Still Freeing the Dune!
October 21st, 2011, 9:15pm by JakeThese posts have been well migrated to the CORE blog, but thought I’d update the 8-10 regular readers of this blog. Here’s the short version, which is just the pre-meeting entry & post-meeting entry smushed together.
BEFORE
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Fellow Manhattan Beach resident & sand dune fans,
This Tuesday, October 18, the dune at Sand Dune Park will once again be on the City Council agenda. City statistics show that in the last 12 months, dune usage has fallen 80-90% and the dune has been replenished only once, which is less than half of the usage anticipated by the city. The number one reason for this are the restrictive hours that make it very difficult for working adults to exercise on the dune. The city has proposed only the minor change of adding one more reservations slot during mid-day to accommodate people on their lunch break. While we support that measure, it still does nothing to help the thousand of Manhattan Beach adults that commute to work each day. The dune is not open until 8 AM and closes at 7 PM in the summer, and 4 PM in the winter. Closing so early in the winter is unfortunate, as winter nights are perfect for exercising in Manhattan Beach. CORE’s proposal to modestly extend hours is included below.
In addition, city staff proposes spending $50,000 or more to build a permanent fence around the dune. Finally, statistics show that only 15% of dune reservations are made by city residents; CORE believes this is because spontaneous usage has been eliminated, which is how most Manhattan Beach residents enjoy the dune.
CORE Proposal
SCHEDULE
Monday-Friday , year round
7:30 – 8:30 AM
9:00 – 10:00 AM
10:30-11:30 AM
12:30 – 1:30 PM
2:00 – 3:00 PM
3:30 – 4:30 PM
5:00 – 6:00 PM
6:30 – 7:30 PM
Saturday & Sunday, year round
8:00 – 9:00 AM
9:30 – 10:30 AM
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
12:30 – 1:30 PM
2:00 – 3:00 PM
3:30 – 4:30 PM
WALK-UP RESERVATIONS
Allow walk-up use during regularly scheduled times if fewer than 15 reservations have been made.
FENCE
Defer building a permanent fence, and instead use the money to support important Parks programs such as the fixing of the Begg Pool.
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We hope you can support the CORE proposal, which modestly extends the hours to accommodate working adults, spend scarce city dollars on more beneficial projects and allow walk-up reservations on a trial basis. Please also email the City Council here. We encourage you to write your own message, or simply cut and paste the following language into an email and send it to the City Council ( CityCouncil@citymb.info ) and please cc bill@core4you.org & jake@core4you.org:
Honorable Mayor and City Council Members,
I understand that you are reviewing the management of Sand Dune Park at your Tuesday, October 18 meeting. I am writing to strongly urge you to support the CORE proposal for Sand Dune Park.
The plan addresses the major issue with the current rules at Sand Dune Park, specifically the near inability of working adults to regularly exercise on the dune or spontaneously enjoy this crown in the city’s park system. Since the dune has been used less than half as often as targeted by the city, there is ample capacity to allow more time slots. By modestly extending dune hours just 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening and allowing spontaneous midday use, this will make it much easier for working residents to enjoy the park. Allowing children & adults to play & exercise on the dune during winter evenings would be a welcome benefit as well. Adding weekend slots is another way to improve access for residents.
I am pleased that the City is once again working to manage the dune for the benefit of all city residents. I hope the City Council can develop a solution that allows more city residents such as myself to enjoy this city park
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Address]
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AFTER
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Congratulations all, because of the suggestions offered by CORE supporters and other residents following our last blog post, the City Council heard your voices & unanimously voted to expand dune hours, allow walk-up reservation with a permit & allow seniors to enjoy the dune without reservations. These changes, while modest, go well beyond what was recommended by Park staff. In addition, a group of neighbors & dune users will form a committee to explore adding more hours. Both the Daily Breeze & the Easy Reader both have stories with some more background & detail.
The near immediate benefits are the addition of the following hours:
- 12:30-1:30 Monday-Friday
- Saturday 12:30-1:30, 3:00-4:00 & 4:30-5:30
The already decided short term improvements:
- Walk-up use for seniors– it’s unclear if this is during all open hours or just during the fixed time slots.
- Walk-up use for up to 50 people that purchase or otherwise obtain a monthly pass. The cost of the permit and procedures for using it have not been announced yet.
Finally, probable medium term changes after community meetings & staff implementation:
- Addition of early time slots in the morning
- Sunday time slots
- Walk-up reservations for all, enabled by staff using wireless technology. Hey, if tech savvy folks can help staff with this & demonstrate it to staff & council, we can make this happen sooner rather than later.
- Fencing options will be determined
There were some ideas that were not supported, but with continued community support and more thoughtful emails to city council & staff, we can continue to improve dune access & achieve these long term goals:
- Extended hours in the evening
- Allowing children & adults to play & exercise on the dune after dark, as we have done for 40 years
- Have the city remove the fence
- Removing the dune divisions, opening the entire dune to all and letting young children climb w/ their parents to the top of the dune together
Look for updates on the reservations page and the city’s official page for the dune. And you can still email city council with ideas for improvements, praise for park staff or anything else.
What has been a big part of the success of the CORE campaign has been the positive engagement of so many dune users, led by the example of partner-in-crime Bill Hory. From the outset, Bill’s philosophy has been to understand the issue from all sides and work through the City Council process, even if it seemed slow at times. The benefits of this approach have not always been immediately visible, but they were on full display this week. By building a broad coalition, CORE members were able to send dozens of emails to the city on short notice, undoubtedly steering the expansion of dune access well beyond that recommended by staff. It wasn’t only CORE supporters of course. Some dune neighbors emailed and even spoke at the city council meeting encouraging staff to add more hours. It’s hard to overstate how crucial that support was. So thanks to all CORE supporters and dune neighbors that contacted City Council to advocate for expanded access.