Time to Take Back the Beach

Re “End of the Line Is in Sight for El Morro Mobile Homes,” April 12:

Every time I drive on Coast Highway past the El Morro Mobile Home Park in Crystal Cove State Park, I think, “What a shame it is that the California public cannot enjoy that wonderful beach.” Hopefully, this situation will change before too long.

Though tenants have had more than 20 years to continue living there after the land was purchased as part of Crystal Cove State Park, the people of California who purchased the land have been excluded from using the “slice of heaven” that one of the occupants speaks of.

In the past, every time their leases have expired, the mobile home owners have been able to get extensions on their leases and continue to defer their departure. Let’s hope that this time, when their leases expire in 2004, public pressure and park officials will prevail and the California public will all be able at last to have a chance to enjoy that beautiful spot.

FERN PIRKLE

President, Friends of the

Irvine Coast

Corona Del Mar

*

Re “Paradise Leased,” April 15:

In the early 1950s we tent-camped on the sand at El Morro Beach. I remember the excitement as people dug trenches around the camp sites during high tide to keep from being flooded by the ocean. My mother loved it when she and her sister gathered the cousins together for their week of vacation at El Morro.

I have never driven by without a brief recall of that time and of my childhood lack of understanding as to why “they” took that beach away from us and wishing I could spend some time there again. Finally that will happen!

BARBARA HOWARD

San Clemente

*

The state parks department’s commitment to finally end the El Morro Mobile Home Park’s 22-year possession of prime oceanfront parkland deserves applause. Signaling a new era at Crystal Cove State Park, Gov. Gray Davis has properly recognized the need for coastal access and public use as opposed to exclusive occupation by the privileged few.

Shouldn’t the tenants’ good fortune in enjoying a 20-year “relocation benefit” (1979-99) plus a recent five-year extension produce gratitude and a peaceful departure rather than an ongoing battle by lobbyists and lawyers to extend their stay “well beyond 2004”?

ED MERRILEES

Laguna Beach