Off-roaders and campers on our beach and dunes do not bring to our community as much money as the off-road industry and state bureaucrats make us believe. Most tourists camping on the beach eat non-expensive food usually brought from home or bought at big local grocery stores that don’t need the off-roaders to make money anyway.
One trailer parked on the beach might accommodate more than one family, for a modest fee of $10 per night. A hotel around here might charge, for two or three nights, up to $500 or $600. Camping on Oceano Beach is much cheaper. A $10 campsite allows a vehicle and up to seven people. A thousand vehicles per night could mean up to 7,000 people spending no more than $10,000 for sleeping. The fees go to the state, and selected off-road businesses rent big toys for big money while the rest of us idiots have to pay for fire trucks, ambulances, hospitals, cleanups and, worst of all, have to breathe their dust.
A moratorium on driving on our beach and dunes would certainly result in fewer tourists of that kind. However, fewer people who stayed in motels and ate at restaurants would bring in so much more money for everyone, not just for the off-road magnates and the state. People could still camp on the beach, of course, if they carried all their stuff on their back, just as one is suppose to do when one goes camping.
This article appears in Jun 10-17, 2010.