While the vacation season in California ebbs and flows throughout the year with spring break, summer, Thanksgiving and Christmas, the spring break is really the launch of the California beach vacations
All winter long the mountain resorts enjoy their peak season with snow attracting guests from all over the place. The primary ski regions are in the Sierra Nevada mountain range in places such as Lake Tahoe, Mammoth Lakes and Bear Valley, while Southern California's very own Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino mountains offers snowtime play and skiing that most snowboarders say you can get your thrils on.
But when spring comes along, stir-crazy Californians are ready to cut their teeth on some beach relaxation and much to the ire of the surfing crowd, those easy-to-find parking spots aren't quite as abundant. Well, guess what? It's spring now and the license plates from all over (yesterday I saw Missouri, Oregon, Baja California, Florida, Nevada, Arizona and Washington) are migrating to our hallowed shores of the Pacific Ocean for a little R&R.
What do I recommend for a Vacation in California this spring? If you are a skiier, you probably know that there's still snow in the Sierras, and the skiing is fine. Go and have a good time. If you're a flatlander, then you may want to check out some special treats that happen only once each year in California. One is the spring bouquet of flowers that hit the desert floor, the gold country hillsides and the central valley meadows. Go look at the colorful feast and take lots of videos.
If you are a beach junkie, the water temps in the Pacific are starting to rise ever so slowly. Along the coast the temperatures now range from around 52 in the north to 60 in the south. It's a little cool for a warm swim, but most tourists don't get in the water anyway. They go to Florida beaches for that. In California, they come to see the natural beauty, the open spaces, Big Sur and redwood coastal trees and enjoy the Hollywood scene.
Where should you go? Major airports to check into include LAX and SFO (Los Angeles and San Francisco). From there, the sky's the limit this spring.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Keep Smiling, Life is a Vacation
The tourism stats produced by compiler companies such as PKF Consulting show that they were almost as bullish as Wall Street traders in missing just how deep the recession would be. Their recently-released figures predicting the percent of decline in vacation and business hotel bookings from 2008 to 2009 were under by a few points, as were their estimates on the speed of recovery. In previous news this consulting group predicted hotel bookings and revenue would turn around in late 2009, while their updated predictions take most destinations out to 2011 for a turn around in revenue and occupancy. While they broke down the numbers and pointed to a few high performers they expect to see weather the storm better, their outlook was somewhat gloomy, though not completely dismall for those able to tighten belts.
As a tourism pro writing about and selling products such as theme park tickets and hotel packages, my sales numbers haven't exactly matched the data for percentage of change shows. I have often pondered why this is so, but much like the past year when I waited for the shoe to fall and only heard "great news". I don't trust the numbers much.
Several theories I have to account for the discrepancies include the possiblity that while hotels and cities are reporting reductions of around 8 to 15% in TOT, their losses in profit may be in larger ranges of up to 50%, especially if they are giving rooms away for near break-even prices. A hotel can be bringing in similar revenue to before the recession hit like a brick, but maybe this property is having to sell 100 room nights now instead of 50 to make the same revenue.
While the TOT should go down when you're bring less money in (most TOT taxes are tacked on your bill when you pay for a room and the fee usually ranges from 6 to 15 percent.
Whatever is going on, the one thing you can count on to entertain you are your region's museums and natural assets. From free events to free museum admission, and those beloved free summer concerts, it's a great time to learn what's going on in your destination, and how you can participate and feel like you are on a vacation. Travel really is about perspective. The excitement is the "new" feeling. Once that wears off, then you often are in a rut. With the right framing of your experiences and perspective, you can participate in things that tourists would actually fly or drive a distance to enjoy. So Keep Smiling. That costs you nothing!
As a tourism pro writing about and selling products such as theme park tickets and hotel packages, my sales numbers haven't exactly matched the data for percentage of change shows. I have often pondered why this is so, but much like the past year when I waited for the shoe to fall and only heard "great news". I don't trust the numbers much.
Several theories I have to account for the discrepancies include the possiblity that while hotels and cities are reporting reductions of around 8 to 15% in TOT, their losses in profit may be in larger ranges of up to 50%, especially if they are giving rooms away for near break-even prices. A hotel can be bringing in similar revenue to before the recession hit like a brick, but maybe this property is having to sell 100 room nights now instead of 50 to make the same revenue.
While the TOT should go down when you're bring less money in (most TOT taxes are tacked on your bill when you pay for a room and the fee usually ranges from 6 to 15 percent.
Whatever is going on, the one thing you can count on to entertain you are your region's museums and natural assets. From free events to free museum admission, and those beloved free summer concerts, it's a great time to learn what's going on in your destination, and how you can participate and feel like you are on a vacation. Travel really is about perspective. The excitement is the "new" feeling. Once that wears off, then you often are in a rut. With the right framing of your experiences and perspective, you can participate in things that tourists would actually fly or drive a distance to enjoy. So Keep Smiling. That costs you nothing!
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Beer, booze, and sexy girls on St. Patty's Day!
