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In early August, Manhattan Beach officials closed the popular Sand Dune Park for maintenance after a busy Summer with a high rate of visitors. About a month later, it was ready to be reopened, but didn't.
"There is a organized group of residents fighting to close the dune permanently in order to discourage people from coming to their neighborhood," warns Jake Rome, a photographer who enjoys visiting the park. "Without a strong voice calling for the park to remain open to all, they may succeed."
Tonight might be the first step of many that will keep the park closed until measures to curb usage or parking problems in the neighborhood are put in place. And that could take months if all goes to plan, with an expected reopening next Spring, according to a staff report (.pdf).
However, Rome finds tonight's proposal to be illogical because Summer is over. "The peak usage period has ended until next May, as I'm sure your park statistics indicate," he wrote in a letter to City Council. "By closing the park, the City Council would be depriving its residents of a treasured resource at no benefit to the community."
In 2002, a similar closure of the park was eminent, but public pressure kept the spot open.
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Thanks for posting this! Just a reminder, if you live in Manhattan Beach and want to keep the park open, please attend tonight's city council meeting. 6:30PM at 1400 Highland Ave. Thanks!
City council meeting.
Yeah unfortunately a lot of the people that want to keep this closed and "discourage people from coming to their neighborhood" are flat out being rascist. A lot of athlete use it to train and the rich boring old white people of MB don't want that element there. Too bad.
I don't think it's racism. And most MB residents support keeping the dune open, but the dune opponents are much better organized. They just want everyone out of their neighborhood and away from their park, regardless of the color of their skin.
This makes me sad. I have a lot of fond memories of this park from childhood. Some of the best ones: when my dad would surprise me at school buy us lunch and take me to the park with him on our lunch hour, just because.
it reminds me of those bastards in Malibu keeping the public beaches to themselves.
Yeah, maybe not totally racism but definitely classism and assholeism.
Just an FYI, the council decided to keep the park closed until they've developed and implemented a mitigation that discourages sufficient number of people from using the dune. This means that the dune will likely reopen sometime in the spring, unless the the residents who live at the bottom of the dune are successful in their quest to permanently close the dune.
I hate to say it, but I really think the noise is coming from the playground and children-only part of the hill. The adults are too busy huffing and puffing to make any noise. I hear the kids screaming at the park and on their side of the hill. Not their fault - they're having a blast. But I assume that anyone next to a children's playground would expect noise - it's not the hill. As far as parking goes - not sure what the ratio is for those that visit the park vs those visiting for the hill.
We need to keep the Sand Dune hill open!
I just heard about this and would like to know if there is an organized effort to fight this closure? Cuz I'm in!
I grew up in that neighborhood - two blocks from where the park is - and my dad, and my friends' dads all helped build it (volunteer) for people to enjoy. At the time that park was built the sand dune stretched from Rosecrans over to Marine almost, with such a poor draining swampy area at the bottom you could float a boat in it during the rainy season. A conscious decision was made to build the park around the Sand Dune because the Dune was so valued by the community even before there was a park!
I know every inch of that park, spent more hours than I can count there, even worked there as a teenager and it has always had noise - kids playing, birthday parties every weekend - had to book those out in advance - aftershool games programs for the screaming kids (Checking out the tetherballs, frisbees & caroms board was my job :)
The adults that came to climb the hill were always quiet. Local teenagers sometimes made a ruckus, with whole X country team squads coming from the jr. high and high school to run the hill or the neighborhood boys trying to play football on the dune around the patience-tried adults.
I remember first hearing about noise complaints in the 80's. It was at the beginning of the mansionization development, the tearing down of the older single & two story homes and building in 3 story over the top "castle/villas". The people who bought the new homes were usually rich and childless and were so clueless they did not expect noise or traffic living next to a park! (I think they saw the park as just a big backyard that was adjacent to their house and not for anyone but them. I even remember one new neighbor tried to claim the volleyball court for only themselves and their friends. They were finally set straight but what jerks!)
Now for all this bitching about the parking, there is a long stretch of Bell avenue that has quite a bit of parking available, and if the City really wanted to solve the "parking" problem, there is a National Guard Armory site right next to the park that has alot of unused open space, next to that is the City's own Maintenance yard which has open space, and on the otherside of the park is another long stretch of Bell Ave that has room for parking, and even an old playground from Ladera Elementary sitting next to the park that could be re-surfaced and used if they put in an access road.
This idea that there is too much noise and not enough parking is just the complaining of the rich newbies to kick out the rest of the community and needs to be stopped. Because really, if living next to a park is too noisy or trafficky for them, then they chose their new home very poorly because there is a PARK NEXT TO THEIR HOUSE!
Sand Dune Park is a very unique and lovely park, we need to keep it that way.
#SaveSandDunePark
As far as we can ascertain, the Sand Dune Park in Manhattan Beach is the only opportunity for a zero impact, incline/decline workout in Southern California!... Its alone providing an outside, total workout of cardio and muscle with zero impact to the body.Moreover, climbing up and down the Sand Dune especially benefits all those users such as athletes and aging active people with knee and back injuries that would otherwise be unable to enjoy an uphill/downhill exercise and strengthening routine..