The budget cuts that have already been made are starting to create consequences, ones that will effect just about every Californian.  Ellinorianne brought us the story of her daughter’s school.  Now the OC Register is reporting (h/t to Weintraub) that officials with the state are warning people away from state beaches.  They are literally praying for bad weather so people will stay away.  Parks just does not have enough money to pay lifeguards.

“I’m sending out a warning that the state beaches – and San Clemente State Beach in particular – will be very, very dangerous and the public should avoid them,” Long said. “If they come down and they don’t see lifeguard service, I would suggest to them that they go to the city beaches.”

“For the first year in the 30 years I have been down here, we do not have a schedule of seasonal lifeguards during spring break,” he said. “We have no money.”

They only have about half of the amount of money to pay lifeguards than normal.  These budget cuts are already putting Californian’s lives at risk and we still have a huge budget gap to close.

“We are praying for a very unfavorable spring with overcast and drizzle,” he said, “and hope that the water stays cold. We do not have the funds to put the lifeguards out there. We (also) have cut back on grounds keeping (and) our entrance station. We’ve eliminated virtually all of our interpretation – school groups and the likes of that.”

The budget discussion is not some sort of essoteric argument.  There are real consequences for the decisions the legislature has and will make about funding.  Our state system has been slashed for years and there is nothing left to give, except in this case our safety

At Calitics we’ve amply covered the long and winding road that led to the rejection of the 241 Toll Road through San Onofre State Park.  Members of the state parks commission showed a lot of courage in siding against big business and powerful interests in Sacramento to come out against the plan.  In 2005 they passed a resolution opposing it, and they signed on to a lawsuit attempting to stop construction, before the California Coastal Commission eventually voted it down.  Here is how the Governor rewarded a couple of them, including a movie pal and his own brother-in-law:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has dropped his brother-in-law, Bobby Shriver, and fellow action hero Clint Eastwood from the state parks commission after their vigorous opposition helped derail a plan for a toll road through San Onofre State Beach in San Diego County.

The decision not to renew the commissioners’ terms, which expired last week, surprised observers and sent a strong signal that the governor expects loyalty from political appointees.

“This is a warning shot from the governor’s office to all of his appointees: Do what I say, no matter how stupid it is,” said Joel Reynolds, a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council in Los Angeles. “And I know of no project more destructive to the California coast than this toll road project.”

Shriver is one of my city councilmen here in Santa Monica (and as a measure of Santa Monica, he’s considered one of the more conservative ones).  Shriver and Eastwood weren’t just two members of the board – they were the chairman and vice-chairman, and both of them wished to stay on for another term.  

By the way, these aren’t the only appointees who have been “terminated” by Schwarzenegger after they crossed him (over):

Shriver and Eastwood join a list of other spurned appointees.

Bilenda Harris-Ritter, a former member of the state Board of Parole Hearings, said she received a call from a member of the governor’s office a little more than a year ago asking her to resign, six months after she had been appointed. No explanation was given, she said.

The call coincided with an Internet campaign from a crime victims group asking the governor’s office to remove her for granting parole to too many prisoners […]

In June, the chairman of the state’s Air Resources Board, Robert F. Sawyer, was fired by Schwarzenegger for pushing for antipollution measures beyond what the governor’s office wanted, Sawyer said. The executive director, Catherine Witherspoon, quit in the aftermath.

In September, R. Judd Hanna quit the Fish and Game Commission at the request of an aide to the governor, after Republican lawmakers urged his ouster because he had sought to ban lead bullets in condor territory.

This is a pattern of arrogance and of demanding loyalty.  It’s pretty obvious and sloppy.  

NOTE: This also comes at a time when Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget includes a bunch of closings to state parks, which Shriver, at least, has been very outspoken against.

I spent a good part of yesterday afternoon at Will Rogers State Park.  Named after the famed humorist (he coined the phrase “I don’t belong to any organized party; I’m a Democrat”), the park stretches across the Santa Monica Mountains and offers stunning views of both the Pacific Ocean and the city of Los Angeles.  And it is one of the 48 parks scheduled for closure.

The official reason for the closure is that the park doesn’t make enough money to cover its own overhead costs.  Apparently state parks now need to be money makers instead of gifts to the people of California.  There’s a $7 parking fee but no entry fee; people entering the park on foot pay nothing.  With a small residential community nearby, plenty of people just leave their cars a few blocks away and walk into the park for free.  According to 2006-20007 statistics, 28% of the park’s entrants were walk-ins.  Seems to me that there’s a fairly simple solution here that would relieve residential congestion and keep the park afloat, but what do I know, I just write for the Internets.

What struck me was the large number of people out for the afternoon.  I don’t know if it was because of the notice of impending closure or not, but this is not a portrait of a struggling piece of public land that needs to be shuttered.  There were hundreds of people playing soccer at the polo fields, hiking, and touring the fully restored 31-room ranch house.  There’s another point to be made here.  The grounds of the park include part of the 55-mile Backbone Trail which connects several state parks together along the Santa Monica Mountains.  It’s not entirely clear where one park ends and another begins, and putting up a chain to cordon off the closed portions isn’t really going to stop anyone.  In other words, you’re going to simply have an unsupervised park still used by hikers, decreasing public safety while saving very little, perhaps a half-million dollars in maintenance, which could certainly be less if the parking fee was an entrance fee.

