Saturday, April 24, 2010

Wrong side of the fence

They built a locked fence around the access to our beach, which, if this were a book, would have been foreshadowed here. I don’t know if it’s good or bad that I didn’t realize it was foreshadowing at the time.

As a bit of background, I live near a small lake that’s completely developed with homes. My property doesn’t abut the lake, but the community, and I use that term loosely, owns two lots that all of the non-lake front owners use to access the water. One is developed into a beach, and the other is mosty forested, and used for fishing.

I ‘d like to just object to the fence here on my little blog, to my faithful readers. It’s wrong to limit access to water on so many levels, and I don’t want any part of it, and I’m embarrassed to be part of such a bitter, territorial, fear-driven community.

The behavior that is being stopped with the fence? Teenagers coming up here on hot days in the summer and swimming. Yup. And the occasional parent with toddlers, playing in the sand and water.

5 comments:

  1. I think the fence was probably a reaction to that roudy, swearing, over-heated tean gang mixing with the innocent toddlers. It's too bad that something like a decorum sign didn't go up... like "Don't swear around the little kids," and "Don't smoke on the beach because it sort of smells." Then folks could point to it and say, "Come on!" Instead, the fence. Maybe the idea came from Arizona.

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  2. Maybe the fence has something to do with the fact that last year on opening fishing day a certain family threw a huge party that ended with kegs floating in the lake and drunk kids puking out of their boats into the water early in the morning? Just a thought.

    Anyway, I hope my rowdy teenager friends and I can borrow your key sometime :)

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  3. It gets harder every year to find a little spot to get into some fresh water. How can it all be private? It is sad.

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  4. One of the genuinely beautiful features of Hawaii is that (I think all) waterfront is public - anyone can walk in front of your beachfront property and enjoy the surf. I don't understand why WA isn't like that.

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  5. In California, the oceanfront is public (I'm pretty certain.) Lakes and rivers are different.

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