removing the sand, they will thereby keep the public from prancing through their property. Reading the story I can't help but have the urge to pitch a tent in someone's back (or is it the front) yard, play loud music, maybe cook up some ethnic Armenian kabobs, yada yada yada. Conversely, I don't care if I have an image of the Virgin Mary on a tree on my property, I don't want people prancing around in my property as they please. In the end, I can't say anything better than the following letter writer:

With the precedent set by the Broad Beach homeowners who moved sand from the public beach onto their property, I finally have found a free source of fill dirt for the grading in my suburban backyard. I think I'll just tool down the road in a skip loader and scoop up free dirt and sand from my neighborhood public park. I'm sure the ballplayers and other (former) park users won't mind. Hey, I need to pave my driveway too. Think anyone will miss a lane of PCH?

Phil Hof

Castaic