It ought to be a good thing that the city of Clearwater has two popular beaches drawing crowds of residents and tourists: its gulf beach and its Tampa Bay beach. But some city officials sound as if they would like to be rid of one of them.
Clearwater Beach draws vast amounts of the city's attention, resources and pride. Not so the city beach along the south side of the Courtney Campbell Parkway. That beach doesn't appear in brochures or TV commercials. It doesn't get the grooming that keeps Clearwater Beach gleaming. And unfortunately, it doesn't get the same level of oversight.
As a result, the Courtney Campbell beach tends to be untidy, sometimes downright dirty, and it attracts crowds of people who want the freedom to enjoy their own brand of fun. Because control is lacking, not to mention the overcrowding along the narrow strip of sand, the behavior of beachgoers there sometimes gets out of hand.
The solution, a few city officials are suggesting, is to close the public beach.
This isn't the first time that the idea of shutting down the beach, which is actually public right of way for the state causeway, has come up. In 1995 the state Department of Transportation, which owned the right of way, wanted the beach shut down and turned into a nature preserve. But fans of the beach came out in droves to object, singing the praises of a place in Clearwater where they could play in the sun without feeling under the watchful eye of authorities or disturbing neighbors.
In 1998 officials again cast a disapproving eye at the beach after brawls erupted among beachgoers two weekends in a row. Clearwater police Chief Sid Klein was concerned about safety there, but made it clear that he did not advocate closing the beach. The DOT subsequently gave the city jurisdiction over the property and the city began instituting some rules.
Now there is talk again of closing the beach, following a Memorial Day fight on the beach thatprompted police to close the area at 4:30 p.m. Police said that drunken beachgoers contributed to the problems that day.
City Commissioner Frank Hibbard, interviewed for a story in the Times, said he would lean toward closing the beach, at least in part because many of the beachgoers there are not residents of Clearwater and he doesn't like spending city resources to control the beach for nonresidents. The city is even conducting a survey to see what percentage of causeway beachgoers are city residents.
So will Clearwater officials advocate shutting down Clearwater Beach because vast numbers of people on that beach are not city residents? Will they stop holding free concerts in Coachman Park because many attendees are not city residents? What about closing city streets because many of the motorists traveling on them don't live in Clearwater?
It is a ridiculous question, especially for a tourist community. The city of Clearwater should be a safe and pleasant place for visitors and residents alike, and the city appropriately invests its resources in making sure that is the case.
But one question city officials should be asking is why this particular causeway beach has greater problems than, say, the Dunedin Causeway beach or the causeways linking the mainland and Sanibel Island. In those places, motorists can pull off the road and enjoy the sand, water and sunshine without creating a crisis for local officialdom.
Is the problem that the Courtney Campbell beach attracts too many people for its small area? Then a better solution than closing the beach would be to regulate entry to it, in much the way that Anclote Park on the Pinellas-Pasco line is regulated.
Is the problem illegal consumption of alcohol? Surely, if police can keep a lid on that situation at Clearwater Beach, they can along the short stretch of sand at the causeway. Are there clashes between people who want to swim and those using personal watercraft? Channelizing the areas such watercraft can use would perhaps solve the problem. Surely, people who enjoy the causeway beach would rather abide by a few more rules than have the beach access closed.
Clearwater is in the unique and fortunate position of having two beachfronts that people can enjoy, each with its own appeal. That helps to make Clearwater the special place that it is, and helps it attract a broader range of people to its shores. But the city and its officials should make sure that both beachfronts are safe, even if it means boosting the city budget a bit to provide the manpower to do so.
