Adolfo Guzman-Lopez covers higher education for the LAist and KPCC newsroom.
Jared Garcia Cortez, in blue cap, with Long Beach Council member Mary Zendejas, in yellow, at the unveiling of beach access mats in 2022.Congress has cut federal funding for public media — a $3.4 million loss for LAist.
We count on readers like you to protect our nonprofit newsroom. If you’re enjoying this article, you’ll love LAist’s early childhood newsletter. Every two weeks, you’ll receive top reads and resources on issues affecting families with kids ages 0–5.Seeing her 24-year-old son dip his feet in the ocean water at the beach fills Mayra Garcia with joy. “There is so much sensory stimulation that happens with the sand, the waves and the water,” she said. Her son, Jared Garcia Cortez, was born with Dandy-Walker Syndrome, a brain malformation that leads him to use a wheelchair and severely limits his vision and hearing. She lives in Long Beach and has taken her son to the beach dozens of times this year. “More than 30, I think, and we continue going because of the sensory stimulation. Going to the beach and being near the ocean helps him a lot,” she said.“They don’t reach the ocean,” Garcia said, and that limits her son’s ability to fully use the public beach. She shared a photo that shows the mat stopping about 30 feet from the tide line.It would be cool if somebody put together a website that listed all the beaches that were the most accessible.LAist reached out to the city of Long Beach to see if it plans to lengthen the mats but has not received an answer. Other people who are disabled, as well as organizations that advocate for their access to beaches, say public agencies have made strides in recent years, but full access to beaches remains out of reach In California, there is no one body overseeing all public beaches. City governments, county governments and state government are all in charge of different beaches. And that creates a hodgepodge of policies and access accommodations that is difficult to navigate. “It would be cool if somebody put together a website that listed all the beaches that were the most accessible,” said Jesse Billauer. Billauer knows Southern California beaches well. He grew up surfing up and down the coast until he broke his neck in a surfing accident in 1996. “Now I continue to surf and travel and do competitions. I'm a four-time adaptive surfing world champion,” he said.In the absence of a single website, LAist looked at different sites to see what information was available. Here’s what we found:lists beaches statewide that provide specially adapted beach wheelchairs, with large wheels that make it easier to roll on sand. The website includes a map with dozens of pinned locations that offer information about beach wheelchairs up and down the California coast. The number of beach wheelchairs at different beaches in SoCal varies. For example, there are six at Dockweiler State Beach, one at Hermosa Beach and one or two at each of Santa Monica’s four beach sites. The site also has information about the hours wheelchairs are available, the ID you need to bring and telephone numbers to call. Years ago, Huntington Beach built a number of concrete paths from public walkways into the sand to improve beach access for people with disabilities. The paths are called Spencer Ramps.The city updated its list of wheelchair beach accommodationsthat allows a wheelchair to rest on top of, and be driven by, a track system that looks like those on military tanks.Advocates for people with disabilities say agencies need to make it easier to access public beaches by creating more visible information about what’s available, making more beach wheelchairs available and improving access to the ocean water. Orange County beaches have made some strides in accessibility, but there is still work to do before they can be considered fully accessible for all people with disabilities .“Orange County beaches have made some strides in accessibility, but there is still work to do before they can be considered fully accessible for all people with disabilities,” as well as older adults and military veterans, said Brittany Zazueta by email. She’s the executive director of the Dayle McIntosh Center, a disability access nonprofit. The organization, she said, was key in the creation of the Spencer Ramps in Huntington Beach. People like Billauer and Garcia are often frustrated when access falls short and call on other advocates to reach out to public agencies to tell them they want better access because the rewards are worth it. “Our hope is that this message serves as a call to action for communities to continue removing barriers and creating spaces where everyone can fully participate and enjoy,” Zazueta said. As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone. Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us. We rely on donations from readers like you to stay independent, which keeps our nonprofit newsroom strong and accountable to you. No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, press freedom is at the core of keeping our nation free and fair. And as the landscape of free press changes, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust, but the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news from our community. Please take action today to support your trusted source for local news with a donation that makes sense for your budget.After-action report finds 'outdated, unclear and contradictory' alerts hampered Eaton Fire evacuations The critical findings are part of long-awaited after-action report was released Thursday. It contains recommendations for increasing emergency staffing and updating old systems.The list of venues for the 2028 LA Olympic Games has changed. Here's what you need to knowAs Black surfers return for competition and community in Huntington Beach, an LAist editor finds her wave 'A Great Day in the Stoke' is a free, daylong event in Orange County billed as 'the largest gathering of Black surfers in history.' The fourth annual festival is set for Saturday in Huntington Beach.Jimmy Kimmel responds to suspension: 'To silence a comedian the president doesn’t like is anti-American’ Kimmel returned less than a week after ABC suspended his show over comments he made about the assassination of right wing activist Charlie Kirk.After weeks of warm and muggy weather in SoCal, rain is coming, followed by a cool down Southern California might see some light rain tonight into Wednesday morning. After that, cooler weather is on the way, but expect the humidity to remain.Thousands of once-secret police records are now public. Here’s how you can use themLA’s legal cannabis owners say multi-million dollar program to give them a hand up, instead left ‘complete debt and devastation’
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