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# Parking and safety on city’s beaches a bigger problem than cleanliness
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/parking-and-safety-on-citys-beaches-a-bigger-problem-than-cleanliness/
- Published: 2003-11-07T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T03:10:34.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Environment, Downtown, #archive-import

Here are your responses to this week’s Q-Line question: “Are Santa Monica beaches clean and safe enough to enjoy?” ■ “No, the ocean is very contaminated. I walk along the beaches and all I find are cups, cigarettes, trash and scraps. It is very, very bad. I’ve been in Santa Monica for 50 years and this is the way it has been for all those years.” ■ “I think the beaches in Santa Monica are safe and clean, at least if you wait a day or two after it rains. What worries me about the beach is that if you are going out after dark, you take your life in your hands. The beaches should be patrolled and made safe — especially for the tourists who come to this city not knowing of the predators that lurk out there. To me, any pollution in the water pales in comparison to the danger from thieves, muggers and various other crazy people who lurk on the beach after dark.” ■ “It’s unfortunate that something as beautiful as rainfall can do so much damage to our beaches. The beach and ocean were riddled with garbage after the rainfall, so we should all try keep the streets and beach areas clean so that they don’t become wastelands after it rains. We all need rain for its healing properties — we should welcome it as much as possible.” ■ “I appreciate the efforts of our city to keep the beaches safe and clean. However, it is up to each person to contribute to this cause by not throwing their trash all over our streets and beaches. I think the city and schools should implement a campaign reminding people not to throw trash on our streets and beaches. Providing more trash containers throughout the city and on the beaches would be a great help to keeping our city and beaches clean.” ■ “Santa Monica’s beaches are clean enough and safe enough for us to enjoy. As a matter of fact, they are world-class beaches. The only hang-up that I can see is the parking problem for those visiting the Santa Monica beaches. It seems to me that if the City Council would provide more parking, it would alleviate a lot of problems because we have a lot of non-resident beach visitors who have to park in the same spaces that the shoppers do, creating over-crowded lots.” ■ “I do not believe that the Santa Monica beaches are clean and safe enough to enjoy and they haven’t been for years, starting with the Reagan administration and the government deregulation allowing industries to pollute and throw their trash into our ocean. On a smaller scale, I think that if the City of Santa Monica took some of the money for downtown beautification and put grids on the storm drains, people would not be able to throw trash down them, which flows to the ocean.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 7, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/110703.pdf?ref=smdp.com)