A Look Beyond the Sand
What is the real story about coastal development?
By Cody Tate
By Cody Tate
Coastal development is a very important aspect of San Diego. The reason coastal development is so important to San Diego is we live on the coast. Over the past few generations the coast has developed a lot in more ways than just business development. A big thing that is overlooked is the amount of native plants in San Diego, as well as the non-native plants, like the palm trees. Palm trees are good example because when you think of San Diego you think of palm trees yet palm trees do not originate in San Diego at all. Yet, the involvement of palm trees is so huge. The strange thing about these palm trees is palm trees don't even develop naturally on the coastline. Palm trees are a desert plant, and that's the thing San Diego since is originally a desert.
That is why palm trees thrive so well in San Diego, but the big thing is it all correlates back to the effect of tourism in San Diego. The fact that people think of palm trees when they think of vacation, and I feel that's why they are planted here. The reason is most likely that the tourists that we get here are one of our biggest sources of income for all of the businesses here in San Diego. When you have that big of an impact from a group of people you're going to cater to their wants and needs, to fulfill their desires to get their income into our society. That is why our coast is so developed, because that's one of the most influential parts of San Diego. It's not only our beaches, but the fact that we have some of the nicest beaches, and possibly in the entire world. I feel like that has impacted San Diego in good ways, but also in bad ways. What I mean by that is that we have to use the same amount of water to water our plants as the amount of rain you would get in the tropics, resulting in a maximum waste of water. This happens because we use all these tropical plants that require extreme amounts of water. This is not at all a good idea, especially due to the fact that we are in a major drought. Not only that, but it costs a lot of money to use that much water. One example of being very bad with this is Paradise Point, a hotel like place. When you go there, there are always sprinklers running or gardeners watering and trimming. But they get almost all of their client base from tourists, and the tourists want all the tropical vacation look. So once again they cater to their needs even though it affects us tremendously. I’m not just pinning Paradise Point for doing this either, most of San Diego does this they were just a prime example. Now there has been good too. Native plants have been planted throughout San Diego. Also, there has been some non-native plants that are not bad for our growing conditions. Like palm trees, they are a desert plant so those are not one of the options that are harmful to our ecosystem. Yet you mostly seem to get tropical flowers and such, yes these plants are beautiful, but we can find native plants that are just as beautiful. The only difference being that they do not take any where near the same amount of water. The topic of coastal development is hard to completely cover because you could also mean coastal development by the business aspect which, now San Diego has decided to put together more formally. San Diego has put together its own laws on what can be built on the coast, like for instance right on the coast of OB you can't have high-rises and such. Many other beaches have done this also, and because of this it creates a certain scene for the beach life. I can't lie I personally do like it. It could change but we are at a very good point right now, the businesses on the coast generate a lot of money by the people who visit our beaches. Looking at how different beach areas have looked over the last few generations, it has changed so much. Some examples of this are Del mar, Encinitas, Ocean Beach, and Mission beach. All these locations have changed so much. If you look at the way you have business developments like restaurants, bathrooms at the beach, main lifeguard towers, it's all very clean looking. Though, the economy has always played a big role in these situations. Right now we're going up gradually and slowly. Yet there's also a very negative point, since sometimes businesses are not able to afford themselves which results in bankruptcies. House prices rise to the point where people just couldn't afford to live on the beach in San Diego. A house here that was just your normal three bedroom two bath next to the beach or in Point Loma would cost you easily $1,000,000. While back in Iowa a three bedroom two bath house would cost maybe $100,000, which is a substantial comparison in price here in San Diego. The reason for that is coastal development. You don't get , San Diego, Los Angeles, or San Francisco anywhere else like you do here in California. It's truly unique some of the best aspects are the environment we live in. Here in San Diego you get a city, you get a beach town, you get small town, and you even get snow in our local mountains, living on the coast is very convenient. Also, the temperatures that we get here on the coast are to die for nonetheless.
Another big thing about the coast is our impact from Mexican culture. The reason that's important is because we live right next to the border of Mexico. This results in a very big influence here, some examples of that is all the taco shops, the spicy food, the chili all sorts of things. Also even the designs for buildings and such are created seem to have sort of classic Mexican architectural style. You see lots of houses that almost try to replicate the Adobe look/color along the coast. I feel like that's partially because of the Mexican influence we get here. Another big thing about the influence of Mexico here in San Diego on our coast, is Mexico's the rules are not as strict. Meaning lots of our radio channels have towers in Tijuana, so they can broadcast radio station all the way up the coast. Now onto one of the more interesting parts I believe is Mission Bay. The thing about Mission Bay is it is completely man-made. The thing that kills me about Mission Bay is Fiesta Island for instance, which is almost like a place just to please the party people. There's a lot of littering at these bonfires. With old plastic bottles, cans, and debris everywhere. It's always loud all over the place, yet in the middle of it, they create this bird sanctuary. Which I think is not at all a good idea if you're trying to keep birds in their natural habitat undisturbed. All they do is not let people walk on it, which makes it seem like they care so much yet they do nothing really. I don't feel like that's an issue (or at least resolving it). If they really cared about the issue they would resolve the big issues at hand. Like the noise, the trash, the smells, the sounds it's all big topics that these birds have to deal with, and I feel that you cannot have two areas like that together. I'm not saying that we shouldn't resolve these problems for them, but we have a good point with coast right now currently. I do think there is always room for improvement. furthermore I feel the ideas that I've created to help sustain the natural habitat for different animals does not mean make a small little area. They just need an actual sanctuary not just a small little area it has to be separated secluded and not in use. I also understand the not allowing to have high-rises, but maybe increasing The volume of how we decide what can be built has to reflect the value of what would happen. |