Santa Monica Beach Trash: The Good, Bad & Ugly...

Dateline: Thursday morning, Sept. 22, 2016 along Santa Monica Beach from the Pier south to Ocean Park...  I picked up at least a half dozen empty and discarded bottles along the hard pack sand and soft sand between the water line and berm this morning.  The following photos show the collection of trash in this area of the beach that the City of Santa Monica continues to not clean up.  The worst of it are the bottles that get crushed by the tractors and trucks driven on the soft sand leaving the broken shards of glass just under the surface of the sand just waiting for someone to step on it in their bare feet.  This morning in front of Lifeguard Tower 17, for example, as I walked up the berm to take a photo of the trash underneath said lifeguard tower, I stepped on a buried and broken bottle of MODELO® beer. Fortunately, I did not break skin or receive a laceration.  I did take the time to lift the broken glass out of the sand and dispose of it, however.

Here are today's photos for your consideration:

The Ugly:  Below, is the broken bottle of MODELO® beer that I stepped on and which was buried beneath a tire track. Shown here are the pieces of glass that I carefully lifted from the sand and disposed of.

The Bad:  The beachgoers that leave their trash behind continue to plague the beaches of Santa Monica...

Below, this single NEW BALANCE® shoe has been there now for three (3) days and has yet to be collected and disposed of by the City of Santa Monica.

A dead bird, below, between the high and low tide line...

The Good:  Nevertheless, in spite of all the trash between the water line and the berm, it was a beautiful morning on the beach in Santa Monica...

This leather shoe has been there on the berm for two days now...

Below the seven (7) bottles I picked up off the beach between the water line and the berm this morning between the pier and Lifeguard Tower #25, including the broken shards of glass from the bottle of MODELO that I stepped on in front of Tower #17...

Conclusion:  The City of Santa Monica is NOT hand picking up trash between the water line and the berm as their spokesperson stated last month in the Santa Monica Mirror newspaper.  

x-ref:  http://www.smmirror.com/articles/News/Trash-Talk/45915

The broken bottles and other trash is obviously unsightly but also represent a health hazard to the public that is encouraged to visit Santa Monica and enjoy it's beaches.  Additionally, the broken bottles that lie buried just under the surface of the soft sand above the berm and which are crushed by motor vehicles such as tractors and trucks operated by the City of Santa Monica represent a potentially dangerous hazard to anyone walking on the beach in their bare feet.  It is only a matter of time before someone cuts up their feet badly on the beach in Santa Monica as the result of bottles being crushed by the heavy vehicles operated by the City of Santa Monica.

Respectfully submitted,

 
Will Maguire, Editor
"County Recurrent" News
http://CountyRecurrent.blogspot.com

(All photos by & Copyright Will Maguire 2016.)

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