"If everybody had an ocean / Across the U.S.A. / Then everybody'd be surfin' / Like Californ-i-a." The Beach Boys.

Beach access is a hot button issue for surfers, social justice advocates, mainstream environmentalists - and property owners who want to privatize public beaches.

It was a condition of California joining the Union that beaches remain public. Nine in ten Californians say the quality of the beach and ocean is just as important to them personally, as for the quality of life and economy of the state. (PPIC survey)

The California Coastal Commission recently approved efforts by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy to improve access to beaches, trails, and camping in Malibu. The City of Malibu and residents have responded with lawsuits. This is the latest chapter in a decades long struggle for the right to reach the beach.

The name "Malibu" is derived from the Native American Chumash word "Humaliwo: where the surf sounds loudly."

A Malibu resident demands that city officials vote against public access: "[A]s God is my witness, I will recall every single person I can that votes the wrong way . . . . [Malibu] looks like the most hellacious city I've ever seen in my life. You've told me . . . that you were going to clean up this, this illegal slave operation we have out in front of, of the city hall. We don't even know if they're illegal or not. We don't know who could have been starting fires anywhere." Malibu residents applauded this acerbic message, but tried to drown out advocates who spoke up for public access for all. Malibu Surf Side News

Frederick Rindge bought the Topanga Malibu Sequit, a 13,316 acre rancho, for $300,000 in 1892. His widow May spent 25 years to keep the state from building what became the Pacific Coast Highway through the land. By the 1930s, May began selling beachfront lots to movie stars and others to pay her taxes. The parcels carried racial restrictions prohibiting people of color from using the beach, like this one:

[S]aid land . . . shall not be used or occupied . . . by any person not of the white or Caucasian race, except such persons . . . as are engaged . . . in the . . . domestic employment of the owner . . . and said employee shall not be permitted upon the beach . . . for bathing, fishing or recreational purposes.

Reflecting this history, today Malibu is 89% non-Hispanic white, 6% Hispanic, 3% Asian or Pacific Islander, 1% Black, and 0.2% Native American. Nearly 25% of households have an annual income over $200,000. Los Angeles County is only 31% non-Hispanic white. Only 4% of households have an annual income of $200,000 or more. Malibu has 237.85 acres of parks per thousand residents, compared to .25 acres in Maywood, .66 acres in East L.A., .67 in Lynwood, and .78 in Compton. Those are not typos; the disparities really are that dramatic.

The classic 1930 Olmsted report "Parks, Beaches and Playgrounds for the Los Angeles Region" called for public control of the ocean shore and the doubling of public beach frontage.

In the 1930s, the City of Manhattan Beach drove out Bruces' Beach, the only beach resort for African-Americans in Los Angeles County. Today a park commemorates the legacy of Bruces' Beach.

Martin Luther King, Jr., led "wade ins" to integrate public beaches in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1964. Civil rights activists worried that it would take all summer to achieve equal access to public beaches. In fact, the struggle goes on almost 50 years later.

In 2008, a diverse alliance saved the sacred Native American site of Panhe and San Onofre State Beaches. More than 3,000 surfers, Native Americans, politicians, bird-lovers, and abuelitas from East L.A. came together to stop a proposed toll road that would have devastated both. That's what it takes: to realize you can't do it alone, according to Surfing Magazine and Surfshot Magazine.

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.

The article by Robert García and Erica Flores Altodano, "Free the Beach! Public Access, Equal Justice, and the California Coast," in the Stanford Journal of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties is available here.

George Melendez Wright

National Parks: Episode 5

Thursday, October 1, 2009
8:00 PM and 1:00 AM

Synopsis

To battle unemployment in the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt creates the Civilian Conservation Corps, which spawns a "golden age" for the parks through major renovation projects. In a groundbreaking study, a young NPS biologist named George Melendez Wright discovers widespread abuses of animal habitats and pushes the service to reform its wildlife policies. Congress narrowly passes a bill to protect the Everglades in Florida as a national park - the first time a park has been created solely to preserve an ecosystem, as opposed to scenic beauty. As America becomes entrenched in World War II, Roosevelt is pressured to open the parks to mining, grazing and lumbering. The president also is subjected to a storm of criticism for expanding the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming by accepting a gift of land secretly purchased by John D. Rockefeller Jr.

