A Segregated Day at the Beach

I always enjoyed the California Beach Party--a low key affair--where Ventura threw a party for itself and its neighbors. Most of all, I enjoyed it for its ambience of good-natured equality that putting on beach attire seems to impart to people.

But all that is no more. The city has seen fit to erect a chain-link barricade and an admissions policy designed to encourage the admittance of some and to discourage the attendance of others. This is no secret and is readily admitted. What is left unstated in both instances is “who”?

Middle-class, mostly white families and young people from the suburbs were welcome and encouraged to come. Working-class, and by extension minority families and young people, were not. By not defining its categories, the city allows itself to discriminate against its citizens on the basis of class and race, and by maintaining the silence we all become accomplices.

The argument for the city’s adoption of a quasi-official policy of discrimination is bogus at best. The Beach Party does little to benefit local business. As one merchant observed, “Party-goers don’t buy antiques.” And by fostering the idea that Ventura is plagued by gangs, and that visitors are safe here only behind a chain-link barrier, we do nothing to encourage their return.

That the old Beach Party brought the diverse segments of our community together for two days of enjoying each others’ company was justification enough. That it made some small inroad on the de facto segregation of Ventura’s civic life was a positive community good, well worth its modest cost. It was certainly preferable to erecting yet another barrier between us.

LEN EVANS

Ventura