Lifeguards staffing up for holiday weekend
As hundreds of thousands of people are expected to head to the beach this weekend — the unofficial start of summer — local authorities are gearing up to handle the influx.
There will be more lifeguards, police, trash collectors and parking officers placed throughout town and its sandy shores to be ready to deal with the increased pressure of people.
Santa Monica Police Department Lt. Frank Fabrega said additional officers will be deployed in high traffic areas, as well as patrolling throughout the city. That means residents and visitors will see more uniformed cops directing traffic, patrolling the beach on ATVs and motorcycling the streets. More park rangers also will be deployed.
For the fifth year in a row, Santa Monica officers will be directing traffic at key intersections throughout the downtown and beach areas every weekend throughout the summer to keep vehicles and pedestrians moving safely and easily about town.
Fabrega said people should expect delays with the crowds.
“It’s going to be busy, so please be patient with pedestrians if you are driving,” he said. “And if you are walking, please be patient with vehicles.”
The SMPD’s traffic division suggests motorists steer clear from the more well-known routes into downtown.
“Lincoln Boulevard and Fifth Street are far less crowded approaches to downtown than Fourth Street,” said Lt. Clinton Muir, head of SMPD’s traffic division. “We encourage visitors to ‘take the Fifth’ toward downtown, and beachgoers to take Fourth south to Pico to the south beach parking lots if arriving after 11 a.m., when parking becomes scarce on or near the pier.”
Parking is less — $6 all day or $1 an hour for a 2-hour maximum stay — in south beach lots accessible from Pico Boulevard and Barnard Way, with free shuttle service to the pier and Promenade.
At the beach, city staff have been preparing for the crowds this past week. The snow fence that prevents the sand from drifting inland from the winter weather has been removed and more garbage cans are being placed along the shore, said Elaine Polachek, City Hall’s open space manager.
After a holiday weekend, solid waste collectors pick up tons of garbage — much of which doesn’t make it into garbage cans.
“We hope (the public) realizes what a precious resource we have and they need to protect it,” Polachek said.
Los Angeles beaches see about 50 million visitors every year, making it one of the busiest in the world.
Lifeguard towers, which have been dormant all winter, are being moved to permanent summer locations on the sand, the buoy line south of the pier has been put up and on-call lifeguards are being brought in when the beaches fill up.
Memorial Day weekend attracts about 500,000 people to the beach between the northern limit of Santa Monica and Marina del Rey. Lifeguard captains stationed at the headquarters next to the Santa Monica Pier monitor beach activity and estimate how big the crowds are. When they see people arriving in droves, they start calling in their part-time recruits.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 27, 2005. Read the original PDF.