During last weekend’s heatwave when Southern Californians would normally have flocked to the breezy beaches (temperatures are often 25 degrees cooler at the beach because the Pacific Ocean off California is quite cool), Los Angeles County beaches were policed shut. But beaches in suburban Orange and Ventura Counties had opened back up. This caused a tizzy for partisan reasons. As I explained in my new Taki’s column:
You might think that Blue America, with its abundant coastline, would be more liberal about beach-going than mostly inland Red America. But back in March, most of the beaches that were warm enough for fun in the sun were in states with Republican governors, such as Florida, so Democrats have since become obsessed with their prejudice that citizens frolicking on beaches would be the doom of us all (when, in reality, mass transit, especially the New York subway, appears instead to have been the worst vector).
The scientific evidence, such as it is, vaguely suggests that ocean breezes and vitamin D are not bad in the current crisis. But who cares about science when Science can be trusted to tell us our partisan foes are Bad and we are Good?
Here’s a photo of OC’s supposedly overcrowded Newport Beach on Saturday, taken from above and from a more perpendicular angle to the shoreline, while most of the scare photos are taken with a telephoto lens parallel to the water’s edge and from a moderate elevation, such as a lifeguard’s tower, to make it look like bodies are practically piled on top of each other.
Normally, beachgoers tend to put their towels down in a crowded line just above the wet sand. That’s the ideal place because you have a nice view looking down at the waves and have a short walk to the water or to the wet sand for taking a long walk. On Saturday, though, it looks like people were spacing out on the normally little-used wide expanse of dry sand further inland.
And here’s another photo of Newport Beach from the L.A. Times that appeared directly under the headline:
Photos show county lines separate packed beaches from empty ones
There appear to be three sizable groups in the lower right corner of the picture, but mostly they are pretty spread out, although now that I look at it, the two photos appear to be of mostly the same place at nearly the same time: note the blue umbrella in both photos.
But now …
BREAKING: A source has provided me with this bulletin that will be sent out to all California police chiefs notifying them that tomorrow, Governor Newsom will announce the closure of ALL beaches and state parks effective May 1st in response to recent beach crowds in OC . @FOXLA pic.twitter.com/RG53HhmySf
By the way, Southern California beaches at night are currently exceptionally beautiful due to a bioluminescence phenomenon in plankton causing crashing waves to light up neon blue.
Torrance photographer Patrick Coyne recently shot this video of dolphins off Orange County:
