Posted: December 4th, 2007

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Los Angeles beaches in 2005 are shown in Map 103. Not all beaches have public access, accurate public beach data is not available, and private property owners are trying to cut off public access to public beaches.

Keeping public beaches public for all is a challenge up and down the California coast, and around the country. Private property owners in Malibu are trying to cut off public access to the beach. A toll road threatens San Onofre State Beach and the sacred Native American site of Panhe.

Nine in ten Californians say the quality of the beach and ocean is just as important to them personally as for the overall quality of life and economy in the state, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. Residents say the condition of the coast is very important (61%) or somewhat important (30%) on a personal level, very important (70%) or somewhat important (24%) to the state’s quality of life, and very important (63%) or somewhat important (30%) to the economy. Majorities agree across regions and political parties.

While 80% of the 34 million people of California live within an hour of the coast, low-income communities of color are disproportionately denied the benefit of beach access. Rio de Janeiro, like Los Angeles, is marked by some of the greatest disparities between wealth and poverty in the world. Yet Rio’s famous beaches are open to all, rich and poor, black and white. The beach in Rio is the great equalizer. California’s world famous beaches must also remain public for all, not the exclusive province of the rich and famous.

Beaches are among California’s most valuable public assets. California has the largest ocean economy in the nation, a large portion revolving around the state’s beaches. Ocean-related activities in California produced a gross state product (GSP) of $42.9 billion and provided almost 700,000 jobs and more than $11.4 billion in wages and salaries in 2000.

Learn more about the Free the Beach! campaign.

The Olmsted report called for the doubling of public beach frontage: “Public control of the ocean shore, especially where there are broad and satisfactory beaches, is one of the prime needs of the Region, chiefly for the use of throngs of people coming from inlands. . . . [T]he public holdings should be very materially increased.”

Get the The City Project’s Policy Report Healthy Parks, Schools, and Communities: Mapping Green Access and Equity for the Los Angeles Region.