A Renewed Buoyancy About Piers

There is something refreshingly real yet magical about piers.

They can take you out to sea to enjoy in relative safety its expanse, scents, surf and mesmerizing sunsets.

From piers, also, you can glimpse from a vantage point the delights of the beach, or look back for a rare synoptic view of the sprawling beach towns and the city and mountains beyond.

And in this increasingly avaricious, pay-as-you-go or one-admission-price-covers-all city, the piers are free.

To enduring fishermen, the piers occasionally even reward the old-fashioned virtues of patience, fortitude and hope with a day’s catch.

Or, as on the Santa Monica Pier with its captivating carrousel, bumper car ride and funky food stands and shops, they can evoke the spirit of a festive, if frayed, past when seaside promenading was a popular weekend activity.

Indeed, in the 1920s Santa Monica Bay was a promenader’s paradise, studded with so-called pleasure piers replete with careening roller coasters, opulent restaurants and all sorts of honky-tonk attractions, fanciful sights and enticing smells.

Then came the Depression, World War II, the liberating car, Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm and Magic Mountain, among other distractions, along with fires and bruising surfs, to reduce the piers to a frail few.

These thoughts came to mind last weekend when, at the Manhattan Beach Old Hometown Fair, I was asked to sign a petition to save the 66-year-old Manhattan Beach Pier. Circulating the petition was the local historical society, which declared in a mimeographed handout that the pier, a vital element in the community’s identity and character, was threatened.

It seems that the county, not wanting to foot a steep repair bill and worried about liability, on Oct. 1 had turned the pier over to the state. According to an organization appropriately labeled Pier Pressure, the state is now considering whether to repair, replace or possibly tear down the structure, and has asked for public opinion. Hence the petition.

In Manhattan Beach, emotions concerning the pier are running as deep as summer tans there, and that’s deep.

Residents are worried that if the pier is replaced--at an estimated cost of $4 million--the state will insist it be encrusted with food stands and shops to generate funds to pay for the structure and its continued maintenance. From the state’s point of view, this is not an entirely unreasonable request in these days of tightening budget strings.

Most Manhattan Beach residents want the crumbling concrete pier simply repaired--at an estimated cost of $2 million--and the marine study laboratory, bathrooms and hamburger stand at its ocean end kept at their present modest size. And, of course, they want the state to foot the bill.

But Manhattan Beach is a bottom-line community that understands finances, and on the pier itself, along with the odors of hot dogs, hamburgers, tanning lotion, fresh-caught fish and the sea itself, I smelled a compromise brewing.

Nevertheless, I took a stand. Being sentimental in general about piers and specifically about Manhattan Beach, where I was married some years ago in a house overlooking the ocean, I signed the petition and also purchased a T-shirt declaring “THE MANHATTAN BEACH PIER, AN IRREPLACEABLE LANDMARK.”

Thoughts of piers also prompted me to pay a visit to Santa Monica Pier and see how its restoration was progressing. One of the last amusement piers on the California coast, it has been battered in recent years by fierce winter storms, unsavory crowds and convoluted local politics.

Happily, the one constant in the Santa Monica stew has been a commitment from all quarters to save and upgrade the pier, and there are signs that it is at last happening.

An inviting children’s play sculpture and new stairways and ramps--designed with characteristic style by the firms of Moore Ruble Yudell and Campbell & Campbell--mark the southern entrance to the pier. There are also new pergolas, palm trees and lighting, as well as a tastefully restored carrousel building.

This, plus some freshly painted facades and the echo of a popular summer concert series there, all hinted of a more family-oriented, relaxed pier reaching out to the ocean, and to a broader community.

To be sure, much more needs to be done to restore the pier and its spirit. Like people over time, piers change and need care.