Episode 5 of Ken Burns' series tells the story of the national parks during the period of the Great Depression and World War II. These outside conditions had a great effect on how the public and the government came to see the parks. Albright and Roosevelt saw the transition from an era of park expansion and preservation to an era of appraising resources and redefining the purpose of the park service.

In previous years park lands were nationalized because they were beautiful and could attract tourists who would be willing to travel for the pleasure of seeing something new. This new era brought about the transfer of historical sites and monuments to the care of the park service. The idea of the parks was expanding.

George Melendez Wright took the park system to the next step. He was the first to recognize and advocate for the value of preserving park wildlife. Up until this point the focus had been on promoting tourism so that there would be a reason for the government to financially support the parks' maintenance and protection. That meant wildlife was put on display if it was benign or hunted if it was dangerous. The ecosystems of the parks were becoming unbalanced.

Wright's Wildlife Survey showed the changes to the ecosystem. It resulted in Albright's creation of a new wildlife division in 1933. The Everglades were the first national park to be created in the name of preserving the indigenous plants and animals from extinction.

Other changes that came about were the development of the parks by the newly founded Civilian Conservation Corps. The Great Depression left many out of work. As part of his solution to the vast unemployment Franklin Delano Roosevelt created the corps to put young men to work further building and maintaining park spaces.

The advent of World War II meant yet another phase of battling over the usefulness of park resources vs. the value of the parks as open environments. Despite the efforts of Harold Ikes and Ansel Adams, the parks became a part of the war effort as training grounds for the troops.

Visit the website: http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks RELATED LINKS:

Visit the National Parks site to read more about Episode 5
Ansel Adams Gallery
Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park
George Wright Society
National Park Service History
]]> tag:kcet.org,2009:/socal_parks_blog//57.1951 2009-09-30T20:17:59Z 2009-10-02T17:37:34Z

Grand Teton National Park which was preserved by Albright and Rockefeller.

National Parks: Episode 4

Wednesday, September 30, 2009
8:00 PM and 1:00 AM

Synopsis

While visiting the parks was once predominantly the domain of Americans wealthy enough to afford the high-priced train tours, the advent of the automobile allows more people than ever before to visit the parks. Mather embraces this opportunity and works to build more roads in the parks. Some park enthusiasts, such as Margaret and Edward Gehrke of Nebraska, begin "collecting" parks, making a point to visit as many as they can. In North Carolina, Horace Kephart, a reclusive writer, and George Masa, a Japanese immigrant, launch a campaign to protect the last strands of virgin forest in the Smoky Mountains by establishing it as a park. In Wyoming, John D. Rockefeller Jr. begins quietly buying up land in the Teton Mountain Range and valley in a secret plan to donate it to the government as a park.

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This fourth episode of Ken Burns' The National Parks covers the expansion of visitors to the national parks with the advent of the automobile. In their efforts to bring in visitors, park proponents embraced the automobile and worked to build an infrastructure that would support family road trips through the national parks.

Stephen Mather, the first superintendent of the national parks, wanted the parks to be for everybody. He was willing to try all sorts of publicity stunts and built attractions in order to bring more tourists. As a part of his efforts he joined with automobile clubs, good-roads associations, local governments and car manufacturers to lobby for the creation of a highway that would connect all of the western parks. Just like the railroads, the automobile industry would benefit greatly from the promotion of national parks tourism and the infrastructure it required. The towns along the highways would also benefit from the vacationing tourists.

Another part of the necessary infrastructure for a public park system was some organization of qualified caretakers for the parks. Mather was keen that the individuals in charge of the parks would be qualified to take care of their treasures. He also saw a need to take care of the visiting public. The end result was a system of Park Rangers who could manage the public politely and educate them about their surroundings, monitor the land and maintain public areas, and be physically and mentally fit enough to withstand the environment.

