Right to the point - Long Beach is allowing interlopers to rule the day - the consequences are serious. This message is sent to anyone willing to read it as a result of my observation of the overwhelming amount of outsiders (mostly youths) basically marauding the beach and the boardwalk this past Wednesday and Thursday evening. I went surf casting both evenings, as I am a avid fisherman. I saw hundreds of empty bottles on the beach, remnants of lunches, plastic bags, boxes, etc strewn all over the place – in a word the beach was a “sandy sewer”.
The boardwalk was just as bad – crap all over the place, screaming, drinking in open view, human chains disrupting people on the boards – even saw an arrest made right next to my building – on the boards at Magnolia and West Broadway. The scene, both nights was a disgrace and dangerous – with nearly no police presence on Wednesday, a bit more on Thursday. This must stop – it starts with the police. Listen, the police are well compensated from what I understand – I suggest they start putting some time in defending the rights of tax payers. Bottom line, Long Beach, in part depends on “summer dollars” and it creates a lot of income from tourists, day trippers, diners, etc – those sources of revenue need to be protected or they will decline. If action is not taken what is going to happen is people will not come and visit our fair town, home and condo / co-op prices will fall further, real estate development will be curtailed, etc – furthermore, residents will be afraid to walk (already happening) and in the end Long Beach will lose a huge stream of revenue and value – which they desperately need based on the look of their most recent financial statement. (Too much nepotism – but that is a different letter).
My suggestion, apart from getting the police out on the boards is this: Long Beach should start their season for entry (during the week and weekends) on June 1st – there is no reason not to. Furthermore, the city should strongly consider manning the check in booths until 7:30 PM starting June 1st – every day, not just weekends. Finally, the police need to make a point that Long Beach is “awake and aware”, and that if the youth’s want to get out of line – LB is not the place for them. Lead by example, get strong, make arrests, etc – I assure you, word will get out quick enough that Long Beach is not their private “free for all city dump”
Joe Fish
