Surfing at Rockaway Beach
If you want to be struck by the inequality in America today, Venice Beach and Santa Monica are an interesting place to start. The generally fair weather, public facilities (as limited as they may be, they’re still better than most places), and an abundance of tourists make it one of the better places to survive on the street. Of course, police crack down from time to time, and harassment (from private citizens as well as the police) is nothing new. In one paper I read this last semester, a homeless individual said that they had to change the location they slept in every few nights to avoid being hassled.
Since Tumblr seems cranky today, this is Shadow at the beach in Hawaii. No, this isn’t photoshopped. Yeah, she’s awesome.
I might have posted this before, but it deserves to be shared again.
For the third year in a row, Congress is considering a bill to reauthorize the BEACH Act. This landmark law was first championed by Surfrider Foundation a decade ago.
The Clean Coastal Environment & Public Health Act of 2009 will increase the amount of federal dollars that can be spent on beach water quality monitoring and will modernize the technology we rely on to protect the health of the beach-going public. It also expands the scope of the BEACH Act to include tracking and cleaning up the sources of beach water pollution. The House of Representatives has passed this bill twice now, but it has not yet seen the Senate floor.
Urge your Senators to show their support for healthy beaches and robust coastal economies by cosponsoring the Clean Coastal Environment & Public Health Act of 2009. Don’t let them put this off for yet another year!
Marina del Rey // 2009
Sorting through my old photos, I’ve come to realize that I’m obsessed with 1) weird stuff, and 2) the horizon. And Southern California has some phenomenal sunsets.
