Ventura: nightmare at the beach

General Discussion
1

I'm just back from a weekend trip to the coast, which started off badly.  Here's the letter I just mailed off to the Ventura newspaper (letters to the editor).

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County Park Scam or Surfer-Hating Petty Despot?
 
A former resident of Ventura, I now reside in Bakersfield.  But I still love Ventura, and the waves that break along her shores.  At age 54, I chose a surfboard over shuffleboard, and returned to the ocean sport after a long hiatus.  On Jan. 9th, a beautiful Saturday morning trip to Faria Beach quickly turned ugly, however, when a park ranger with an attitude unleashed her venom on myself and my unsuspecting wife.  My wife had dropped me off, and stopped in the "wrong" place (we had no idea - it seems it was an "overnight" spot), in an open stretch of available parking near the south end of the park.  I had climbed out, all excited to try my new home-made wooden surfboard, and I got my surfing gear ready, which took all of 5 minutes, and then my wife was off to the yardsales.  As she was about to pull out, a "Ranger Sylvia" showed up, with a  chip on her shoulder, a look of seething hatred, and a clear case of unmitigated prejudice. 
 
She immediately began shouting that we were in the wrong spot, that she hated surfers, and was "so sick" of them.  So there it was - I was a despised "surfer", and my wife had stopped in the wrong place to drop me off!  Although it turns out the printed park rules allow for a 30 minute grace period for those using an overnight spot to park first and then pay (which I did, once I found out), we were fined $75 within 5 minutes of arriving.   Now, I was probably surfing here back when Ranger Sylvia's diaper, and not just her attitude, was full of, well, never mind - but I had never heard of this rule (which probably didn't exist back then).  When I tried to pay the $30, her assistant "Ranger Bacon" refused to take my money, saying "you're full of [excrement]", "I don't work here", and "don't waste your money", all the while threatening to write another parking ticket! 
 
Wow, what a scam - we won't take your $30 for using the parking spot - but we'll fine you $75 for not having paid!  I finally had to deposit my check in a metal depository.  Do these people think that prejudice, hatred, and abusive behavior are legitimized by beaureaucratic double-talk and county uniforms?  Or is this just a money-making ploy for an ailing county budget?  I went to the beach to enjoy the sport of surfing, and I paid with a $75 fine, a $30 parking fee, and an earful of hatred.  Guess which one hurts the most?
2

power trip

id file a complaint against “parking attendant” Sylvia along with the petition to nullify the ticket.  They are there to serve the public not abuse them.

3

I witnessed an elderly couple come to the turn around at Cardiff parking lot, they kept the car running and only watched the waves for less than a minute, a Ranger rolled up blocking them in and had his all ready written ticket and placed it under their wiper blade, the man started to get out to say something, but the ranger told him to get back in the car or get another ticket

4

This really touches a nerve.  The latest money-raising scheme to replenish the county coffers in every city in SoCal (particularly the beach cities) is to put on the full court press for parking and traffic tickets.  In West LA where I live, there is literally a traffic cop at every other corner, nailing people for going 2-5 miles over the limit.  LAPD has three traffic cops stationed between my house and PCH, a distance of 3 miles on a more or less deserted residential road that dead ends in the hills. 

I got two parking tickets surfing in Santa Monica within 7 days, totalling 130 dollars.  Their new scheme is to change parking regulations every few weeks to throw everyone off, and make the parking signs so complicated that you could stare at them for hours without figuring out whether it's legal to park. 

People deride lawyers all the time (and rightfully so) but someone needs to sue the living hell out of the cities to force them to quit raping the taxpayers.

5

Yeah, I hear that.  On a recent trip to Malibu, we made a left turn at a signal.  Turns out that posted signs (that are like a paragraph long) say there are no left turns between such and such an hour on such and such days.  A cop was parked right there, leaning against his hood.  Waiting for the easy money.  He flagged us down.  My buddy got fined $300! - and harassed for having a Utah drivers' license when his car was registered in Calif. 

Of course, Utah made him turn in his Calif. drivers' license before they'd issue the Utah one, and the car is registered in Calif. because that's where his second home is, and where he keeps the car.  But he was threatened with having his car impounded, because he might have gotten a Utah license because maybe his Calif. one was revoked for some allegedly illegal behavior (my friend is a guy who is as straight-arrow and law-abiding as they come, works in Utah as a ski-slope rescue patrolman).  "Scofflaw" was the term this baffoon used, we laughed about it later.  Where do they get these incompetent fools?   Public servants, sworn to protect and defend, uh-huh, yeah.

