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Title: Public Gains Long-Sought Beach Access ( the people win one back )
Source:
The Los Angeles Times
URL Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/l ... 4.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Published: May 26, 2005
Author: Bob Pool, Times Staff Writer
Post Date: 2005-05-26 21:32:55 by robin
Keywords: Long-Sought, Public, Access
Views: 46
Comments: 6
5:44 PM PDT, May 26, 2005 MALIBU -- After years of legal battling, beachgoers Thursday finally got to take the direct route to the ocean in front of David Geffen's Malibu estate. About 15 public-access advocates were on hand for Thursday's ceremonial opening of the walkway to the beach. They sipped champagne outside the record producer's property on Pacific Coast Highway as dolphins frolicked a few yards offshore. "The ability to enjoy these dolphins and get in the sand is the right of everybody," said Sara Wan, a member of the state's Coastal Commission. "The public owns this beach. The public has a right to get to this beach." Activists toasted the opening of a 9-foot-wide access easement at Geffen's sprawling Malibu beachfront enclave after he made good on a 22-year-old legal promise to let the public use it to reach "wet" sand. The ceremony took place under the watchful eye of a video surveillance camera installed by Geffen. Several times, a security guard appeared to warn visitors who stepped out of the beach easement area that they were trespassing on Geffen's property. Once he ordered someone to move a beach umbrella that was leaning onto the producer's beach area. The 9-foot-wide easement, now enclosed by two sets of wooden gates, will allow the public to walk from Pacific Coast Highway to Carbon Beach. The walkway will open to the public Monday, said Steve Hoye, head of Access for All, the nonprofit group that will oversee the access path. He said workers will be hired to monitor the walkway and the public's use of beach areas in front of Geffen's property. The easement across Geffen's property is the first of 10 new pathways to the beach that the California Coastal Commission is pushing to open in some of the most exclusive enclaves in Malibu. There are more than 100 other blocked routes to the shoreline through seaside residential communities. Geffen made a legal promise to open the pathway in 1983, when he received permits from the commission to begin building his Cape Cod-style compound over multiple beachfront lots. He had been embroiled in litigation -- settled earlier this year -- over the public access question. Access for All recently received a $35,000 grant from the Coastal Conservancy, which, among other things, will help design and construct a new locking gate that will automatically open at sunrise and close at sunset. Those will be the hours of operation, he said. Geffen agreed to dismiss his lawsuit and the Coastal Commission will dismiss its countersuit, which could have sought fines of $1,000 or more per day if it proved Geffen had knowingly and intentionally violated the Coastal Act. The Coastal Commission has been engaged in 21 legal fights over long-promised access ways across private property for the public to reach the shore or stroll along the beach. On Malibu's fabled beach Thursday afternoon, resident Jayna Mins and her 8-month-old son, Ryder, were the first to use the new access path. She lives across Pacific Coast Highway from Geffen and hurried over when she saw the gate open. "I've lived here 12 years and have never been able to cross the street and go to the beach," she said as her son played in the sand. "We could see it and smell it, but we couldn't touch it." ******************************************* Born: 21-Feb-1943 Gender: Male Level of fame: Somewhat Father: Abraham Geffen (scholar, d. 1961) University: Brooklyn College CBS studio usher 
David Geffen 
AKA David Lawrence Geffen
Birthplace: Brooklyn, NY
Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Gay
Occupation: Business
Executive summary: Music industry mogul
Mother: Batya Volovskaya (corset maker)
Brother: Mitchell Geffen (older)
Girlfriend: Cher (broken engagement, 1973-74)
Girlfriend: Marlo Thomas (ex)
University: University of Texas at Austin
Russian Ancestry Paternal
Ukrainian Ancestry Maternal
Jewish Ancestry
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#1. To: Zipporah, 1776, Diana, Eoghan, Dakmar, Elliot Jackalope, Don (#0)
Power to the People ping!
about effing time. You let these creeps keep going and they'll start buying up all the breathable air. I hope dear Babs' residence is under this same order. The nerve of these people. I bought the land, so I own the coast. I don't work that way. People should have put together a bunch of rafts and sat 6 feet off HIS beach with huge insulting signs. Arrogant jerks.
It should be a memorable Memorial Day weekend. ;) Note: all California beaches are public. He broke the law and then made the state spend years trying to get the people's rights back. I suspect he'll be moving before long.
Vow, goyim on a Jewish beach, what's the world coming too!? BTW, isn't 4WD public access to Laguna Beach still open? It was when I lived in the area in 1990...we drove the USMC Humvees out as driver training. Also, they just closed our outer banks beach 4WD access here in NC due to a bird nesting site spotted. (Escort access only).
Geffen should have thought of that one. I don't know about 4WD access to Laguna. I rather doubt it. Sounds like you had a bit of fun there once.
Yes, we did...I guess it was a few miles south of Laguna to drive on beach...
#2. To: robin (#0)
#3. To: Mekons4 (#2)
#4. To: robin (#0)
#5. To: Eoghan (#4)
due to a bird nesting site spotted
#6. To: robin (#5)
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