Beach STVR’s vs Beach Trash

Would you like to live in a neighborhood if 4.5 out of 10 houses were a short term vacation rental? Having ‘new’ neighbors every night or every week? New neighbors who do not know the laws, are on vacation thus stay up late, drink more, crowd in 20 people, leave trash all over and party hardy? New neighbors whose large cars don’t fit and take up the limited parking? New neighbors that bring their dogs and are away all day and the dog yaps all day?  New neighbors who ‘forget’ to pick up after their dogs?

If you live in a neighborhood that has been slowly or fastly turning into short term vacation rentals from AirBnB, HomeAway, FlipKey and others, then you know what I am talking about. San Diego, like many other cities has been trying to deal with this problem and how to regulate it. So finally after 4 years, San Diego is set to make a decision and our non-leadership mayor, Kevin Faulconer has decided to go for Profits before People and make some laws in San Diego BUT exclude Mission Beach.

Mission Beach and South Mission Beach is a 2 mile stretch built on sand bar. This densely packed residential area that is coming close to become a commercial zone. The lot sizes are the smallest in the city 30 x 80 ( 125o square feet) with an average of 36 dwelling units per acre. Most of the houses are duplexes.

Due to the area and beach, rentals units have alway been high, but typically it was a 9 month student rental and summers rental from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Until now….

Mayor Kevin Faulconer wants to legalize the the conversion of long-term resident housing rentals into short-term rentals for tourists, with some restrictions, except Mission Beach. He want to make an exception for our already over-crowded area to allow unlimited amount of vacation rentals.

His justification is there is not enough Hotel Rooms (a lie). He states there are only 2 hotels in Mission Beach ( a lie). There are already over 20 hotels within the zip code and 100+ more within a five mile radius. We think, he is trying to make up because he lost the Chargers and wants an expansion of the Convention Center. Those hotels- ie rooms doesn’t even count the current number of Short Term vacation rentals which according to the latest data are 44% of Mission Beach. If you go by rooms, there are more STVR bedrooms plus hotel rooms per dwelling unit in MB than there is in downtown San Diego, the number one tourist destination in SD.

More politics… can we really fight City Hall?

In general there are numerous other reasons why STRV’s should be limited. Some are specific to San Diego.

1.) Loss of community and neighborhood.

2.) Loss of neighbors: Neighborhoods change no doubt. There are no guarantees on who your neighbors will be, but you don’t even get a chance, when you might have new neighbors every week in multiple houses.

3.) Lack of affordable housing (San Diego). June 2018, average rent for an apartment in San Diego, CA is $2175 which is a 2.57% increase from last year when the average rent was $2119 , and a 2.21% increase from last month when the average rent was $2127. One bedroom apartments in San Diego rent for $1921 a month on average (a 7.29% increase from last year) and two bedroom apartment rents average $2337 (a 3.81% increase from last year). (Source) Long term residents are being kicked out as owners sell or convert to short term vacation rentals. I know of 3 long term residents that moved due to the STRV’s.

4.) Home sales: Who wants to buy a home surrounded by Short Term vacation rentals or hotels? The only people who will buy are businesses or corporations who turn the houses into Vacation Rentals or mini hotels.

5.) What happens to amenities such as schools, police, libraries and other businesses when there is no residents?

6.) Lack of law enforcement. (San Diego) San Diego Police Department as of Jan 2018 was some 200 officers short of its 2,040 budgeted positions. Issues as drinking, loud parties, speeding and more are minor issues compared to mayhem and murder. When I was attacked on the beach 3 years ago. it took them 3 hours to respond to my phone call.

6.) Absentee landlords and or property managers. Absentee landlords, do not inform renters of the laws. Absentee landlords only care getting the units rented all year.

7.) Broken laws: (San Diego) The problem with new neighbors everyday, is they do not know the laws. Therefore laws are meant to be broken. The following are a list of laws that are broken everyday, every hour in Mission Beach. Take a 5 minute walk and you can find at least 5 laws being broken without any consequences .

1. Motorized vehicles on Boardwalk
2. Double riders on scooters. We have already had 2 major accidents on scooters on the boardwalk in San Diego.
3. No helmets as required by law.
4. Speeding on boardwalk. The posted speed limit on the boardwalk is 8 mph. This is NOT being enforced.
5. Litter and Illegal Dumping: ‘We’ve made significant progress to create a cleaner San Diego and we’re just getting started,” Mayor Kevin Faulconer said in November of 2016. ‘ That is not happening: In 2017 and according to San Diego Coast Keepers: Mission Beach was the dirtiest beach in San Diego ahead of Fiesta Island and Ocean Beach. The area with the most trash removed per volunteer was Mission Bay with 3.57 pounds per volunteer. In many of the years past, we have seen Mission Bay’s beaches come out first with the most trash removed per volunteer. 2,020 pounds, to be precise – across the cleanups we held there.
6. Illegal fires average of 7 per day = at least one still lit.
7. Consuming Alcohol in public. Open Alcohol containers
8. Drinking on beach: Faulconer led the drive to ban drinking on the beach and yet it is prevalent. Every trashcan in South Mission Beach is full of alcohol containers and packaging. While some of these might be from beach front homes, the majority is from drinking on the beach. In June 2018 of the 3960 recyclables I picked off the .7 miles of oceanside beach, 45% were liquor.
9. Glass on Beach: Averaging at least 5 broken glass on boardwalk and beach. That does not include the parking lots. Of the 3960 recyclables pick up off the beach in June 2018 14. 8% were glass. Of that 12.1% were glass liquor. This is not all, as canners do not pick up glass, too heavy and not enough money. The trashcans are filled with glass bottles. Think of it this way… if 65% of people prefer drinking beer from glass.. and in June I picked up 1000 Aluminum Beer cans.. how many glass beer bottles would that be that was left on the beach? 
10. Smoking on beach and that include tobacco and pot. There is a direct correlation between drinking- Smoking and litter. Nicotine has been shown to be lethal to species of fish, crustaceans, zooplankton, and other aquatic organisms, as well as being a known insecticide. On top of leeching toxins, cigarette butts present an ingestion, choking and poisoning hazard to wildlife that mistake them for food. Cigarette butts accounted for 32% of all trash removed, and remain the most common type of beach litter. With their plastic foam filters full of toxins, cigarettes also pose a significant pollution threat to San Diego’s waters. Personally I pick up an average of 200 cigarettes a month. Not alot because I can’t see them when I go out in the dark .
11. Unleashed dogs
12. Dog do
13. Walking dogs at incorrect times.
14. Camping on beach. That include illegal fires and drunks sleeping it off.
15. Mandatory Recycling is not enforced. ‘All single family residences; City-serviced multi-family residences; and privately serviced businesses, commercial / institutional facilities, apartments, and condominiums and special events requiring a City permit are required to recycle.’ This is not happening. Many of the Rental units have NO recycling bins. Even worse, apparently even those who do have recycling bins, do not recycle or do not know what to recycle.

