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Zaknoid t1_jdnhibk wrote

When friends from California visited they could not believe you had to pay to go on the beach and yes beaches in California still are maintained and have lifeguards. Also, outside of certain areas like Santa Monica, Santa Cruz, Huntington etc they don't commercialize every fucking inch of coastal areas. I appreciate keeping the natural beauty of the coastline and keeping it from being over commercialized. Nice to sit on a beach and just see mountains and water instead of t shirt stands and smoke shops. They keep that shit in Venice for a reason lol.

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Alter_ego_cohort t1_jdo0e9m wrote

It may be that California has a density of 251 people per sq mile and Jersey has a density of 1,260 people per sq mile, not including the tourists coming from NY and PA on any given summer weekend.

Jersey beaches are also way more crowded and have more obnoxious individuals who do not care about trashing the place.

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YawnTractor_1756 t1_jdo0zi6 wrote

California has coastline of 840 miles, beaches visited by ~130 million people per year. NJ has coastline of 130 miles, visited roughly by ~48 million people per year.

  • California has 150,000 visits per mile, NJ has 370,000 visits per mile (246% more)
  • California has 3.3 beach visits per state citizen, NJ has 5.3 beach visits per citizen (160% more)

So NJ beaches are 246% more packed and it happens 160% more often that in CA.

But it's probably mostly because of the culture of boroughitis. NJ towns surely love to behave like city-states in medieval Italy.

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OkBid1535 t1_jdqetk6 wrote

This is my argument!!! Every other state with a shore, has free beaches. That are maintained with lifeguards!!!

So people rallying behind beach taxes and why it’s necessary to keep them clean or have a lifeguard. Are you all brain dead? Seriously. Go visit California or Florida beaches and start demanding the people be taxed to enjoy the natural resources and just see how people react

It’s absolutely absurd our beaches aren’t free. And seaside is constantly trashed all summer despite being “maintained and cleaned.”

So the argument completely falls flat

Beaches should absolutely be free

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