By Laura Bassett
My name is Laura Bassett, and I have lived in Oceanside my entire life. I have deep family roots here. My husband and I raised our six children here, and I want Oceanside to be its very best.
Growing up in a family that participated in public life (my mother and great-uncle held elective office), I extended that tradition by becoming a candidate for the District 3 seat on the Oceanside City Council.
With Election Day approaching, I have been meeting voters and speaking with residents about local affairs. I get lots of feedback, some of which I want to share with readers of The Coast News.
What I am hearing loud and clear are two issues most prominent among city residents: sand replenishment on our beaches and, unsurprisingly, the continuing problems of homelessness.
The condition of our beaches is crucial to Oceanside, both as a recreational resource for the region and as a factor driving the local economy. The emergence of rocky shores in the southern stretch of our coastline has been a problem for many years. The now-prevailing ocean currents scour our beaches and carry sand south, leaving us with exposed pebble-strewn beaches.
We have periodically replenished the sand, but in due course, nature asserts its will and the sand moves south. As a result, a visit to the Oceanside coast is no “day at the beach.” People rightly question the wisdom of repeatedly doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Public awareness of this issue is now wide and deep, helped by community groups like SOSOceanside.com.
In response, the City Council has taken constructive steps to “think outside the box” and is pursuing an innovative effort to make lasting improvements. The RE:BEACH project launched to develop new, practical solutions. The effort is now in its second phase, focusing on replenishment and retention design.
The project is still years away from completion. However, a jury of coastal scientists and community leaders selected a design firm to implement a pilot plan. The city is working through a complex testing and permitting process before funding and construction can be addressed. We will need allies in the state and federal governments.
As a candidate for the Oceanside City Council, I want residents to know we should continue this effort. The project is well worth the time, energy, and expense. We must persist. After all, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
Attention to the homeless issue has intensified since the U.S. Supreme Court issued its June 28 opinion affirming the ability of municipalities to enforce anti-camping ordinances against individuals who have set up encampments on public property. This problem is not unique to Oceanside — it’s nationwide, but especially in the nine western states, which, like California, are governed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
In 2018, that court (Martin v. Boise) decided that enforcement of anti-camping ordinances was off-limits for homeless persons and required local governments to offer housing to violators before they could be prosecuted. Since then, governments in California have been frozen by the lack of available homeless shelters.
Thankfully, due to the Supreme Court ruling, localities can now include enforcement in their homeless policy mix. Now that the law has changed, voters are looking for robust changes to local policy. Importantly, we must close homeless encampments in public spaces. Those encampments are too often dangerous and unsanitary, making them unsafe for both the homeless and nearby residents.
Importantly, Oceanside has already taken an important step to deal with homelessness. The Oceanside Navigation Center opened a year ago as a public-private initiative providing personalized care focused on moving people to permanent housing and back into the mainstream.
I regard the Navigation Center as a workable, compassionate approach that can make lasting improvements in people’s lives. I expect it to remain part of the homeless policy mix, coupled with enforcement to ensure public safety.
So many homeless people are utterly broken. They need our tough love. Sensible enforcement of the law can be the challenging part. The Navigation Center, pursuing recovery, is the love part. Count me in on that.
Laura Bassett is a candidate for the District 3 seat on the Oceanside City Council.