Yearly visitation to the national parks reached 3 million in 1928. The parks were now "democratized" but they were also becoming more manicured and less pristine as the roads and park services catered to passing motorists.

Visit the website: http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks RELATED LINKS:

Visit the National Parks site to read more about Episode 4
AAA - Travel by Car
Grand Teton National Park
Becoming a Park Ranger
Sierra Club
]]> tag:kcet.org,2009:/socal_parks_blog//57.1942 2009-09-29T20:37:55Z 2009-10-02T17:38:15Z

Glacier National Park National Parks: Episode 3 Tuesday, September 29, 2009 8:00 PM and 1:00 AM Synopsis In the early 20th century, America has a dozen national parks, but they are a haphazard patchwork of special places under the...

Gwynn Perry http://kcet.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=57&id=65

Glacier National Park

National Parks: Episode 3

Tuesday, September 29, 2009
8:00 PM and 1:00 AM

Synopsis

In the early 20th century, America has a dozen national parks, but they are a haphazard patchwork of special places under the supervision of different federal agencies. The conservation movement, after failing to stop the Hetch Hetchy dam, pushes the government to establish one unified agency to oversee all the parks, leading to the establishment of the National Park Service in 1916. Its first director, Stephen Mather, a wealthy businessman and passionate park advocate who fought vigorously to establish the NPS, launches an energetic campaign to expand the national park system and bring more visitors to the parks. Among his efforts is to protect the Grand Canyon from encroaching commercial interests and establish it as a national park, rather than a national monument.

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50 years after the first national park was conceived there were still no solid guidelines or laws to protect the parks. Episode 3 of Ken Burns' series introduces self-made millionaire Stephen Mather as the new champion of the parks. He and a cast of unlikely characters, including railroad barons, adventurers and some of the nation's wealthiest men followed in the footsteps of their predecessors as they once again addressed the issues of parks as both public and protected spaces.

Personal wealth and a gift for publicity were key qualities that Mather brought to the table. He also saw that one way to build political support for protecting the parks was to make the parks popular. He hired writers and supplemented his staff's salaries out of his own pocket. He purchased roads and parcels of land and donated them to the parks. He also traveled around the nation, visiting the parks and personally assessing what needed to be done.

As part of the campaign for the parks, Mather invited a group of fifteen influential Americans to join him for a two week visit to the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. This was a luxury expedition with catering and air mattresses, all paid for by Mather himself.

Another part of publicizing the parks was taken up by the railroads. They had been involved in creating the parks from the beginning because of the tourist trade. The "See America First" campaign was aimed at redirecting travelers who usually visited Europe to instead see "America's Switzerland." The launch of World War I in 1914 also helped persuade people to stay closer to home.

Mather succeeded in establishing a single governing entity for the National Parks, The National Park Service. He and his allies also succeeded in creating many more national parks across the country, but they still hadn't secured funding to protect the parks.

Visit the website: http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks RELATED LINKS:

Visit the National Parks site to read more about Episode 3
Stephen Mather
The Grand Canyon
Wikipedia: Stephen Mather
Sierra Nevada Photos
The Mather Mountain Party
]]> tag:kcet.org,2009:/socal_parks_blog//57.1939 2009-09-28T22:33:37Z 2009-10-02T19:30:39Z

By the end of the 19th century, many Americans worried whether the country - once a vast wilderness - would have any pristine land left.