The point is this.  Will Rogers’ widow offered the preserve as a gift to the people of California (the family is still fighting to keep it open).  The park system is part of the California dream, part of what makes the state so unique in its diversity, its landscape, its opportunity for activity.  In California, you can sunbathe in the morning and be on the ski slopes by sundown.  If we can’t “afford” the natural beauty of the state park system, we’ve done something terribly wrong, and every Californian has a stake in opening up the land and keeping it available for recreation.  

The austere, cuts-only budget will hurt people in a variety of different ways, most of them more profoundly than by closing 48 parks.  But the symbolism of having to close the land, having to close the ocean view, having to close part of what makes California what it is, this is truly ignominious.  And at some point, you’d think Californians would hold their leaders responsible for this shame.

Remember when Susan Davis’ amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill passed the House Armed Services Committee? Remember that this is the amendment that ensures that the Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA), Orange County’s toll road authority, complies with state environmental laws, which means that a toll road can’t be built through San Onofre State Beach to Trestles? Remember that the bill moved on to the US Senate after it passed the House?

Well, we have a new problem. One of our own Senators, Dianne Feinstein, is undecided on adding something like the Davis Amendment to the Senate’s Defense Authorization Bill. I guess she’s not sure yet whether California state environmental law is important enough to be enforced. Follow me after the flip to find out what YOU can do to ensure that Senator Feinstein votes to enforce the law, protect our coast, and respect the integrity of our parks…

So what can YOU do to convince Senator Dianne Feinstein to save Trestles and urge TCA to extend the 241 toll road legally? Why not send the Senator an email? Why not send a fax to the Washington, DC, office at (202) 228-3954? Why not contact one of Feinstein’s state offices? Let Senator Feinstein know how you feel about preserving the integrity of our parks, and how important saving this unique coastal park truly is.

So what can you say if you send an email or fax? How about saying something like this…

Dear Senator Feinstein:

Please join us in supporting the addition of language to the Senate Defense Authorization Bill that repeals riders designed to exempt the Foothill-South toll road extension through San Onofre State Beach from state and federal law.

In addition, we urge you to repeal the additional rider that authorizes the Marine Corps to grant an easement for the Foothill South Toll Road that permanently encroaches into Camp Pendleton and compromises their mission.

The proposed Foothill South Toll Road is one of the most environmentally destructive projects in California and sets a dangerous precedent for the intrusion into state park lands well beyond Orange County.

At minimum, this project should have to comply with all the same laws as any other similar project – just like those reviewed at the local level every week. Allowing the federal government to override the Coastal Act sets a disastrous precedent, the Marine Corps should use its own professional judgment in how best to safeguard Camp Pendleton from encroachment, without pressure from Congress one way or the other.

Please support Representatives Davis and Sanchez in their efforts to ensure that the Foothill-South Toll Road complies with all laws of the United States and the State of California. In addition, we hope you will go a step further and remove the riders that currently create unprecedented legal exemptions for the construction of the Toll Road through Camp Pendleton.

Thank you for your past support for California’s unparalleled natural resources, and for your willingness to carefully consider the impacts of the Foothill-South Toll Road on our Southern California coastline.

Sincerely,
Your Name Here

Or this, if you’d rather not be so loquacious…

Dear Senator Feinstein:

I am a supporter of the Susan Davis amendment to the Senate Defense Authorization Bill, which repeals the legal exemptions for the 241 toll road extension through San Onofre State Park. I’m writing to ask you to vote in favor of this amendment, and also to vote to remove the riders that give the Transportation Corridors Agency so many legal exemptions for construction of this road.

I believe the builders of the toll roads should follow the same laws that everyone else follows and should not be granted special rights or privileges.

Thank you very much for considering this issue, and for your outstanding and long service to our state and nation.

Sincerely,
Your Name Here

Now you don’t have to write something like this or the longer letter. Just use these as ideas for whatever you’d like to say to Senator Feinstein about supporting the Davis Amendment. Just allow these to inspire you to make her heartfelt sentiments about Trestles and our state parks known to the Senator.

Susan Davis and Loretta Sanchez did what needed to be done in the House to save Trestles and our state parks. So now, it’s up to the Senate. And right now, Dianne Feinstein can make the difference between preserving one of our most popular state parks for generations to come and setting a dangerous precedent for state and federal environmental laws to be ignored if they get in the way of a new highway and/or toll road and/or residential development. Dianne Feinstein can make a difference in the Senate this week, and she needs to know that we want her to make that difference.

But first, we need to make a difference. I need to make this difference, and so do YOU. I plan to write to Senator Feinstein about including the Davis Amendment in the Senate’s Defense Authorization Bill. Would you like to do the same? Do you care about keeping our parks open for us to enjoy for many years to come? If so, then please ask Senator Feinstein to support including the Davis Amendment in the Senate’s bill.

Senator Feinstein can make a difference for the better this week, but first we need to make that difference to urge her to do the same. : )