Editor,
Chris Henderson, Laguna’s and my generation’s master skimboarder, was living in Hawaii at the time and he asked a local friend which surfer has the right to the wave. The guy who gets up first? The one closest guy to the curl? Who?
Iopa Velles looked at him a second and replied, “No body.” Hende could barely hear or understand his pidgin English answer so he asked again. Iopa again said a bit more distinctly, “No body. No body out here but me.”
It is same answer I received when I asked the executive assistant to the city manager about who exactly picks up the trash on our beaches? Other than Main Beach, it’s nobody. Surprising isn’t it? It comes down to us.
I noticed a lot of trash at Crescent yesterday when I went down to take my daily blog photo of a wave somewhere in Laguna http://texvictoriaskimboards.blogspot.com/ After picking up a good 30 lbs from just the end of the beach north of the stairs, I noticed again that the trash cans have no lids. That means the city is responsible for many of pounds of trash being distributed by the gulls each day. It does go out to sea every high tide or with the offshore wind.
Everybody who lives in town should own a trash picker tool. (Google trash picker uppers for lots of choices.) It is our job to pick up the beaches because nobody else is doing it except a precious few who are pioneering the notion that picking up trash should be everybody’s business. I’d like to see a city promoted clean-it-up day every month. First Saturday of each month, join the Zero Trash group and pick up your street, top to bottom right down to the beach below it. zerotrash.org/laguna/
A broken window indicates to thieves a property is not looked after. Likewise, trash in the street perhaps indicates people who really don’t care much for their community beyond their own needs and wants. Ignorance is bliss, but grow up. Parents, teach your children well.
Meanwhile, it’s up to us.
Every business in the city should be out on the street early in the morning, (and preferably before they close in the evening before it blows all over the place), cleaning up last night’s rain of cigarettes, empty cups, napkins and straws. I keep a picker upper in the car; so many surf lookout points are lightly covered with trash, mostly butts. I would argue for more taxes on smokers.
See you at the dawn patrol.
Tex Haines, Laguna Beach
