The National Park Service sets its sights on California’s busiest beaches

There are certain sections of Venice Beach, Mr. Trump, I wouldn't advise the United States Armed Services to invade.

The National Park Service has launched a “Special Resource Study” that puts a long stretch of Los Angeles County coastline in the federal crosshairs. From Will Rogers State Beach down to Torrance, with additional areas mapped inland, the Feds want to run the show.

On Thursday, the National Park Service announced the launch of the Los Angeles Coastal Area Special Resource Study, an early step in evaluating the area as a potential national park unit. The preliminary study area starts at Will Rogers State Beach and stretches down to Torrance Beach, skips the edge of the sinking Palos Verdes Peninsula and then includes the San Pedro coastline.

The map provided by the National Park Service also shows the study area stretching inland to include Ballona Creek and Baldwin Hills, home to both a popular hiking area and the vast Inglewood Oil Field. The study defines coastline areas as “the area from the mean high tide line of the sea to approximately 200 yards inland from the mean high tide line.”

The National Park Service will evaluate whether this study area, which includes some of Southern California’s most popular beaches and lines some of the region’s most expensive real estate, meets certain qualifications to be considered for national park status.

SF Gate

In its early stages, this study would require Congressional approval or a Presidential proclamation. However, if the NPS, which now acts more like a concessionaire than an organization tasked with the conservation and provision of access to our natural wonders, simply offers to name it after The Orange Menace, that proclamation will quickly come. The Park Service merely has to argue the coastline isn’t already “comparably represented and protected,” and that direct federal management would be “clearly superior” to the state and local entities currently running things. That’s the real story here: not beach love, but federal agencies auditioning to become your new landlord.

I used to live inside a small community surrounded by the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and I can tell you the NPS is a miserable neighbor. Law enforcement, public utilities, communications infrastructure, emergency response, and a whole slew of other things become complicated. While road repairs may take decades, you can count on the NPS to propose concessions and gift shops to generate revenue for the park. Federal shutdowns, which are increasingly common, lead to terrible conditions at and around the parks. National Park status won’t fix anything at LA beaches; it’ll just complicate them.

This is the model Los Angeles is being asked to buy into. No benefit, just displacement of responsibility. Less clarity, and federal shrugging when locals need action.

There are certain sections of Venice Beach, Mr. Trump, I wouldn’t advise the United States Armed Services to invade.