» Have a special treat for you today. Brought along my camera this week to grab some WINTER photos of Corona del Mar (« part of Newport Beach) .. to complement the SUMMER shots I posted last July (.. which've started to become popular with search engines).
By pure chance there happens to be an interesting conflict (.. as of Wednesday, the 14th of March) .. regarding the FIRE-RINGS (which I've always referred to as fire-pits).
Anyway, the City Council voted (unanimously!) to have them REMOVED. And here I come with my camera.
The officially floated claim is that the SMOKE from the fires presents a HEALTH HAZARD.
But the people with whom I spoke while strolling along the bluff .. both young & old (.. "Hey, are those the FIRE-PITS down there that the city wants to remove?" ) ..
.. all say the real reason, they feel .. is due to (as one lady put it) » "the element" .. that comes to the beach at night. One guy came right out and said the word » "Mexicans". But the City Council cant very well come out and say » "We dont want Mexicans coming to our ritzy neighborhood at night."
Contrasting "the Element" with the Beauty
Now, there is certainly a RICH landscape of issues & implications we could discuss here. I hardly know where to begin. First thing, I guess, should be to drop a link to the PHOTOS .. so you know what & where I'm talking about.
But first let me ask .. does this "decision" not seem SYMBOLIC .. of our nation's current turmoil .. in which the Have-Nots continue to get their asses kicked? You know it does (.. which is why you're still reading).
The really sad thing here .. is that the people who MOST enjoy the beach at night in summer .. are the kids. And when the economy is sukking (for working-class parents), the beach offers low-cost recreation for the entire family.
••• today's entry continues here below •••
I took these photos on Thursday, the 15th (.. yeah, the Ides of March). This is certainly one of the most BEAUTIFUL & picturesque beaches you're likely to find .. anywhere. And the implication here is that "the element" is UGLY (.. which makes for a remarkably stark contrast).
The unspoken sentiment seems to be » "We want to live with these gorgeous views of public beaches; but we just dont want the public." Am I saying anything that everybody is not already thinking? (The people most affected by the "smoke" would naturally be those whose homes sit closest to the beach, no?)
I'm sure the City Council would prefer to do this thing quietly as possible .. but here's the 7 photos .. all encoded with a generous allowance of kilobytes (.. maybe too generous for you iPhone surfers) ~150 each.
Links to the Previous/Next photo can be found at the bottom of each page. Here's the first one » Access to Main Beach ("Big Corona"), Corona del Mar, Newport Beach
[ It was a cloudy day, but pictures come out good when the skies are overcast .. cuz the bright sunlight tends to wash out colors. These photos should give you a flavor for not only the beach, but also the surrounding neighborhood. ]
Let me just start by saying .. that some of the fondest memories I have from my time here in California (.. I grew up on the East coast, in Connecticut) .. came from sitting around a smoky fire-ring at night down on a beach somewhere.
Maybe it's the positive ions (.. as the Lagunatics like to say). I dunno. But everybody at the beach at night always seems to be in a GREAT mood .. sitting around a fire .. talking about profound nonsense.
What's the right thing to do? If you look at my SUMMER photos, you can see some of the "the element" that comes to the beach at "Big Corona" during the DAY. [ Must admit, I myself have never had any elements give me any trouble. On the contrary, they always seem warm and friendly. ]
Smoky Memories
And everybody knows how many families have warm memories of their nights on the beach during the summer, huddled around a blazing fire .. with their kids and their sweethearts and their friends and their kids' friends.
So I'm surprised the vote was unanimous and came "without debate" (.. as tho their minds had already been made up for them). I mean, it's not like they want to remove SOME of the fire-rings, and leave 3 or 4. No, sir. They want them ALL gone. Every last one. "Leave not one behind."
The world-famous "Wedge" is located just across the harbor entrance channel. I used to take the Bug there a lot (.. to look, not to swim) .. back before he started school. I remember how the seagulls and pigeons would follow him around as he snacked on Cheerios, dropping some here & there from hs little fat hands as we strolled along the shore.
[ He always made sure we stopped for an ice-cream on Balboa Island on the way home .. after riding the ferry across. ]
Inspiration Point sits atop the southern end of Big Corona (officially called » Main Beach). [ This photo was taken from Inspiration Point. ] The harbor entrance channel marks its northern boundary.
Pirates Cove is directly adjacent to the northern boundary, sitting along the calm waters of the harbor's entrance channel .. to the right of this picture (.. just out of sight).
Everybody loves to climb on the rocks there above Pirates Cove. Begonia Park, where I've performed rodeo exploits, is only a few minutes away.
The pier you see in the distance in this photo HERE .. is the Balboa Pier, where I also have fond memories. Those fire-rings there are ALSO part of the group they plan to remove.
I've been meaning to get those WINTER photos for a few weeks now. But never managed to get around to it. When I finally did, the timing seemed perfect. In other words .. I have a STORY to accompany today's photos. =) ■
For more along these lines, here's a Google search preconfigured for the query » newport beach city council votes to remove fire rings from beaches at corona del mar cdm