8.) Noise: In Mission Beach as well as other areas, we have a noise abatement law, which is broken every night. Parties until 3 am sometimes all night. It is not unusual for me at 4:30 am picking up beach trash to converse with STVRer’s on the boardwalk.

9.) Parking is a constant issue all year and only to get worse as houses are torn down and lack of parking.

10.) The more people, the more trash. Overflowing trashcans lead to more rats, raccoons, maggots, ants and flies. We in San Diego have a huge problem with this.

11.) Taxpayer cost of litter and beach clean up and it is inadequate. Chula Vista spends $1.7 million per year cleaning and maintaining storm drains. San Diego, $10.84 per capita and a total of $14,108,561 per year for cleaning and litter abatement. 

12.) Water Quality is also effected. With that much litter, dog do, dirty diapers, tobacco, rotten food, plastics, condoms, tampax, drugs going into the ocean how can it not be affected.

13.) Water usage: It is hard enough to get locals to abide by water restrictions, but Tourists do not get it at all. Plus noone tells them, the Mandatory Water Use as dictated by the City of San Diego.

Add in the following issues:

1. With Governor Brown’s new state law of 55 gallons per person per day, why should taxpaying residents be penalized by tourists excessive use of water. When I say excessive us, walk down any courtyard and kids are playing in the water, they are washing down the patio, washing their car, washing off toys, all needless expenditures of water.
2. No recycling of plastic, glass and aluminum. The trashcans on the beach go straight to a landfill. How does that fit with San Diego’s Zero Waste plan?

   

3. Increase in Styrofoam on beaches: Instead of banning Styrofoam on the beach, an effective way to keep our beaches clean that 116 other communities in California have done, San Diego decided to cost taxpayers even more money by accepting styrofoam in the recycling bins. The Trashcans on the beach are filled with styrofoam not being recycled. Thousands of pieces of styrofoam are entering into the ocean everyday in South Mission Beach.

   

4. How does that fit with plastic pollution? Plastic Pollution is one of the top threats to the ocean.
5. How does that fit with the Global Concern of Marine Debris? How does Mayor Faulconer plan on keeping the beaches clean?
6. In the long term how will that effect tourism? A study was done and it found the following:

• $32 Million increase in revenue if marine debris were reduced by 25% at beaches in and near Orange County just in the summer. That equates to $14 per person, or $32 million for all 2.28 million Orange County adults.

• 100% litter reduction at 31 beaches would save $65 per person, or $148 million for all 2.28 million Orange County adults.

So what do STVR’s have to do with Beach Trash? It’s simple, more people, more trash. I have been able to get some of the local residents into picking up trash, it is difficult to get short termers to take their vacation and pick up after themselves. Many are appalled by the trash and I have heard, that they will never come back to Mission Beach again, as it is so filthy, it is always a new crop.

I do not blame all of this on Short Term Vacation Renters. There are certainly lots of San Diegan’s who abuse the laws as well. It is just exacerbated by Short Term rentals because every week or every day, there is a new uneducated set of people coming in. I am not against rental in general, but Mission Beach should not be come a commercial zone, There should be regulations and limited numbers. The laws should be enforced. The owners should be fined for not following protocol.

Most people want quiet enjoyment, they want to know their neighbors and people they can trust and rely on. They want to be able to borrow a cup of sugar, have BBQ’s, neighbor picnics, joining together for community events and issues. It is nice to be able to walk to the local coffee shop and see your friends. That doesn’t happen with Short Term vacation rentals.. and it is a pity.

Is it too much to ask our Mayor Kevin Faulconer to be a leader instead of a follower? Is it too much to ask our mayor to set a course of ocean stewardship? Is it too much to ask our mayor to stop sucking to politicians on the top resource in the world and in San Diego, the ocean? I guess so.

For those who have never thought about it before.. ask yourself if you would like 4 to 5 out of 10 of your neighbors to come and go on a weekly basis.

Resources 

• San Diego/ Short Term Residential Occupancy 
• I love a Clean Sand Diego
• San Diego Coast Keeper
• Surfrider
• Beautiful Mission Beach
• San Diego Community News Group – San Diego beach trash mostly plastic cigarettes
• Styrofoam Recycling Program