Beer, booze, and sexy girls on St. Patty's Day! Perhaps that's the reason I don't get too excited about the event, being female, myself. In looking over the celebrations, I especially liked the news coverage of the Chicago tradition of pouring green dye into the waterways of the city. Now that's something special!
I've been told I'm part Irish, which would explain the thirst for Guinness Stout. My grandpa drank whiskey, himself, and celebrated being Irish daily. He was actually part Irish and part American Indian (Cherokee), which is why we feel our family got the double whammy. Yes, some of us like to consume beverages with alcoholic content.
On St. Patrick's Day in California, people line up outside the bars with Irish names...Muluckay's, Gallaghers, Killarny, Fitzgerald's, Irish Mist, etc. I am not certain, but I think San Francisco has the most Irish bars & pubs in the state. For those who don't have to work (going to be a lot more of them this year), the party begins around 11 a.m. when the doors open.
While Mardi Gras and Brazilian Carnaval are growing in popularity here in Calif., I still think St. Patrick's Day is the biggest cultural event going on. Most the time I consider myself a Heinz 57, but on this special day, I enjoy being 100% Irish, and proud of it!
But that's only till Oktoberfest arrives and my German heritage has me waving a flag and eating sauerkraut.
I've been told I'm part Irish, which would explain the thirst for Guinness Stout. My grandpa drank whiskey, himself, and celebrated being Irish daily. He was actually part Irish and part American Indian (Cherokee), which is why we feel our family got the double whammy. Yes, some of us like to consume beverages with alcoholic content.
On St. Patrick's Day in California, people line up outside the bars with Irish names...Muluckay's, Gallaghers, Killarny, Fitzgerald's, Irish Mist, etc. I am not certain, but I think San Francisco has the most Irish bars & pubs in the state. For those who don't have to work (going to be a lot more of them this year), the party begins around 11 a.m. when the doors open.
While Mardi Gras and Brazilian Carnaval are growing in popularity here in Calif., I still think St. Patrick's Day is the biggest cultural event going on. Most the time I consider myself a Heinz 57, but on this special day, I enjoy being 100% Irish, and proud of it!
But that's only till Oktoberfest arrives and my German heritage has me waving a flag and eating sauerkraut.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
PR 101: Timing!
How sad that I opened my email this a.m. and discovered a school is sending me a fundraiser event happening today that someone hopes I will post!
I post hundreds of event items each week, but I ask for four weeks notice before an event. Does my little calendar of events help groups and companies? H**l yes! I know it does because I hear about the results often.
I also get requests from hotel marketers, Internet marketers and media op companies promoting a special event, special price, new amenity and to my pleasure, lots of designer liquors.
If I receive notice at least a month before some special event happens, then the public can take advantage of a deal and at least have a chance to arrange their schedules if interested. But what's surprising is that close to 30% of the event submissions I receive are promoted just days or weeks before the event occurs. And in many cases, they've had the event date planned for half a year or more.
How can something so basic, so free and so effective as the Internet buzz be overlooked? Public relations practioners will have many answers to this one, I am sure. The most common is that volunteers are assigned to promote and market events. At hotels, a person answering phones often is tasked with doing the marketing between calls. In my experience, the majority of these types of workers and promoters do a one time request with an 80% drop-off for a follow-up contact. It's pretty easy to understand why I or anyone else willing to help them would do nothing.
If you are not tapping into this special events market for non-profits, high schools, etc., or working to promote hotels with their events menus, etc., I recommend you begin researching and pitching plans during times when you have no work coming in. It wouldn't be hard to prove your value. Just keep the project simple and within an affordable budget. Why? You can build a client, or build leads from the inside.
This also applies to your search for jobs. If you are making only one attempt at physical contact with a target audience, you aren't doing enough. Treat your job search like your job. Make the contact list. Start up an e-newsletter as a soft sell, and repeat, repeat. Timing isn't everything, but it is a key element in the buy and sell.
I post hundreds of event items each week, but I ask for four weeks notice before an event. Does my little calendar of events help groups and companies? H**l yes! I know it does because I hear about the results often.
I also get requests from hotel marketers, Internet marketers and media op companies promoting a special event, special price, new amenity and to my pleasure, lots of designer liquors.
If I receive notice at least a month before some special event happens, then the public can take advantage of a deal and at least have a chance to arrange their schedules if interested. But what's surprising is that close to 30% of the event submissions I receive are promoted just days or weeks before the event occurs. And in many cases, they've had the event date planned for half a year or more.
How can something so basic, so free and so effective as the Internet buzz be overlooked? Public relations practioners will have many answers to this one, I am sure. The most common is that volunteers are assigned to promote and market events. At hotels, a person answering phones often is tasked with doing the marketing between calls. In my experience, the majority of these types of workers and promoters do a one time request with an 80% drop-off for a follow-up contact. It's pretty easy to understand why I or anyone else willing to help them would do nothing.
