At least they were last night, the two vested young city beach "patrollers," watching legal fires inside the six fire rings at Alki Beach in West Seattle, while several short blocks north, on the same beach, an illegal fire of some size burned on the sand, near 55th Avenue Southwest.
Why does it matter? Urban beaches aren't ever going to be pristine, but Alki has been dogged by loads of charred wood all over the sand, as a result of illegal fires, outside the fire rings. When you can barely walk barefoot on large sections of a public beach because of sharp, charred wood chips, the city is shortchanging taxpayers. It is poor shepherding of a great public resource such as Alki to allow so much burnt wood detritus in one of Seattle's very, very few sizeable sand beaches.
City beach fire maintenance has cost an estimated $95,000 a year, as noted here (page 5).
Yet as my wife and I clearly observed last night, the beach "patrol" employees were standing around doing nothing. Or were they checking out the babes aplenty? Whatever. But they didn't even notice the illegal fire just a bit up the beach. When I pointed it out to them, one looked, and remarked that, yes, he could indeed see it. They were genuinely appreciative, and courteous, and went on their way to deal with it.
Memo to City of Seattle Parks Superintendent Ken Bounds, and Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels: the key word in Alki Beach Patrol is P-A-T-R-O-L. Or is this just for show?
Posted by Matt Rosenberg at August 05, 2005 11:50 AM | Email ThisKudos for bringing this issue up! Another thing, on my way to the office this morning a King County Sheriff's car was zooming down Barton St. with it's emergency lights flashing at 6:06 a.m...darn if it did not turn into the Fauntleroy Ferry Dock. Whoops, do not want to miss the ferry! I saw the lights go off just as the Sheriff's car was about to round the corner to go to the docks. Either way, ferry or Alki beach, I have seen this time and time again.
Posted by: Fauntleroy Resident on August 5, 2005 12:34 PMBesides sharp charred wood, what about broken glass or used hypodermic needles? They provide sharps containers on WA ferry bathrooms now. Too many junkies shooting up and leaving their soiled "works" behind in the toilet paper dispensers.
It seems like the process of providing additional beach maintenance is the path of least resistance for bureaucracy and a win-win situatition for beach users.
Posted by: beach fan on August 5, 2005 01:17 PMIt's good to have a presence there, but they have overkill. At any rate, they ought to be responsible for doing something else until they are needed for something. For example, they should be out on the beach cleaning it, picking up trash from the sidewalk, that sort of thing. When they are needed, they can drop what they are doing and go be a police officer.
Posted by: BananaLand (aka Iguana) on August 5, 2005 01:34 PMbut militia can pick up garbage (not a cop's job) and be a numerous presence; complainers have an outlet to do something real; police are releived of the mundane items and focus on serious drug and other offenders; the public feels safer with a flood of "watchers" all around; just like the neighborhood house watchers when you go on vacation; strength in numbers;
Posted by: Jimmie-howya-doin on August 5, 2005 01:59 PMI will also pick up garbage in addition to "beach fire maintenance".
And also, I don't expect benefits such as medical, dental, pension...
Posted by: Ted Bundy on August 5, 2005 02:44 PMSheesh, lighten up.
Posted by: Mark on August 5, 2005 03:21 PMI work late nights and routinely see WSDOT workers either sleeping the cab of a truck or standing around in groups doing a whole lot of nothing.
Posted by: smoke on August 5, 2005 03:29 PMWell, we can sure rule out *planning* as an activity they are carrying on.
\sarcasm off
Posted by: MikeF on August 5, 2005 04:13 PMIf you are a Seinfeld fan, you will recall Jerry suggested that in the episode "The Chinese Restaurant." "There should be one job," he said, "cop-slash-garbage man. No crime? Pick up a broom!"
Posted by: ARS on August 5, 2005 04:13 PMWell, at least you make no claim to be "fair and balanced" like FoxNews. :)
Posted by: Dan Santini on August 10, 2005 09:13 AMYep.
Zell.
He ain't bad (for a democrap).....
Posted by: alphabet soup on August 10, 2005 11:00 AMTo the guy who said give me 85k and I'll patrol the beaches and keep them clean... that's easy to say from the comfort of your air conditioned office. It's not that easy come day 3 on the job, when your feet are blistered, your ears are sunburned, you're physically exhausting yourself to clean a beach that will just be a mess again in the morning, your back hurts from yesterday when you had to wrestle a drunk to the ground because he was throwing sand at the roller-bladers, half the people you see glare at you and make you feel unwelcome, and a group of cynical white collar pricks email you from their offices to tell you that you're lazy because you stopped to catch your breath and have some water.
Posted by: Brad on August 10, 2005 12:14 PM