Hermosa Beach group urges LA County supervisors to reopen beaches

LOS ANGELES - Southern California is known for its beautiful beaches. And there’s no better place to be when hot weather hits. But try to escape the heat here ... and you’ll still find closed signs throughout LA County.

Hermosa Beach resident Chris Brown represents Residents for Responsible Beach Use. The group has appealed to LA County’s supervisors to reopen the beaches.

“We’re advising them on some crowd mitigation strategies. It would happen in phases. So as part of the initial phase you could keep the strand closed, keep the bike path closed and all beach parking lots,” Brown told FOX 11.

“I will not be persuaded by petitions or protests,” stated LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn.
Supervisor Hahn is not persuaded... especially when that plan would mostly benefit locals.

“The beaches belong to everyone and I want to open to everyone when it is safe and when it is time to do that,” she added.

She can’t see that happening before May 15.

But Brown argues that LA County beaches, particularly the one near his home, are broad and easy to socially distance.

Hahn refers back to that weekend before the county closed the beaches.

“We were hoping that people would be responsible, but we saw weekends before we closed the beaches, that frankly looked like July 4th,” she stated.

“If the public health strategy is to try to create more space for people then it seems strange to me to close the public spaces and push everybody into tighter areas,” Brown said.

County residents might also be disappointed to hear... none of the other spots popular during heat waves will reopen either-- no malls, no movie theaters no community pools and at least for now, no plans to open cooling centers.

Get breaking news alerts in the FOX 11 News app. Download for iOS or Android.