Back in the seventieth century, the Oxford-trained British political philosopher and mathematician Thomas Hobbes, (1588--1679) was a witness to the blood and chaos of the English Civil War which went from 1641--46, then flared up again two years later. Hobbs was a Royalist and a former tutor to the future Charles II and didn't like what was going down at all. So he built part of his political philosophy around the concept of an ideal government taking the form of a "dreaded sovereign" to step in and ensure order and civilization. He saw the need for an overbearing government to be a "leviathan" (the title of his 1651 book) to keep mankind from falling into a "state of nature"--he coined the term. Otherwise, life would be "nasty, brutish and short" for people.
Well, there are no new Hobbesian "Leviathans" to be seen near the California Coast these days. A extract from AP reporter Noaki Schwartz will explain why:
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While California's Coastal Act of 1976 ensures beach access, the rich and famous who want to keep the state's dramatic coast exclusive have been posting bogus "no parking" and "private beach" signs here and elsewhere.
They've done it so effectively in Malibu for so long that unfortunate beachgoers occasionally get ticketed.
"It doesn't sound like a big deal to put in a sign or two," said Linda Locklin, of the California Coastal Commission. "But pretty soon if you have all the public access ways with signs or gates, it's a huge problem."
The promise of safe passage to the sea is just one front the commission concedes it's losing amid budget constraints.
Development projects the agency must review are put on hold, communities are left without an updated blueprint for regulating growth along their shore, and the state can't process paperwork to accept offers of free land.
Since 1980, while inflation has increased 160 percent, the commission's total funding has risen only 9 percent -- from $13.5 million to $16.3 million. At times it has been cut nearly in half.
The commission's full-time staff has been slashed from 200 in 1980 to 138 today; only 11 enforcement officers investigate violations along the 1,100-mile coastline.
"We haven't had an officer north of San Francisco since 2001," said Lisa Haage, the agency's chief of enforcement. "It's a full day drive and then we can't pay for a hotel."
With so few watching, residents have built illegal homes on wetlands near the Oregon line and developers have graded over coastal sage scrub in the Santa Monica Mountains. They were eventually caught and are in the process of being punished, but the damage was done.
Officers can only resolve about a dozen complaints a year, leaving hundreds of other cases languishing -- from complaints about neighbors constructing fences without permits to a developer not building a promised public walkway.
"We do the best we can but things fall through the cracks," said Peter Douglas, the commission's longtime director. "It's been an extremely frustrating experience."
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Frustrating indeed.Landowners and other interested parties have the right to seek changes in the law or redress in regulations from the legislature. That's why he have elections and politicians are disposable. What property owners (such as farmers who actually have buried dead cows on public beaches ) DON'T have is the right to flout a thirty-year old law and do what they damn well please. This applies to folks who try to subvert any law against the public will, no matter if they hold property or are panhandlers who get in people's faces for money. Laws have to have an enforcement component to curb misinformation and intimidation. Cross that line unlawfully at your peril, be ye rich or poor or somewheres in-between.
But it seems that if a law isn't capable of being properly enforced, it ceases to be a law. Too bad. We may not need a full scale "Leviathan" to guard lawful public access to California's beautiful shorelines. But maybe a watchful--and reasonably-funded--barracuda of a government agency wouldn't hurt.
Here's the whole article:
http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070608/LIFE/706080317
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