April 2016 - Parks & Recreation - 70

C A C O A S TA L A C C E S S

the commission's February hearing
made this abundantly clear.
Civil rights attorney Erica Baltodano
spoke passionately about the value of
the beach in her and her family's life.
" I was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley, where childhood trips to
the beach were necessary as a matter
of survival during triple-digit summer
heat waves. As an attorney with The
City Project in Southern California, I
spent nearly 10 years working to ensure equal access to public resources,
including our beloved beaches, for the
benefit of all Californians. I now live
on the Central Coast with my husband
and two children and we visit our local
beaches regularly. "

Fred Collins, spokesperson for the
Northern Chumash Tribal Council,
spoke with simple eloquence about
how Grandmother Ocean would take
back the beach and coast as a result
of climate change and rising sea levels. Indeed, the Coastal Commission
unanimously adopted its Sea Level
Rise Policy Guidance report in 2015
(www.coastal.ca.gov/climate/slrguidance.html). The report is a notable step forward for the commission
- it includes environmental justice as
a core principle and devotes a chapter
to environmental justice.
People have asked why civil rights
and social justice groups are working
with coastal advocates. There are many

reasons. The more difficult question is
why mainstream environmental groups
traditionally have not done enough to
work with people of color and low-income people on our common goals.
The coast and climate belong to all
of us. People of color and low-income
communities who live in or depend on
vulnerable areas along the coast suffer
first and worst from the lack of coastal
access, and from economic and environmental catastrophes like climate
change. These people do not have the
options available to beachfront billionaires. They do not have the alternative
of wintering in places like Rio or buying higher land if rising temperatures
and seas wash away the beach.
Places to play at the beach are not
luxuries or amenities. A child's right
to play, for example, is a fundamental human right under the United
Nations Declaration of the Rights of
the Child. But, the beach access and
coastal trails we have fought so hard
to protect are threatened by rising sea
levels and temperatures. And, there is
far more at stake than places to surf,
swim or sunbathe. Native Americans
will lose priceless and irreplaceable
sacred sites and artifacts. Workers
whose livelihood depends on tourism, gardening and housekeeping
along the beach would lose jobs.
The Coastal Commission's August
2015 Sea Level Rise Policy Guidance
document paints a bleak picture of California's vulnerability. In 2100, when the
ocean is projected to have risen 4.6 feet,
more than 200,000 people will be living
along the open coast in areas exposed to
flooding from a 100-year flood. Approximately 56,000 are lower-income people
(earning less than $30,000 annually),
45,000 are renters and 4,700 are linguistically isolated and less likely to understand flood warnings.
Maintaining the Coalition
While they are often on the front lines

68 Parks & Recreation

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April 2016 - Parks & Recreation

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