Save Newport Real News in Newport Beach
The meeting last night with Parks, Beach, and Recreations was easily one of the most-attended meetings I’ve seen. The show of support was near-unanimous with the notable exception of Vivien Hyman, who very recently bought her home next to Dog Beach, and said while she has two dogs she doesn’t consider them real dogs, but her husband loves them(?????). This harkens back to the people who moved in front of the fire rings and then demanded that we remove the fire rings.
Anyway, other than that particular negative person and the city staff providing a completely misleading– and frankly false– staff report, the meeting was amazing. Everyone had such great stories and such great points and the meeting was filled with positivity.
After everyone was done speaking, the Parks, Beach, and Recreations Commission voted unanimously to not only advocate AGAINST pursuing a Memorandum of Understanding with the county (allowing Newport PD to enforce laws on county land– beyond their current jurisdiction), but the Commission also unanimously voted to recommend expanding Dog Beach one block over, to Olive Street, saving our police officers much-needed resources from ticketing dogs who happen to jump across the imaginary line for a few seconds.
The battle is not over yet, though, as this still needs to be officially ratified by the city council, as the Parks, Beach, and Recreations Committee is a vetting committee for the council. I am going to imagine that Council will not want this on their agenda for several weeks in hopes that our passion will collapse back into comfort– please don’t let that happen to you. We will need another strong showing to put on the final touches here and put this issue to bed once and for all. Let’s not have this drag out for literally years like the fire rings. We can knock this out in the next session as soon as they put it on the agenda. I’ll let you know when that is as soon as it is official!
There are simply too many people to thank. From the people who helped financially to the people who helped by spreading the word, passing out flyers (I don’t even know where those came from!), rallying their friends, their neighbors, talking to others at Dog Beach, being my personal delivery driver as I hopped out to give people hats on endless summer days (in February!), to those sporting those very same hats and generating buzz, to the people who helped with the legal research and behind-the-scenes activism, to those who wrote to our papers, our commissions, and our county supervisors, and everyone making the trip down to city hall, especially those who weren’t shy to speak in person, and to every single member of the Parks, Beach, and Recreations Committee– I thank you all. I am impressed, humbled and so greatly heartened by everyones support here.
This is a perfect example of how the community should react when horrible policies are presented– and a perfect response by the PB&R Committee. If all goes well the next time, we will have just one more battle to fight on this front, and we will be preserving the area that people have been using for over a century for future generations to come.
My attempts at expressing gratitude feel like they fall short. Words cannot express it properly. Thank you. I’ll keep you updated on the next meeting. If you are able to attend that one too, we will have accomplished what nobody else in history has been able to: Making Dog Beach legal and protected– forever, and in perpetuity.
… The only thing that needs to be kept on a leash here is government!