6

i was wondering the other day if i felt the world was against me. i had nothing more to loose and hated the whole world and it hated me to the verge of suicide. i could at least always become a parking attendant

. it would be nice to find out where they live and hire a dump truck to empty two tonnes of monopoly money. fake parking tickets or junkmail on there front lawn

7

if you lived here you’d understand where she-and many of the residents-are getting the attitude. people park all up and down the area illegally all the time and when they go they leave a pile of trash, baby diapers,condoms and their piss and crap as well. i think the should start towing illegally parked cars. that would be a money maker…

8

[quote="$1"]

if you lived here you'd understand where she-and many of the residents-are getting the attitude. people park all up and down the area illegally all the time and when they go they leave a pile of trash, baby diapers,condoms and their piss and crap as well. i think the should start towing illegally parked cars. that would be a money maker....

[/quote]

I get it - I've had some bad experiences with black people - so then I guess its OK to hate and abuse all black people, because of the bad things that some of them do? 

I've never left a pile of trash, nor any baby diapers, nor condoms, nor piss nor crap.  And I don't park illegally.  In fact, I haven't even gone surfing for the past 23 years! - so whatever bad conduct has taken place at your home break for the last 23 years has nothing to do with me.  I only recently decided to get back into it.  So, No Matt, sorry, I don't "understand" if people want to treat me like a vicious criminal just because I'm a surfer.

Her reaction was typical of an abusive coward - don't confront those actually committing the bad acts, oh no, instead go for the "easy target", a law-abiding citizen who just happened to stop in the wrong spot for a moment.  If those doing the wrong acts you enumerate are breaking the law, then let law enforcement prosecute them.  Don't condone county officials who hide behind a green uniform and spew nazi mentality on innocent bystanders who come for a day of recreation in the surf.

That's just my opinion, you are entitled to your own, of course.

9

Had similar happen to me in NorCal at Dillon Beach.  I was in the “private housing” area above the beach at end of dead end street, sign at entrance but no gate and nothing about not driving in there…  Perfect place to check the surf while staying warm in your car.  Security came with a heavy, threatening attitude, stiff legged strut starting into my personal body space etc, ranting about drug users and people taking a crap on the trail down to beach.

I told him I sympathized w/ him and the residents, and he was very fortunate to ranting at me since I was none of those and quite harmless and non-violent. AND a lot of low life people these days carry knives and even guns and if he routinely treated people the way he was treating me he could be seriously injured or killed.

OOOOooo, he got a funny look on his face.  Started to apologize immediately.  Still warned me not to come back but he did a pretty quick attitude adjustment there.

10

Wow Huck.  That is absolutely a total BS, power trip, money-plundering scheme they have going there.  I remember the parking in Providence, RI to be very similar.  However, my worst experience with these public servant clowns was being handcuffed and held at gunpoint by an Amtrak cop for crossing the tracks while out walking.  Apparently a couple (high on meth) committed suicide on the tracks in that area a week prior and the cop thought they were doing me a favor . . .    They ran my ID through some criminal data base and nothing came up, but wouldn't let me go until I apologized for using profanity.  I contacted Amtrack several times and finally got through to the HDIC and he said they were only doing their jobs and that I'm lucky I wasn't fined for breaking the law by crossing the tracks!  Yeah, looking back on it I do feel so lucky to have to constantly look over my shoulder for these freaks every time I step out the door. 

Hope you get some justice, but wouldn't be surprised if you didn't. 

11

[quote="$1"]

...came with a heavy, threatening attitude, stiff legged strut starting into my personal body space etc, ranting about ... [/quote]

That was it.  Threatening attitude, getting in my face, ranting about surfers who put on their wetsuits without paying the $30 overnight fee.  No friendliness, no reasonableness, no manners or respect or human dignity whatsoever.  Just abuse, pure and simple.

12

[quote="$1"]

Hope you get some justice, but wouldn't be surprised if you didn't. 

[/quote]

What a crock (your amtrak experience).  Thanks for the sentiment - you're right, I won't expect justice.  I'll dispute the ticket, and report the abuse, and that's really all I can do.  That, and tell my story to alert others to what's going on there.  Usually the one thing abusive people hate is having their abusive behavior exposed to the public.

