Years ago, we’re talking the mid-‘80s, San Diego decided to “revitalize” downtown, i.e. get rid of the pushers, bums and hookers. It worked; the gritty urban landscape transformed into a vibrant destination for shopping, dining and nightlife. However, those pesky problems it displaced had to go somewhere. Eventually, hookers were pushed as far north as Encinitas, a quiet little surf village with surprisingly few johns.
But they love dogs!!Me and my dogs, we feel like those hookers as the anti-dog forces push us further and further south for some beach time. It started with a front-page article in the local paper; Animal Control would now crack down on off-leash dogs frolicking at the 20th Street beach—my beach—and Soquel’s Blue Balls park—my park. That was the bad news. The good news was that it galvanized the Live Oak Beach Club into action. A bunch of dog owners created LOBC last summer in order to problem-solve how to keep the heat off us. We picked up trash and handed out doggie bags to the swarms of tourists that crowded the beach from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Then winter came and the crisis passed, until now.
Next stop for a dog-friendly beach: Tierra del Fuego.
LOBC has some politically savvy folks in it who put together a petition to allow off-leash privileges in the am and pm. They also contacted the supervisor and shot letters to the editor. Then more bad news. The opposition rose up put their own petition online to block off-leash access.
The pups and I despise conflict so we drove (I drove, not them) further south to Seascape, another informally off-leash beach. We were in the middle of nowhere when a sheriff’s deputy comes trudging across the sand towards me. She was quite nice and apologetic, but said a neighbor called the office to complain and, yes, we had to leash up. Since it’s a 45-minute drive, we will probably only do it once a week, but next stop? Carmel. In the meantime, I will enjoy the online entertainment of Petition Death Match.
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