
A tech billionaire blocked public beach access - banku_brougham
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/08/12/a-tech-billionaire-blocked-public-beach-access-a-court-just-forced-him-to-open-it-up/?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_pn-billionaire-beach-1140am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.4f8dfa77dfe7
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cannonedhamster
While the guy is probably a jerk, it doesn't appear as cut and dry from
reading the article. Unless I'm mistaken in my reading it was a private beach
that had been previously open to the public versus a public beach that went
private. Not veering into my opinion of private coastlines, it appears that he
did violate a law by changing the public access, though he will probably just
price it out of reach for most people out of spite since the law doesn't say
anything about how much he can charge for parking. Which was what was
monetized by the previous owners.

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pulisse
You are mistaken. All beaches in California are public, up to the "mean high-
tide line". The previous owner of the private land adjacent to the beach
welcomed public access and allowed public use of his land. But the beach
itself, along with the right of way providing access to it, have always been
public.

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mattkevan
In a town near where I used to live there is a country house set in a
beautiful deer park. While owned by the lord of the manor, the park had
traditionally been open to the locals to use. Until one day the lord at the
time decided he'd had enough of the riff raff tramping through his grounds and
put big iron gates over the entrance. This was so unpopular that the locals
ganged up one night and threw the gates from their hinges. Wisely, the lord
took the hint and the gates have remained open ever since.

Rich people limiting access to previously public spaces has rarely gone down
well.

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cannonedhamster
But it wasn't a public space in your story. It was private land he graciously
allowed the public to use until they damaged his property to the point that he
felt he had to restrict access to the property to protect it for future
generations.

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harryjo
HN has rich chronicle of Vinod Khosla's long-running war on the people of
California:

[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Vinod%20Khosla%20beach&sort=by...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Vinod%20Khosla%20beach&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story)

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abhimanyurawat
Ah! Billionaries.