Gwynn Perry http://kcet.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=57&id=65

Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir

National Parks: Episode 2

Monday, September 28, 2009
8:00 PM and 1:00 AM

Synopsis

By the end of the 19th century, widespread industrialization has left many Americans worried about whether the country - once a vast wilderness - will have any pristine land left. At the same time, poachers in the parks are rampant, and visitors think nothing of littering or carving their names near iconic sites like Old Faithful. Congress has yet to establish clear judicial authority or appropriations for the protection of the parks. This sparks a conservation movement by organizations such as the Sierra Club, led by John Muir; the Audubon Society, led by George Bird Grinnell; and the Boone and Crockett Club, led by Theodore Roosevelt. The movement fails, however, to stop San Francisco from building the Hetch Hetchy dam at Yosemite, flooding Muir's "mountain temple" and leaving him broken-hearted before he dies.

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The second of Ken Burns' National Parks series continues the story of how the national parks were protected and maintained. Five more parks, plus game refuges, monuments and bird sanctuaries were established during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. All of them would need protection. At the start of his term, though, there were still no rules governing behavior or proper use of the parks. Livestock continued to graze there, trees were cut, and rocks were carved with the names of visiting tourists.

Though cavalry troops were sent to protect Yellowstone, General Grant, Sequoia and Yosemite, they had no clear legal authority to arrest and prosectute criminals. There were also no clear guidelines about what would consititute criminal behavior in these areas to begin with. Still, the cavalry built protective fences and made trails under the direction of Captain Charles Young, the first black man to be put in charge of a national park.

Citizen groups also mobilized to protect the parks. John Muir, who had played a part in creating Yosemite, founded the Sierra Club in California in 1892. George Bird Grinnell used his magazine "Forest and Stream" to promote responsible management of wildlife and hunting in the parks. The Audubon Society tried to persuade women to stop buying feathered hats.

Roosevelt was by far the most effective conservationist. Along with protecting the wildlife and the land he also created Mesa Verde National Park, the first park created to protect cultural artifacts. This was followed by the "Act for Preservation of American Antiquities."

The debate raged over whether these lands were to be kept for people's use or preserved as pristine areas of wilderness. John Muir stood for preservation of the land and fought for years against the creation of a dam in Hetch Hetchy Valley, only to have it build four years after his death.

Visit the website: http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks RELATED LINKS:

Visit the National Parks site to read more about Episode 2
Muir and the Petrified Forest
Hetch Hetchy.org
Wikipedia: Hetch Hetchy Valley
Sierra Club
]]> tag:kcet.org,2009:/socal_parks_blog//57.1919 2009-09-25T18:07:30Z 2009-10-02T19:32:02Z

In 1851, word spreads across the country of a Garden of Eden - California's Yosemite Valley.

Gwynn Perry http://kcet.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=57&id=65

National Parks: Episode 1

Sunday, September 27, 2009
1: 00, 8:00, 10:00 PM, and 1:00 AM

Synopsis

In 1851, word spreads across the country of a beautiful area of California's Yosemite Valley, attracting visitors who wish to exploit the land's scenery for commercial gain and those who wish to keep it pristine. Among the latter is a Scottish-born wanderer named John Muir, for whom protecting the land becomes a spiritual calling. In 1864, Congress passes an act that protects Yosemite from commercial development for "public use, resort and recreation" - the first time in world history that any government has put forth this idea - and hands control of the land to California. Meanwhile, a "wonderland" in the northwest corner of the Wyoming territory attracts visitors to its bizarre landscape of geysers, mud pots and sulfur pits. In 1872, Congress passes an act to protect this land as well. Since it is located in a territory, rather than a state, it becomes America's first national park: Yellowstone.

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The first of Ken Burns' National Parks series tells us the history of Yellowstone and Yosemite. Signed into existency in 1872 by President Ulysses S. Grant, Yellowstone became the first National Park in the world. At 50 times the size of Yosemite, Yellowstone was a huge area to contemplate managing or protecting. Yosemite itself was designated a state protected area a few years earlier, during the civil war, and it was mainly being managed by the tourist industry.

Burns' series really brings out how commercial interests, the cavalry, eloquent individuals and public opinion all played their part in driving the preservation, development, exploitation, and exploration of the parks long AFTER they were designated as something that should be protected. Private interests, industry and the national parks seem to have sustained each other in a contested relationship from the start.

