Robert Garcia, an attorney who heads an activist group based in Los Angeles called The City Project, asked the California Coastal Commission during its meeting last week to issue a cease and desist order to the City of Malibu for its signs notifying people of a prohibition on nonpermitted camping within the city. Garcia said the signs imply no camping is allowed in the Malibu area, when there is overnight camping allowed in several parks in the unincorporated area around the city and there is a proposal heading to the Coastal Commission for overnight camping sites in parks within city limits. However, City Attorney Christi Hogin said in an interview this week that the signs are there simply to notify people of the city’s ordinance against camping in nonpermitted areas and against sleeping in a car.
Coastal Commission Executive Director Peter Douglas said this week the state agency has begun looking into the matter, but no conclusion has been reached.
“The illegal ‘no camping’ signs is reminiscent of what Manhattan Beach did in the 1920s and ’30s when they drove black people out of Bruce’s Beach,” said Garcia during the Coastal Commission meeting, referring to when that city condemned one of the few beaches in Southern California that was not closed to blacks.
Joe Edmiston, head of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, said he was not familiar enough with the Bruce’s Beach story to comment on whether that was a good analogy, but he did agree with Garcia that the signs were deceptive.
“If you were a tourist, you wouldn’t have access to the ordinance [prohibiting non-permitted camping and sleeping in the car],” Edmiston said.
Hogin called the issue a “red herring,” and said the signs were not unique to Malibu.
“All the surrounding cities are going to prohibit camping in public spaces expect where it’s properly provided for, with restrooms and other accommodations,” said Hogin, who pointed out that the law allows for camping if it has been permitted, which would be the situation if the SMMC camp grounds are approved by the Coastal Commission.
Upon hearing about the meeting, City Councilmember Sharon Barovsky said she thought it was unfortunate Garcia had to bring race into the issue, saying doing so was using rhetoric to rile people’s emotions.
“In Malibu, when you don’t like someone, you call them a developer,” Barovsky said. “When you’re before the Coastal Commission and you don’t like someone, you call them a racist.”
Garcia, who is a leader behind urban park movements, is not new to Malibu. He recently appeared before the City Council last month during the hearing on the conservancy’s parks enhancement plan, which included overnight camping. Several residents attending the meeting jeered him. Garcia placed his appearance and some others from the meeting on The City’s Project’s Web site and on YouTube. The other segments include either people screaming at speakers in favor of the conservancy’s plan or speakers who strongly oppose the plan.
“We are kind of the butt of the world now,” said City Councilmember Ken Kearsley at Monday’s council meeting regarding the videos on the Internet. He said it was unfortunate people behaved what he considered poorly at the meeting, leading to the videos being placed on the Internet.
Three years ago, Garcia co-authored a 53-page document condemning what he considered to be Malibu’s policy to prohibit public access to the beach. The report was praised by many critics of Malibu and blasted by city officials for alleged inaccuracies and exaggerations.