13

This particular ranger is very well known in the area. The campground at Faria and Hobson’s Park both have day parking spots which are posted 7:00AM to Sunset. She WILL strictly enforce the rules. I have two friends that both received tickets for parking there between 6:55AM and 6:59AM. My wife pulled in to Hobson’s at 6:59AM. The ranger saw her from across the campground, walked over and started to write her ticket. My wife asked why, the ranger stated that she was there a minute before 7:00AM. Wife looked at watch and said “no way, it’s 7:01AM” and showed the ranger. She let her off with a stern warning.

If you wrote a check for $30.00, you should cancel it ASAP. The overnight spots on the perimeter of both parks can only be used by self-contained overnight vehicles, or vehicles equipped as a camper or utilizing tents. If you’re wife dropped you off in a car, SUP, van or truck that does not meet the criteria, then the park cannot accept payment, however, they can still cite you. This was explained to us years ago by one of the “nice” rangers.

I fully understand the resident’s beef with garbage and human waste. Unfortunately, there are large numbers of “non locals” that visit the area on weekends, don’t follow the rules, and leave their garbage on the roadside and beaches. The thing is; it’s pretty obvious who these people are. And Psycho Sylvia is overstepping the bounds of good judgement by lumping you in with them.

It’s unfortunate that you had to experience this. The city of Ventura has been trying to clean up it’s image over the past few years. It’s too bad that some “officials” just don’t have the social skills to do it properly.

 

14

I left Cali in 1986 for reasons like this-when we lost free parking at Topanga, I knew the end was near.

A little authority goes a long way with these uniformed assholes.

I still surf through Cali yearly and see the changes, we gave an inch back in the day and they took a mile.

Sorry.

We should have burned the kiosks to the ground when we had the chance (we did get the one at Plaskett twice…)

The only hope for continued access without parking tickets and harrassement is revolt, make it NOT pay for those with the authority (which you gave them).

Up here, access is never an issue, 90 percent of the beach is free and has some sort of trail or parking.

A concerted effort on your part might change things but usually, once the horse is out of the barn, he ain’t going back. Not with the money to be made.

A few years a go, we were doing our overnight parking near the post office in Encinitas, surf all day, sleep all night, dicreetly as to not get a 125.00 ‘sleeping in a vehicle/illegal camping’ ticket nor paying for a ‘site’ next to a friggin’ highway.

We were rousted early one morning by SDSO, searched us, torn the van apart, you know the drill.

After a nice twenty minute conversation with the sheriff, telling him how low budget we were and how this trip was the highlight of our dreary Oregon existence, he was cool and walked away-we didn’t get bothered again and stayed there another 5 days.

The same drill happens in Santa Cruz for us, we are cool, fly low and avoid all radar, the few times we have been rousted, the cops were cool and simply let us be.

But the privatized State Park concessionairs are the worst to deal with in Cali, when confronted by these people, we don’t bother saying a word, we pack up and leave, paying no mind to anything they have to say-stop, freeze or otherwise.

 

Ah, the good old days, when you could park anywhere, camp anywhere and surf as much as you pleased…

We fucked that up, didn’t we?

 

 

Huck, might be cheaper to move to the beach.

 

 

 

15

I don't want to sound like an ahole, but I'm getting tired of all the urban campers in SD.  They are freekin everywhere.  You see big dirty '80s style campers parked everywhere around mission bay, and on the street near my house.  They aren't low key folks like you guys.  They leave beer bottles, and trash everywhere.  They are basically drunken bums on wheels.  I wish the Police could move them out of here, but some ordinance experied last year and the city hasn't been able to get it renewed. 

Regarding the ticket Huckleberry got in Ventura, I'm with you.  I got ticketed a few times up at Jalama, when I lived up there in the 90's.  That really used to piss me off.  It was always good fun though, hiding from the security gaurds at Naples.  When you saw a mini pick-up coming you had to make a break for the beach, and hoped that you didn't run into any bulls.

16

[quote="$1"]   This particular ranger is very well known in the area. [/quote]

So I have come to learn.  Rules are rules, but if she wants to enforce them hardball for others, then she should follow them herself.  Which she didn't do.

[quote="$1"]   I fully understand the resident's beef [/quote]

Oh yeah, so do I.  Only problem is, it has NOTHING to do with me, my wife, or my 5 minute use of the park as a drop-off.  People are always looking to vent on an easy target.  Like a child abuser who says he was abused as a child - he has all this anger, but he doesn't attack his perpetrator, he attacks an innocent child who can't defend themselves.  I might feel sorry that he was abused, but I will never condone his becoming a perpetrator because of it.

