In late March, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health closed The Strand, the bike path and the beaches for about six weeks. The order shuttered the South Bay’s greatest attraction and upended the rhythm of life for thousands of surfers, joggers and volleyball players.
The March 27 order followed a balmy weekend in the South Bay when people mobbed the area’s beaches, despite health departments shuttering businesses and urging social distancing. Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer described the beach closure as temporary, a measure needed to prevent the region’s medical system from becoming overwhelmed.
“I know how hard this is, I know how isolated everyone feels. But we’re in this together. We do it well, and we stand a chance of slowing the spread. We don’t do it well, and our numbers can exponentially grow each and every day,” Ferrer said in announcing the closure.
The order was controversial in the South Bay. An El Porto surfer was issued a $1,000 citation after repeatedly refusing to comply. Others turned to lobbying. Surfers devised an elaborate plan to create single-file lanes at select streets to allow them to access the water and presented it to Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, who represents the South Bay. Several created the group Residents for Responsible Beach Use, whose petition to reopen beaches quickly netted thousands of signatures.
Chris Brown, a Hermosa resident and one of the founders of Residents for Responsible Beach Use, argued that being in the open air, apart from others, was one of the safest things people could do, and that running on the sand or surfing made this easier to do than on crowded sidewalks and greenbelts. Continuing scientific studies would later largely confirm this theory. Authorities, however, worried that the lure of beaches would provide one more reason for people to violate stay at home orders.
“It’s not just the individual surfer. That person is fine by themselves. But what did they do to get down to the beach? Did they stop for coffee? Are they touching the parking meters? Do they stop at the bathroom on the way to the water? That times 10 million people is a level of exposure that is probably not necessary,” Lifeguard Specialist Pono Barnes, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Lifeguards, said at the time.
Despite the massive shoreline and education-first approach of authorities, compliance with the closure orders was high, or at least it was until the waters off the South Bay began glowing with the natural phenomenon known as bioluminescence. For several weekends in a row, thousands of people descended on the South Bay, gathering on the sand and Strand to watch colorful waves lap against the shore.
Los Angeles County beaches reopened May 13, but only for “active recreation,” meaning surfing or jogging; volleyball and sun bathing were still prohibited. Then, with cases spiking once again in late June, county supervisors closed the beaches for the Fourth of July weekend. A spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors said at the time that the public had largely ignored the rules about active recreation.
Beaches reopened after the Fourth of July weekend and have remained open since. Even as the region enters what is by far the period of most pervasive spread and additional restrictions are added, there has been no move to close beaches again. ER