While Yosemite and Yellowstone were both championed as something to be preserved for "posterity" and protected from development the first individuals to manage these parks represented and brought in commercial interests to the parks, not rangers. It was years before the U.S. Cavalry was brought in to watch over and maintain Yellowstone National Park.

Originally a state park, Yosemite became a focus and catalyst for a public movement that would ultimately create two additional National Parks (Sequoia and General Grant National Parks). This movement was spurred onward by John Muir and eventually picked up by Theodore Roosevelt.

Thus began the evolution of the laws and practices which reflect our current thinking and values about national parks; protect them as public spaces and protect their resources as national treasures which need to be managed, not spent.

This documentary comes at an interesting time, when we are as a nation wrapped in many discussions about national health, the stability of our economy, our own personal and collective stress levels, the prices of fuel and also the closure of our California State Parks.

Visit the website: http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks RELATED LINKS:

Visit the National Parks site to read more about Episode 1
Fort Yellowstone Historic District
History of Yellowstone
Yellowstone Historic Center
Yellowstone Historic Preservation Board
]]> tag:kcet.org,2009:/socal_parks_blog//57.1908 2009-09-24T18:21:57Z 2009-10-08T20:35:56Z

The proposed cuts are ill-conceived, poorly planned, illegal, and hurt all the people of California, says Robert Garcia.

Robert Garcia http://kcet.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=57&id=128

Caption: What will happen to the Roosevelt Elk at Sinkyone State Park in the Lost Cost Wilderness if the park is closed?

Robert Garcia is Founder and Executive Director of The City Project, a Southern California based non-profit that "focuses on parks and recreation, playgrounds, schools, health, and transit" in order to "enhance human health and the environment, and promote economic vitality for all communities." Over the next few weeks, he'll be sharing his thoughts about the region's national, state and local parks..

This summer the National Park Service waived entrance fees to encourage people to use national parks during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. That's a smart thing to do to.

At the same time, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state legislature plan to close up to 100 state parks or more, lay off park employees, and cut the budget for the California Department of Parks and Recreation. They say these reductions would save money, but it will cost far more to close state parks than the state would save.

The state park reductions total $50.4 million -- $40.4 million this year, and $13 million already planned for next. But according to a study by Cal State Sacramento, 75 million visitors spend an average of $4.32 billion per year in state park related expenditures. State parks would lose their share, and surrounding communities would lose even more from lost jobs, business activity and tax revenues.

]]> So who would come out ahead with the planned reductions? No one. Closing state parks just don't make economic sense. The cuts are ill-conceived, poorly planned, illegal, and hurt all the people of California.

Who says so? The National Park Service (NPS), state parks officials themselves, and equal justice advocates including my organization, The City Project.

NPS told the governor in June that state park closures would violate the contracts the state signed to receive $286 million in federal funds for 67 parks under the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and could jeopardize hundreds of millions more in future funds. The land for another six state parks could also revert to the federal government. (Read the NY Times article.)

Caption: The Acjachemen Sacred Site of Panhe is in San Onofre State Park

Caption: Anahuak Youth Sports Associaton at Rio de Los Angeles State Park, a best practice example for a balanced urban park.

Caption: Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park commemorates the Colonel and the only California town to be founded, financed and governed by African Americans.

Months after the plan to close state parks was announced, the department's lawyers finally got around to analyzing the law earlier this month in a memo that was promptly leaked and posted on the Internet. (Read the Mercury News Article on the memo.)

The memo outlines about eight reasons why closing state parks would raise serious problems under contract, property and environmental laws. The memo even suggests that the department itself should go to court to ask a judge what to do. The memo also suggests that the department hire its own lawyers because the attorney general might try to keep public beaches open for all. By the way, how much money does the department have to hire outside counsel for this?

The memo does not analyze laws that protect Native American Sacred Sites in state parks, or equal justice laws and principles that require equal access to public resources including state parks. The department is simply ignoring these Environmental Justice issues. The City Project is working on that too through an administrative complaint filed with the federal government.