[quote="$1"]    It's unfortunate that you had to experience this. The city of Ventura has been trying to clean up it's image over the past few years. It's too bad that some "officials" just don't have the social skills to do it properly.   [/quote]

Yeah, it seems like if you hate people, then you shouldn't work with the public.  In the end, these people reap what they sow, and I don't need to try to make it right, or change them.  I'm just gonna report the abuse, pay the fine if I have to (I am disputing it, believe me), and move on.

17

No offense taken, two different breeds, low key, low budget surfers on a surf trip versus others who really screw things up for any body. I would not piss in any ones driveway, I treasure the little spots we have cultivated over the years for such trips.

We can do Swami’s/Cardiff for ten days on 300.00…including daily Juanita’s!

Lots of poor folk are living in thier cars, up here there are a few but not like LA or SD where they take over entire 'hoods and trash the place. A little compassion is good…but in the end, these situations screw it up for every one.

I wouldn’t want them on my street either.

I am a member of couchsurfing.com so places to stay in SD and SC are afffordable now, just as I offer my sailboat and cottage up here to travelers on a budget.

And for you Swami’s surfers, yep, the guys in the big green Ford van that seem to be the first in the lot and the last to leave it during a good swell…lolz.

 

18

[quote="$1"]   I don't want to sound like an ahole, but I'm getting tired of all the urban campers in SD.  They are freekin everywhere.  You see big dirty '80s style campers parked everywhere around mission bay, and on the street near my house.  They aren't low key folks like you guys.  They leave beer bottles, and trash everywhere.  They are basically drunken bums on wheels.  I wish the Police could move them out of here, but some ordinance experied last year and the city hasn't been able to get it renewed.  [/quote]

I totally understand the frustration of dealing with these type people.  My main beef is with prejudice and abuse, grouping people mentally and then feeling justified in abusing anyone in that group.  It's wrong.  But yeah, drunken bums on wheels are not a good thing.  People who use a public park to drop off a surfer ain't necessarily drunken bums, 'tho, that's all I'm saying! 

BTW, for anyone who wants to group me in with 'drunken vagabonds' - I stayed overnight at the Marriot Hotel, paid for my room, parked in their parking lot, used my hotel toilet.  All I did was use the county beach park for a drop-off while my wife went off to do something else.  Not sure how that seems to put me in with people who drop dirty diapers on the roadside, or spend the night in a beat-up van on someone's street, etc.  I own my home and business, pay my taxes, obey the law, etc., etc.  blahblahblah

19

This brings back what happend to me last spring except where I live in New Jersey. I checked the surf on Howe st in Bayhead and it was 5:30 am and the surf was pumpin, I was so excited I didn't notice I parked in a handicap space. I went surfing with my brother came out to a ticket, felt like a total ass not knowing I parked in a handicap, so I read the sign posted and it said first offense $100.00 so I took a picture of the sign and brought it with me to court. The prosecuter came around to everyone to find out why they where there, he got to me and I explained my fault just here to pay and I showed him the photo and he said no problem my son is a surfer I know how you guys get being excited and thanks for being honest. I get in front of the judge and he rips me a new one " you surfers think you can park anywhere you please, you don't obey the law, you are all a bunch of punks. I calmly told the judge I'm 45 yrs old I have no record for anything it was my fault for being careless and then I showed him the photo of the sign that says first offense $100.00. Well he got so pissed I thought his head was gonna split open " How dare you come in my court and tell me what you are going to pay, who do you think you are " i said I'm nobody i'm just here to pay my ticket. So the prosecuter stepped in and tries to calm the judge down saying he is here to pay and the sign does say $100.00. The judge looks at me and says the fine for parking in a handicapped is $330.00 but since it was your first time your fine is $200.00. I bit my tongue and as I was writing the check the judge gave the photo I took of the sign to one of the officers there and said " get that sign down tomorrow and put up the new ones. I went back the following week just to see if they changed them and sure enough the signs are changed. I stay at my home break in Avon and will not go surfing in Bayhead anymore

Tom

20

i didn't group anybody with anybody else. all i stated was seeing the shit that goes on there day in and day out, i can understand why and how the rangers can get pissed. besides, how do we know that she didn't just have a crazy ordeal go down right before she met up with you and your wife? could be she was still "excitable" from a previous ordeal.being a park ranger sounds like a cool job, but i have a few friiends that were or are, and the crap and people they have to deal with on a daily basis, tells me no thanks. wouldn't want that job.