Who Owns the Ocean
By David Weinstein
I don’t have a horse in this race, but I live up the road from Laguna, so I have an interest in what happens there. I consider its beaches and open spaces one of the great benefits and privileges of living in the area. Herein lies the problem, the closer one gets to the Ocean, the more we feel we have a vested right in its oversight. This is all regardless of actual ownership.
In the arid West there’s a saying: “Whiskey is for drinking. Water is for fighting.” I think whoever coined this phrase was probably referring to the kind of water that runs down from our mountains. But, after the general heavy-handed approach by some and, recent violations of Coastal Commission regulations in Laguna Beach, I’m not so sure that it doesn’t include all types of water, including our oceans and, for that matter, the lands that surround them. It seems the closer we live to water the more contentious we are. This may be understandable in that two-thirds of our body is made from the stuff. And how could we possibly be entirely objective about something so elemental to us?
Water seems to have an allure that seizes on us. It is mystical, enigmatic, and shapeshifting like quicksilver. It is the snow on the mountains, the clouds passing overhead, and the rushing river. Life evolved from water and perhaps we have an inherent longing to return. But more than anything, water is beauty. How else could one be seduced, as I was the other day, into spending an hour hypnotized by the sight and sound of the surf purling on the beach at the end of Thalia Street and completely forget the original errand I was sent on?
The lucky among us get to live at this interface of water and land. But with this good fortune comes responsibility and controversy. The responsibility to steward such a precious environment. The controversy over how best to steward it. An especially difficult task when the subject is not only a communal resource of great natural beauty, but a portion of it an assemblage of private property and homes.
Just our differing definition of “home” makes this a challenging task. For some, home is a refuge where we live with family and enjoy the company of friends, a repository of our memories and history. It is as much a feeling as a place, and though we may be miles and years away the mere scent of sage, and salt water in the air, laden with the dry dusty clay that covers the coastal hillsides can bring us back in an instant. But it is also an investment, something we denominate in terms of dollars, and wealth, and an outward expression of our hard work and success.
It is hard to reconcile all these aspects. So, we argue over paradise. And in our righteousness, instead of seeking common ground, we fixate on our differences, locked in a time where compromise is considered capitulation. But in all the disagreement, I sense there are common aims—to foster community, protect a fragile environment, honor heritage, and create a place where people can continue to recreate, grow and thrive socially, economically, creatively, and spiritually.
I’ve spent most of my career operating in a system governed by private property rights. It’s a system that ensures our natural resources, such as land, be put to their most productive use. However, this system is sorely limited in its capacity to fully reckon with all of our needs. There are certain things that simply cannot be measured by conventional means, and these are often the things of greatest human value.
I once heard that our arguments over property ownership and rights are a bit akin to the fleas arguing over who owns the dog. We fleas just need to remember to proceed with equanimity lest in our hubris we forget and gravely offend the host that sustains us.
David Weinstein lives in Newport Beach and is a columnist for the Independent.
