LA County‘s last wooden boardwalk is going bye bye

It’s about 9 feet wide and 3,600 feet long, the length of 10 football fields. It’s made out of wooden boards and people who know about this long-time Long Beach mainstay say they like it, splinters and all.

“I think it's classic. I think that this gives the area a very classic look. I think it's very beautiful,” said Ana Torres, who lives nearby and had brought her two friends to walk the length of the boardwalk. They wore tennis shoes, something she encouraged all visitors to do.

“If you're walking in heels this is probably not the right place to come,” she said.

That’s because the aging boardwalk is in disrepair, making it somewhat dangerous to walk along. The city has plans to rip up the wood and replace it with a more durable material — but local residents have started a petition to have it restored rather than destroyed.

Ana Torres, left, lives near the Peninsula Beach Boardwalk in Long Beach. She brought her friends Sandra Ortiz, center, and Christina Marquez to take a walk on the boardwalk.

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The golden era of wood boardwalks

The boardwalk is about 100 years old and is said to be the last one in L.A. County made out of wood. It’s unclear if it is. What is clear is that many wood boardwalks built along Southern California beaches in the early 1900s were torn up in the middle of the century and replaced with smooth concrete paths.

This one, in a part of Long Beach known as the Peninsula, is now showing its age.

The Peninsula Beach Boardwalk is about 100 years old.

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There are gaps about half an inch wide between each board, and holes about an inch wide where knots in the wood have fallen out. The wood has splintered in many parts. In some parts the low fence that holds back beach sand bends inland, toward the houses.

“It is raggedy, it's bumpy,” said Rod Burgad, who’s been coming to the boardwalk for 20 years.

Ron Burgad says he loves the bumpiness of the boardwalk while riding his e-bike.

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He said riding a bike with thick tires, as he did on this day, is the best way to enjoy the boardwalk. Smooth, concrete boardwalks are boring, he said.

“I'd rather go on something old like this. It's more fun,” he said.

The plans to replace it — and the resistance

Long Beach City Council would like to replace the wooden boardwalk with composite material. But a spokesperson for the public works department could not provide details for the project before this story’s deadline.

The Peninsula Beach Boardwalk in Long Beach is about 9 feet wide and 3,600 feet long.

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Because the boardwalk is next to the shore, the city has to go through a California Coastal Commission permitting process. Long Beach officials recently placed a poster-sized notice of public hearing at one end of the boardwalk.

That riled up some people to sign an online petition to save the boardwalk.
As of Friday, it had more than 500 signatures.

The man who created it, who gives his name as Samuel Joseph on Facebook, told LAist "I started the petition because the city’s proposal to replace the wooden boardwalk with plastic totally violates the will of the people in this and the surrounding neighborhoods," he said.

"Plastic composite has been used in other near-ocean city projects and deteriorates more quickly than wood, leeching microplastics into our sand."

Richard Nutt walks his dog, Vato. Nutt lives in a house on the Peninsula Beach Boardwalk and says the boardwalk is in disrepair.

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While the petition communicates an urgency to “save” the boardwalk, it’s not clear that the boardwalk’s wood will be torn up anytime soon.

A spokesperson for Long Beach Councilmember Kristina Duggan, whose district includes the Peninsula, said the replacement of the boardwalk is estimated to cost about $2.5 million — but the city has not identified the funding to pay for it.