California’s beach debate: When should they open?
Newport Beach, others ignore Newsom’s scolding, let beachgoers return
Few things are more California than its sandy beaches. The Golden State gave us Gidget and the Beach Boys, two towns that boast of being the real “Surf City,” and declared surfing its official sport.
But the coronavirus pandemic is proving a major bummer for beachgoers, and now it’s inciting a bit of a brawl between some Southern California officials and Gov. Gavin Newsom. Newsom has been publicly scolding sunbathers and surfers who are increasingly seeking big waves and fun in the sun in defiance of social distancing measures to keep the contagion from spreading. While officials in Northern California have been mostly shutting beaches or limiting parking and activities, the Orange County city of Newport Beach — scenes of the biggest crowds last weekend — largely ignored the governor’s finger-wagging Tuesday and sided with residents to keep their beaches open.
“Obviously this is a very serious issue and we have to stay ahead of it,” Councilman Kevin Muldoon said. “But it’s no cause for panic to close our beaches, to be afraid of others especially if they
keep their distance.”
Although a recent poll found most Californians support the state’s lockdown to fight the pandemic, cooperation is fraying at the beaches in more than just Orange County. San Diego opened its beaches for activities this week, but won’t let you just lie back on the sand.
In the Bay Area, Santa Cruz County, which had reopened beaches after closing them for a week around Easter, announced Wednesday they will be closed from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. except for water-based activities such as surfing or swimming, and otherwise only open for activities such as walking or running.
The situation has been a quandary for beach access advocates like the Surfrider Foundation. The group that fought for public access to billionaire Vinod Khosla’s Martins Beach is encouraging surfers and other beach lovers to abide by local rules, limiting beach activity
or closing them in hopes it will lead to a quicker reopening.
“Extraordinary times require different thinking,” Surfrider CEO Chad Nelsen said. “Normally we want to be clear that beaches are a public resource open to everyone. But that shouldn’t take precedence over the health and safety of the public. We want to make sure as we climb out of this thing that ultimately we can get back to a place where beaches are open to the public again.”
Newsom’s first-in-thenation
March 19 statewide stay-home order allows for people to go outside for exercise and fresh air so long as they observe social-distancing guidance and keep 6 feet away from others who aren’t members of their households. So far it has largely left decisions on access to beaches — including state beaches — up to local health authorities, noting conditions are different around the state.
But after Newport Beach’s decision Tuesday, the governor said that may change. He noted in his
daily news briefing that Orange County has been a hot spot in the coronavirus outbreak, with the fourth-highest number hospitalized in the state from COVID-19. He said he has spoken with state parks and the Coastal Commission to “figure out what our next steps are.”
“I can assure you that clarity will come in a very short period of time,” Newsom said.
Those remarks came as Bay Area health officials announced a slight easing of their “shelter-in-place” order extended earlier this week through the end of May.
Santa Cruz County’s new rule allows only water activities and walking or running, and bans umbrellas, barbecues, coolers, beach chairs, shade structures, tents or other equipment.
San Mateo County, home of Martins Beach, also bans umbrellas, shade structures, tents, barbecues, grills, coolers, chairs and hammocks. It has closed parking at and around beaches. It also threatens any visitors who don’t live within 10 miles with a ticket. An earlier order required visitors
to live within five miles.
In San Francisco, parking is blocked along Ocean Beach, but the beach itself remains open with the social distancing rules.
In Newport Beach, after tens of thousands of beachgoers flocked to the shores over the weekend, city officials spent four hours Tuesday debating whether to close beaches on weekends and other measures to keep crowds thinned out. Ultimately, they decided only to step up police and lifeguard patrols to enforce beach parking restrictions and social distancing.
Correspondence to city leaders was two-to-one against closing beaches.
“Our beach is so big, that I feel people can distance themselves,” Robin Ford, who was at Newport Beach on Saturday with her husband, told the Orange County Register. “But it’s a lot more crowded today.”
The science of coronavirus risk at the beach is an open target. A recent Chinese study found that out of 318 outbreaks, 254 occurred at home, 108 in transportation and only one in an outdoor environment, suggesting
the greater risk is sharing space indoors.
Dr. George Rutherford, a UC San Francisco epidemiologist, said that may be because ultraviolet light tends to degrade viruses. But he said crowds are a problem in any setting.
“It’s all just a function of crowding,” Rutherford said. “I think it’s fine to walk on the beaches. You can’t have them packed.”
Nelsen, from the Surfrider Foundation, said the patchwork of beach policies up and down the state is frustrating, concentrating those who want to go to the beach into a few available options. He admits no one has mastered the balance of public access and crowd management, and that it’s hard telling fellow surfers to abide by restrictions when the see tasty, uncrowded waves.
“Every surfer thinks they’re the exception,” Nelsen said. “But there’s a million of them, and if one person wants the exception, that just opens the floodgates.”