The media did it! Photos: The Daily Breeze/Flickr
The Lunada Bay debacle is already ridiculous, and it just got a little more ridiculous. A few days ago, the Mayor of Palos Verdes Estates blamed the media for the fact that the city of PV ignored years of complaints.
Here’s what I think happened: the city ignored complaints for years, and the media found out about it and reported on it. They did that because it was something that happened, and that’s what the media does. Depending on which story you hear, one of two things is going on down at Lunada Bay:
1. A couple of rich, spoiled people who, for a long time, have been protected by people who shouldn’t be protecting them, or
2. A whole bunch of people have been lying about what goes on there for years for no reason at all.
While I haven’t been down there myself, it stands to reason that the first option is the most likely. For those that aren’t caught up on Lunada, here’s the short version. A group of surfers dubbed “The Bay Boys” wanted to keep a little piece of their own surf heaven to themselves. The accusations of non-Bay Boys go something like this: “they threw rocks at me/sprayed beer at me/showed me their dicks/waxed my windows/slashed my tires/punched my baby. We’re going to sue!” The Bay Boys are like, “what? We’re not even a gang! Fuck you! Stay out of our rock fort and off our waves so we can drink our beer and talk about football and tell exaggerated stories about waves we once surfed!” The Palos Verdes cops agree with the Bay Boys, kick their feet up, interlace their fingers behind their heads, and say “yeah, you whiners! They’re not even a gang! Just don’t go down there or a group of people that congregate in an area will throw rocks at you and threaten your life! But they’re not a gang, or we’d have done something about it!” And then the PV officials chime in, saying, “we didn’t ignore anything! The media! IT WAS THE MEDIA!” Of course, that’s paraphrasing and no one actually said all that, but you get the idea.
So now that you’re all caught up, let’s get to the meat of this. Last week, PV Estates officials accused the media–the LA Times and the Palos Verdes Peninsula News in particular–of insinuating that the city ignored the complaints of the Bay Boys’ activities.
“Recent images and statements cast by the news media are false and misleading,” said Mayor Jennifer King in a statement. “We encourage the public not to jump to conclusions based on a few statements taken out of context or a few false and inflammatory allegations raised in a lawsuit.”
According to the lawsuit itself, “[The Police department] has a long history of deliberate indifference in not investigating or otherwise policing acts of violence and vandalism against visiting beachgoers. Despite decades of complaints, the response is always the same: City leaders acknowledge the problem, promise to do something, and then do little or nothing.”
Here’s the thing, though (actually, a few things): Just a few weeks ago, the LA Times used the California Public Records Act to uncover correspondence between City Manager Tony Dahlerbruch, Police Chief Jeff Kepley, and City Council members that “indicates that city leaders repeatedly downplayed the alleged harassment by the Bay Boys against other surfers at Lunada Bay.” Read the whole thing here. Since January of 2015, the department filed more than 12 incidents at Lunada Bay. And yet, there have been no arrests.
The final kick in the dick for surfers who want to surf a wave that’s not really all that great that often came from Mayor King again. “Our city administration is focused on ensuring our residents and local businesses — as well as visitors — are treated fairly and equitably, and that our open areas remain attractive and available for public use.” But they DON’T remain attractive and available for public use, because people are too scared to go down to Lunada Bay. To deny that is like saying that apples don’t exist while you’re eating an apple.
Jim Nyman, though, disagrees with Mayor King. He’s a former mayor and a member of the city council. “The Bay Boys have been a problem for many years and I think they deserve to be in jail,” he wrote. “About 20 years ago they actually attempted to kill a friend of mine (who lives in Lunada Bay) by tossing softball-sized boulders on him from the cliff. He escaped by placing his surfboard on his head! This is a long-standing issue that no one, including me, cared enough to resolve.”
You know what’s the worst? When someone denies something that is undeniable. There has clearly been an issue at Lunada Bay for years, and now that the problem is having a whole lot of light shed on it, the Mayor is blaming the media for an issue in her own backyard. Instead, all she’s got to do is say “hey, sorry we’ve been blowing it. In the future, we’ll make sure no one gets rocks chucked at their heads at Lunada Bay.”
