Hermosa Beach. Image © Jain Lemos.
Once again, wildfires are raging in the Golden State. My readers know I was born and raised in the coastal town of Mendocino, Calif. I call myself a beach baby, especially now that I’m currently based in Tucson, Ariz. I’ve lived near the Pacific Ocean for the vast majority of my life in many coastal areas throughout the state including Tiburon, San Francisco’s Marina District, Santa Cruz, Pismo Beach, Montecito, Malibu, Venice Beach and Laguna.
Over the years, I’ve heard many complaints about the California Coastal Commission’s restrictions on individual property owners who want to make improvements or changes to their land and buildings, even for homes located far away from the coastline. What was once a plan to temporarily protect the Coast’s fragile environment has turned into a bizarrely-run group of bureaucrats bent on making sure you don’t fix a road, build a fence or cut down a tree without their arduous permission and permitting process.
What’s more, the prohibition of property owners and firefighter authority’s ability to clear Commission-protected California Chaparral (essentially dry brush) to prevent fires from spreading and jumping has caused home–and even life–loss throughout the state.
I want our beaches to be as clean and accessible to all as possible. It is also important to protect any truly endangered species in our coastal areas. I like hugging trees, too. Yet even former Coastal Commission members and executives agree that that the checks-and-balances such a Board should be bound by are so completely out of whack that something has to be done.
To that end, I applaud the efforts of Richard Oshen, a documentary filmmaker whose compelling exposé, “Sins of Commission: The Politics of Fire,” opened my eyes and my mind. If you only see one more film this year, make it “Sins of Commission.”
JL:
Very important subject matter!
Thanks for the shout out… Glad you are SO aware.
Sonny
I received several direct emails regarding this post, including one from the film’s creator, Richard Oshen. I wanted to share them via comments so here are a few:
“Jain, thanks for writing the great story and posting the Sins of Commission website on your website. You write so clearly making it easy for the reader to understand. The Commission recently had the State Attorney General’s office issue and serve Richard Oshen with a subpoena for all of his film. Richard refused to give them the film and a suit has been filed in Court regarding the First Amendment. He has more film than what is on the DVD and they wanted it all. Our government is getting pretty bad. There are two bills in the legislature–AB 226 and AB 291–that would let the Coastal Commission fine property owners up to $50,000 a day for what they deem is a violation of the Coastal Act without the benefit of a Court ruling. They should be going to the Governor for signature or veto soon.”
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Jain, great site!!! Thank you for writing about Sins of Commission. Think it is a chilling development for all reporters, photo-journalists and documentary filmmakers.”
Hi Jain, Thank you for posting this article — this is indeed a very important issue that needs much more publicity. My family has lived on property here in Santa Barbara, which has been handed down through generations for over half a century. There has never been a lot of money, but there has been arduous caretaking of the land. This past year, the ravage Tea Fire destroyed everything. Not a day later, as family members are left homeless, it was shocking to find out that A PERMIT WAS NEEDED JUST TO CLEAN UP; we’re not talking re-build, we’re talking a permit to remove the ashes (this is on top of the cost to pay for the bulldozer). As family, friends and the community waited in line for FEMA help, one frustration was that the relief money was going right back into the state, county and city’s bureaucracy. It’s an all too vicious cylce that has been witnessed first hand by far too many people. And to think this is only a sliver of the pie. Bravo to Richard Oshen for his documentation of much more of this non-sense.