Mainstream environmentalists are working on a November 2010 ballot measure that would require a $15 fee per vehicle to generate $400 million dedicated to state parks. That could work. But we should not trust the department with that kind of money, unless it first has a strategic plan to improve parks and recreation for all.

The working poor with limited or no access to state parks need to get their fair share of the benefits of a regressive tax to fund state parks - for example, through park funds earmarked for park poor and income poor communities; local green jobs in parks to keep students in school and out of the regular job market while learning life-long lessons in stewardship of the earth and its people; and Transit to Trails to reach state parks.

In the 1920s, California became the first state in the nation to have a strategic plan for state parks, a plan drafted by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. It is time once again to develop a vision and for state parks that will maximize public access to and support for the parks while ensuring the fair treatment of people of all races, cultures, and incomes.

Aside from the dollars and sense and the law, keeping state parks open creates many benefits. These include the simple joys of playing in the park; the health benefits of places for physical activity to fight obesity; positive alternatives to gangs, crime, drugs and violence; and conservation values of clean air, water, land, and habitat protection, and climate justice.

According to a spokesman for the parks department, closing state parks is more complicated than they thought. Duh.

RELATED LINKS:

ABC News on Parks Closures
Leaked Memo
What parks will be closed?
What does it mean to "close the parks"?
National Parks Service Threatens Takeover
Visitor Spending at State Parks
The Health Benefits of Parks

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Wallace Stegner, the Stanford writer and historian, famously wrote national parks were "the best idea we ever had." "Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst." National parks continue to diversify what it means to be American and democratic.

This month, the documentary "National Parks: Americas Best Idea," by Ken Burns premiers on PBS and KCET. Hopefully the series will diversify access to and support for parks as more people watch and visit parks.

Yosemite was the first national park in California. Ironically, L. H. Bunnell in 1851 named the valley in honor of the tribe captured and driven from their homes by his battalion. Yosemite is derived from the name Sierra Miwok gave to the feared Native American tribe in the valley -- "those who kill." The name is American, but not democratic.

New Deal programs created and improved 8,000 parks. Visits to national parks increased 600% from 3.5 million people in 1933, to 21 million by 1941. The rise in visitors was due to new trails, campgrounds, roads and other projects by the Civilian Conservation Corps, which provided jobs and hope to unemployed youth. These are valuable lessons for getting the nation back to work and into parks today, in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Today numbering close to 400, national parks include places that commemorate the history of diverse Americans. The mission statement for the Japanese American relocation center at Manzanar, for example, provides a best practice example for cultural and historic monuments: "Manzanar National Historic Site preserves the stories and resources of Manzanar for this and future generations. We will facilitate a park experience that weaves the stories of the various occupations of Manzanar faithfully, completely, and accurately. Manzanzar Historic Site will provide leadership for the protection and interpretation of associated sites. From this foundation, the park will stimulate and provoke a greater understanding of, and dialogue on, civil rights, democracy, and freedom."

The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area is one of the largest urban parks in the nation. The area is within an hour's drive of much of Los Angeles, but many inner city children have never been there. Parents often work two or more jobs, and do not have access to cars.

Transit to Trails takes inner city children on fun mountain, beach and river trips to enrich their education about water, land, wildlife, and cultural history, and the importance of physical activity and healthy eating for life-long health. Transit to Trails is a successful project by the NPS, Mountains Recreation Conservation Authority, The City Project, Anahuak Youth Sports Association, and others.

Born in Guatemala, I came to the United States at the age of four and grew up near downtown Los Angeles. I went to Immaculate Conception School, which has no grass or playing fields. We called MacArthur Park, our local park, "el parque de los viejitos" - the old folks' park -- because there were so many old folks and no place for children to play. The first time I saw a national park was in the sixth grade, when my family went on a camping trip to Sequoia Kings Canyon, Yosemite, and Lake Tahoe. As a freshman at Stanford I started backpacking and went back for the first time. I have been going to national parks ever since.