By Ted Winterer Santa Monica
(Last) Wednesday morning, my baby boy got me up before dawn, so he, the dog and I hoofed over to Peet’s on Main Street to drink coffee and read the paper.
That day’s edition of the LA Times carried a front page article noting that 2006 was the warmest year on record in the lower 48 (states) and that global warming was irrefutably the cause of this climate shift.
The boys and I the ambled down the beach path towards the pier just prior to sun-up. Lights were blazing on the Ferris wheel, the roller coaster and Bubba Gump — as they had been all night long, and as they seem to be every night (this was not my first dawn patrol walk by the pier).
I guess the lights are a marketing tool, a gaudy come hither gesture to lure folks to the pier. But who’s the target at 3 a.m.? Migrating gray whales? Dozing pelicans? What’s the point of consuming all that energy to light the pier overnight when the polar ice caps are melting? Isn’t this city supposed to be dedicated to sustainability?
Perhaps city officials and the Pier Restoration Corporation have little control over how and when the pier tenants turn on their lights. But the 1550 parking lot operated by City Hall south of the pier also is lit up through the night. Isn’t this just conspicuous and unnecessary waste?
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 18, 2007. Read the original PDF.