An Unstable Bluff
In more cliched terms, what I have to talk about is a slippery slope, but in the case of this particular cliche, we're also talking about sandstone bluffs and what was once one of the last wild beaches in Southern California.
A long time ago in a galaxy far away, there was a beach in San Diego where nudity was 100% legal. Black's Beach is at the bottom of a bluff. On top of the bluff are bizillion dollar homes for the rich and not so famous. Just to the south is the Scripps Institute of Oceanography and the biggest children's beach I know of (aka La Jolla Shores).
In 1977, voters approved an ordinance banning nudity on the city owned portion of the beach (the northern chunk of Black's falls under state jurisdiction). Life went on as before with people frolicking naked along the entire stretch of Black's Beach. Technically illegal, but in practice Black's was a nude beach. From volleyball to surfing, all the in nude, or in swimsuits if you preferred.
Black's was great. No hordes of touristsfrom Iowa and Nebraska only the nudist variety. Great surfing. Community. Full moons on the beach and a steady stream of dolphins feeding offshore.
A few years back, the City of San Diego decided to start enforcing the wearing of swimsuits on their portion of the beach. I don't know all the details of why, but it probably has something to do with the bizillionaires who live in the neighborhood - and what bizillionaires want, bizillionaires get. The state continues to allow nudity on it's portion of the beach.
At first, life rolled as it has at Black's. But then things started going downhill. First hordes of freshman UCSD students started appearing on the beach in swimsuits with IPods. Then tourists from the hotels in the area started wandering around. Not nudist tourists, but tourists who pay $500 a night for a motel room and drive Mercedes tourists - the death of any cool place.
Then last year, the families started showing up with lots of small children and strollers. I'm not talking hippie families whose idea of a mini-vacation is spending the night on the beach, but people with jobs and brand new cars. People who think that their kids are more important than anything else and who completely miss the idea of a wild beach where you manage on your own and with your friends.
Then on Monday the previously unthinkable happened - the City of San Diego installed a lifeguard tower to watch, I'm assuming, over those middle class families and their children. It's not like we haven't had lifeguards on Black's for ever - we have (or at least almost forever). But the lifeguards used to come in with a camper on the back of a pickup truck, or hung out under their palm thatched shade structure they built on the cliffs. Like everything else about Black's, it was homegrown, not part of some big industry.
I feel violated - like something amazingly precious has been destroyed so people don't have to be responsible for keeping their own kids from drowning. I know the clock never turns counter clockwise, but I wish we could go back to the old Black's full of fat naked men with tiny penises and surfers sleeping on the beach so they could be up for the first light and catch those early waves with the dolphins.
In mourning.
A long time ago in a galaxy far away, there was a beach in San Diego where nudity was 100% legal. Black's Beach is at the bottom of a bluff. On top of the bluff are bizillion dollar homes for the rich and not so famous. Just to the south is the Scripps Institute of Oceanography and the biggest children's beach I know of (aka La Jolla Shores).
In 1977, voters approved an ordinance banning nudity on the city owned portion of the beach (the northern chunk of Black's falls under state jurisdiction). Life went on as before with people frolicking naked along the entire stretch of Black's Beach. Technically illegal, but in practice Black's was a nude beach. From volleyball to surfing, all the in nude, or in swimsuits if you preferred.
Black's was great. No hordes of touristsfrom Iowa and Nebraska only the nudist variety. Great surfing. Community. Full moons on the beach and a steady stream of dolphins feeding offshore.
A few years back, the City of San Diego decided to start enforcing the wearing of swimsuits on their portion of the beach. I don't know all the details of why, but it probably has something to do with the bizillionaires who live in the neighborhood - and what bizillionaires want, bizillionaires get. The state continues to allow nudity on it's portion of the beach.
At first, life rolled as it has at Black's. But then things started going downhill. First hordes of freshman UCSD students started appearing on the beach in swimsuits with IPods. Then tourists from the hotels in the area started wandering around. Not nudist tourists, but tourists who pay $500 a night for a motel room and drive Mercedes tourists - the death of any cool place.
Then last year, the families started showing up with lots of small children and strollers. I'm not talking hippie families whose idea of a mini-vacation is spending the night on the beach, but people with jobs and brand new cars. People who think that their kids are more important than anything else and who completely miss the idea of a wild beach where you manage on your own and with your friends.
Then on Monday the previously unthinkable happened - the City of San Diego installed a lifeguard tower to watch, I'm assuming, over those middle class families and their children. It's not like we haven't had lifeguards on Black's for ever - we have (or at least almost forever). But the lifeguards used to come in with a camper on the back of a pickup truck, or hung out under their palm thatched shade structure they built on the cliffs. Like everything else about Black's, it was homegrown, not part of some big industry.
I feel violated - like something amazingly precious has been destroyed so people don't have to be responsible for keeping their own kids from drowning. I know the clock never turns counter clockwise, but I wish we could go back to the old Black's full of fat naked men with tiny penises and surfers sleeping on the beach so they could be up for the first light and catch those early waves with the dolphins.
In mourning.
Labels: Daily Life, Environment
posted by Karin Zirk at
7:35 AM
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