FUTURE OF COASTAL BEACH ACCESS MUST BE INCLUSIVE
Recent social movements have renewed attention to racial injustice across the U.S. Even in San Diego, a heritage of inequality underlies our most treasured resource: our beaches. Although San Diego’s 70 miles of coastline belong to the public, beach access (particularly for inland-dwelling communities of color) remains hamstrung by a history of housing discrimination, the legacy of which is upheld today by local planning decisions, which are dominated by a vocal minority of coastal homeowners.
To understand how public beach access is an issue of racial inequity, we must first examine why the demographics of San Diego’s coastal neighborhoods are primarily White. After the displacement of San Diego’s original inhabitants, the Kumeyaay, a history of discrimination persisted. Between the 1930s and 1960s, federal agencies implemented the practice of “redlining,” which labeled minority communities as high risk for mortgage loans. Unable to secure funding, minority communities were prevented from establishing personal wealth through homeownership. Moreover, coastal property deeds often featured racially restrictive covenants that denied communities of color fair opportunities to live along the coast. For example, a 1938 deed from present-day Solana Beach states: “Said property shall never be sold, conveyed, transferred, devised, leased to or inherited by, or be otherwise acquired by and become the property of any persons other than of the white or Caucasian race.” Such legalized tactics for housing discrimination, coupled with increasing wealth disparities and policy-based segregation laws, shaped the majority White demographic of modern San Diego coastal communities.
Today, discrimination endures discreetly through legislation like Proposition 13, a tax shelter that rewards legacy homeowners and their descendants with tax rates established in 1976. By ensuring affordability for those who inherit property and removing incentives to sell, inequality is perpetuated across generations. When reviewed collectively, it becomes clear that minorities were systematically denied fair access to public beaches, much less home ownership, near the coast.
Given this context, it is necessary that historically disenfranchised communities have a seat at the table when determining the future of coastal access. Important discussions are happening now as coastal cities update their Local Coastal Programs, planning documents that describe governmental actions to prepare for localized threats of climate change and rising sea levels.
Coastal access for the beachgoing public, especially communities of color, is now at a critical juncture. So far, the most prominent voices in coastal planning meetings belong to wealthy White homeowners of beachfront properties. In these meetings, laws like Proposition 13 unfortunately serve as the foundation of the coastal homeowners’ rallying cry. In essence, homeowners feel entitled to protect their inherited assets without regard to the fact that such properties are gifts of a prejudiced system. Armed with privately funded geology reports, coastal homeowners intensively lobby to build seawalls that narrow beaches in favor of protecting their million-dollar properties or for redevelopment rights that erode public access. The consequences of these planning decisions cannot be overstated — the public stands to lose access to the coast and witness the inevitable drowning of our sandy beaches. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that two-thirds of Southern California’s beaches could be underwater by the end of the century. Poor coastal planning will accelerate this loss.
As the California Coastal Commission requires cities to update their Local Coastal Programs, cities must consider San Diego’s historical inequities when making land-use decisions. Local governments must not cater to the interests of a privileged few. Instead, governments must commit to providing equitable beach access for all.
In San Diego, beaches are our greatest public resource — so important and cherished that California voters designated beaches as protected resources under the Coastal Act. As we face changes brought about by nature and time, we must be thoughtful in planning how we will protect beaches for everyone. Only then can San Diego begin to rectify its history of injustice.