Give Beach A Chance
Today the community and the north property owner met with City Council Member, Joy Hollingsworth. It was an honest and energized exchange. It was so helpful to see people in person and hear everyone’s perspective. Out from behind our keyboards and into talky-space! Amidst the frustration there was hope. Thanks for listening, Joy.
Emily explained the proposed plan for Hidden Beach (currently under review with the City), Daniel explained the wetland issue and the future tree canopy, Grace and Libby gave historical perspective about the street end and the plan to keep it a vital public gem. Neighbors from across the street and a few houses down expressed their love of Hidden Beach and described it as an “asset” that had been part of their decision to buy homes in the area.
The homeowner to the north respectfully laid out their point of view. It couldn’t have been easy to do with the current mood. Today could be a turning point—Jonathan deserves credit for joining the meeting.
There is a way forward. For everyone. Nobody gets everything they want, but everyone gets what they need. And beyond needs, there is more green, more breathing room, and an off-ramp to normalized relations.
THE PLAN (see the drawing here)
widen and center the entrance
allow a driveway for the north homeowners
move the loading zone from in front of the north homeowners to the center with an open sidewalk
push back the south homeowners concrete driveway that currently takes up half of the entrance
install plants and trees—green it up!
BEYOND THE PLAN
stop the video monitoring of the public
stop private security intimidation of the public
normalize relations, normalize respect, work on being neighborly
give beach a chance
animated before/after below (give it 7 seconds to load)
