Save Newport Real News in Newport Beach
Boy have we all been through it. What should have been a simple process of legalizing Dog Beach became a year-long battle with city, county, state, and federal governments.
We have had to document the cleanliness of the area:
– Surprisingly, it’s just as clean as any other beach in the surrounding areas.
We have had to document the safety of the area:
– Rupert the dog’s death in the storm drain was a questionmark to some– but that was on an adjacent property, and happened only under freak circumstances where an entire storm drain grate went missing and a high flood occurred. The storm drain grate has been replaced and proper signage will be approved once we get the Dog Beach to become official.
We have had to spend taxpayer dollars to literally prove to the federal endangered species groups that if we legalize a dog beach where a dog beach is already operating, that dogs won’t behave differently and begin eating endangered birds:
– Yes: We seriously had to prove that dogs won’t behave differently because we change our laws. Your tax dollars at work, folks.
We were previously going to have a vote on October 25th, but due to some last-minute changes, the date was moved to early December. The final vote on this will occur just before Christmas, on December 20th.
There’s a catch, though! Instead of legalizing an off-leash dog beach year-round, they are legalizing it only through the non-summer months. In the summertime, you will legally have to have a leash on your dog. But I think we can expect the on-leash enforcement to be just as vigorous as the no-dog enforcement. So what does this whole thing really give us? It gives us the codification needed to bring dogs from Newport to County land and back (there is a technical divide there, roughly along the lines of the jetty). This means that Newport cannot deny access to Dog Beach regardless of beach hours, and must honor the prescriptive easement already in place (this is what The City of Newport Beach was attempting to revoke through the use of police forces in the area, ticketing people with dogs).
So how did we wind up in a year-long legal battle having to defeat literally all levels of government to legalize what has already been there for an entire century? Well, according to a Public Document Request Act that I issued, it was due to one person who emailed complaining about the dog beach. Your voice and your vote makes a huge difference. Please share this and tell your friends as well. I’ve been fighting to preserve Newport Beach for many years, on my own time and on my own time. It’s time to stop these and many other problems– right at their source. I ask for your vote for Newport Beach City Council on Tuesday, November 8th, and I will keep you updated on the Dog Beach meeting dates as the dates move closer. Thank you all so much for your support and activism. Without your help, I am just a lone voice, but with you, we can collectively make quite the difference.
