Long-term and affordable residential rentals are being eradicated from SLO County, especially from the coastal zone. We must preserve those we still have. Oceano has a few left on Pier Avenue. However, their tenants are being disproportionately impacted by State Parks’ visitors.
Tenants must suffer beach visitors in need of parking unlawfully using their private parking spaces or blocking their driveways and mail boxes. The most obnoxious and aggressive are State Parks’ patrons, beach drivers and campers stopping on their way to the beach to deflate their tires and on their way back to inflate them. Many of them are not friendly to locals, especially those who complain about their presence.
Friends of Oceano Dunes, a lobby for beach driving and off-roading, has been under investigation for illegal fundraising. In a recent public statement, their president called those locals the “enemy.” I fear that eventually Friends of Oceano Dunes will turn violent. Many of us have already been threatened and harassed.
To worsen things, State Parks is closing the beach entrance at Grand Avenue for two months, in the middle of summer. Over a thousand vehicles a day will crowd Pier Avenue, the only access to the beach. We do not oppose this construction project. We want State Parks to reduce the number of vehicles allowed onto the beach through Oceano by at least half during this construction period. The Oceano beach community is being overburdened and submerged.
Please give us a break!
Lucia Casalinuovo
Oceano
This article appears in Sep 8-15, 2022.