April 2016 - Parks & Recreation - 71

of environmental and justice fights,
and among the strongest supporters
of environmental protections, people
of color and low-income people are
nevertheless marginalized by mainstream environmentalists, government agencies and public officials,
funders and the media. Recent polls
show that Latinos are far more likely
to view climate change as extremely
or very important to them personally,
and are among the strongest supporters of actions to curb climate change.
Climate change will disproportionately hurt low-income people, exacerbating the economic divide. Climate
change worsens a range of health
problems that are particularly problematic for communities of color.
Asthma rates will go up, for example,
increasing healthcare costs, hurting
performance in school and costing
parents time from work. However,
responding to the climate challenge
and sea level rise can create jobs, improve people's health, protect places
to play, reduce heating and cooling
bills, and reduce the damage caused
by production of fossil fuels.
Part of the reason we work together is that historically, people of color
and low-income communities disproportionately have been denied the
benefits of coastal access. Most beaches were off limits to people of color
throughout much of the 20th century
because of racially restrictive housing covenants that prohibited people
of color from owning or even using
beachfront homes. More recently, the
city of Malibu has restricted public access for all through illegal " No Camping " signs on the beach and coastal
zone. Wealthy Broad Beach property
owners posted phony " Private Beach "
signs on public beaches. Media mogul David Geffen tried to keep the
public out of the access path next to
his beachfront mansion and had his
case dismissed six times before letting
	

people enjoy the public beach. A lack
of reliable, inexpensive and efficient
transportation to the beach deters inland residents without access to a car.
Lack of affordable accommodations
at the beach, a trend that is rapidly
escalating, poses another significant
deterrent.
Since the hearing in Morro Bay, it
is clear that the public's trust in the
Coastal Commission is near an alltime low. Our broad coalition of organizations has continued to work
together for our common goals to
enhance public access, improve accountability and transparency at the
commission, and ensure climate justice remains part of the conversation.
Relying on state and federal
equal-justice protections, we presented a draft resolution to the Coastal
Commission at its March hearing in
Santa Monica, asking it to renew its
commitment to comply with these
laws. We anticipate the commission
will act on the resolution at its April
hearing. The draft resolution is available at www.cityprojectca.org/blog/
wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Resolution-CCC-20160309-draft.pdf.
Similar to the California Coastal Act,
federal civil rights laws guarantee equal
access to publicly funded resources and
prohibit intentional discrimination and
unjustified discriminatory impacts by
recipients of federal funding, including the Coastal Commission, based
on race, color or national origin. The
U.S. Supreme Court recognizes that
the prohibition of disparate impact
discrimination, regardless of intent, is
necessary to help move our country
beyond a legacy of discrimination and
toward opportunity for all.
To truly safeguard the public trust
the California Coastal Commission
needs strong and independent staff
leaders who are accessible and accountable to the people of California.
We are urging the commission to draw

from a diverse applicant pool and hire
an outstanding new executive director
who is committed to upholding the
core principles of the Coastal Act and
equal protection laws.
In addition, we ask the Coastal
Commissioners to agree to the importance of engaging members of
the public in the hiring process for the
new executive director. We ask them
to invite one public member from the
social justice and civil rights community, one Native American member,
one public member from the conservation community and one public
member representing the educational
and scientific perspective. We believe
that engaging public-interest stakeholders in the process will help improve the commission's transparency
and accountability that has now sunk
below sea level.
Just as the people of California
came together 40 years ago to claim
the coast as a public commons, we
are again working together to ensure
this commons endures. We can protect the coast for all, slow sea level
rise, grow the economy and promote
human health, the environment and
equal justice at the same time. But
in order to do this, we need leadership on the Coastal Commission that
shares our values, represents our interests and reflects the diversity of the
new California. The coast, climate
and government belong to all of us.
Detailed references for this article are
available at www.parksandrecreation.
org/2016/April/California-Coastal-Access-and-Climate-Justice-for-All.
Robert García is the Founding Director and
Counsel at The City Project, a nonprofit
environmental justice and civil rights
organization based in Los Angeles (rgarcia@
cityproject.org). Marce Gutiérrez-Graudiņš
is the Founder and Director of Azul (mar@
azulproject.org). Amy Trainer is Deputy
Director at the California Coastal Protection
Network (calcoastaladvocates@gmail.com).

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