By John Noot Venice
The City Council (tonight) will consider an ordinance to regulate surfing classes on the beach and protect the fiefdoms of its currently favored surf instructors. To protect its chosen few surf teachers against the dangers of rampant competition, the council will consider enacting regulations to make it difficult or impossible to set up new schools and compete against the established ones.
This protection of the current monopoly is unwise and unneeded. The competition provided by the multiple schools teaching surfing last summer helped increase the quality of instruction while holding down the cost. City Hall should eliminate all subsidized programs and let the schools compete fairly and openly. The result would be a saving to the taxpayers of Santa Monica and increased program availability.
The council shouldn’t try to fix what isn’t broken. Less regulation and more competition will benefit everyone.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 8, 2008. Read the original PDF.