If you are not tapping into this special events market for non-profits, high schools, etc., or working to promote hotels with their events menus, etc., I recommend you begin researching and pitching plans during times when you have no work coming in. It wouldn't be hard to prove your value. Just keep the project simple and within an affordable budget. Why? You can build a client, or build leads from the inside.
This also applies to your search for jobs. If you are making only one attempt at physical contact with a target audience, you aren't doing enough. Treat your job search like your job. Make the contact list. Start up an e-newsletter as a soft sell, and repeat, repeat. Timing isn't everything, but it is a key element in the buy and sell.
Do You Remember When?
One of my friends talked about the satellite technology that made cell phone service possible. I assured her that even though I was much younger, I did remember the first cell phones that came as a big metal box you had to lug around in your hand. Of course that sort of phone didn't last long, and we quicky moved into the world of smaller, faster and better.
Do you remember dial-up? Oddly enough, I still go to places during my travels that don't have Internet service. And MANY hotels claim to have wi-fi, but the signal strength always shows up on the meter as poor to low. I've maintained a dialup service connection as back up for that very reason, and have used it in hotels time and again. Just recently at Wuksachi Lodge in Sequoia National Park I sat in my hotel suite wishing I could check my email. I guess when you have bears outside the door scavenging for food, you have to put this technology into perspective and realize that not everybody in the world expects to be connected to their business 24/7.. or even 7.
If you think you remember when something was slower, older and less high-tech, listen to this. Last year I visited Columbia State Historic Park in California Gold Country. I stayed at the Fallon Hotel and was shocked to discover that I had to carry my heavy suitcase up a flight of stairs. When I got to my room and looked around, the shock became even greater. There was no TV, no shower and pretty much just a bed, sink, toilet and old fashioned balcony overlooking the highway. Did anyone say prison? The hotel was absolutely, beautifully decorated to historic standards, but had no cell service, no Internet, no phone, no TV, and the town was so tiny, there was nothing to do. No store, no movies, no shops, no liquor markets, no nothing.
It proves that you really don't have to remember when times were simpler. Sometimes you just need to get out and travel to recognize that if you didn't have all your high tech gadgets you would 1. be out of business as you know it, and 2. be forced to acquire skills with only electricity as your friend. Can you imagine such a place actually exists? It's true.
Do you remember dial-up? Oddly enough, I still go to places during my travels that don't have Internet service. And MANY hotels claim to have wi-fi, but the signal strength always shows up on the meter as poor to low. I've maintained a dialup service connection as back up for that very reason, and have used it in hotels time and again. Just recently at Wuksachi Lodge in Sequoia National Park I sat in my hotel suite wishing I could check my email. I guess when you have bears outside the door scavenging for food, you have to put this technology into perspective and realize that not everybody in the world expects to be connected to their business 24/7.. or even 7.
If you think you remember when something was slower, older and less high-tech, listen to this. Last year I visited Columbia State Historic Park in California Gold Country. I stayed at the Fallon Hotel and was shocked to discover that I had to carry my heavy suitcase up a flight of stairs. When I got to my room and looked around, the shock became even greater. There was no TV, no shower and pretty much just a bed, sink, toilet and old fashioned balcony overlooking the highway. Did anyone say prison? The hotel was absolutely, beautifully decorated to historic standards, but had no cell service, no Internet, no phone, no TV, and the town was so tiny, there was nothing to do. No store, no movies, no shops, no liquor markets, no nothing.
It proves that you really don't have to remember when times were simpler. Sometimes you just need to get out and travel to recognize that if you didn't have all your high tech gadgets you would 1. be out of business as you know it, and 2. be forced to acquire skills with only electricity as your friend. Can you imagine such a place actually exists? It's true.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Vacation or Work?
It's a good time to travel in California since gas prices are low. But when I discussed the options of traveling with friends, I put it to them this way: What am I gonna do? Write another story about a town I've already visited which will still cost me around $100 in gas? It's cheaper to stay home and work.
The trouble with that philosophy is that you can easily burn. I lost an entire day of work yesterday just playing. I went to Corona del Mar and wandered around Inspiration Point, the beach below in the cove where they've filmed lots of movies, and discovered it's now the climbers' favorite to prepare for the big trips.
I didn't sit down at the computer till after 11 p.m. and felt really frustrated, knowing there's so much to do. But I had such a great day. Sure you can work yourself to death. But when you do, you're dead sooner and for what?
The trouble with that philosophy is that you can easily burn. I lost an entire day of work yesterday just playing. I went to Corona del Mar and wandered around Inspiration Point, the beach below in the cove where they've filmed lots of movies, and discovered it's now the climbers' favorite to prepare for the big trips.
I didn't sit down at the computer till after 11 p.m. and felt really frustrated, knowing there's so much to do. But I had such a great day. Sure you can work yourself to death. But when you do, you're dead sooner and for what?
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Travel and See the World
Lets hear it for the Thundering 3rd Marines! Some of them showed up at the beach this a.m. for a worthy cause, raising money for their families. It was a beautiful morning at the beach and spirits were high as the Huntington Beach Fire Department nonprofit org showed up to cook food. For photos and videos, follow the links to the posting of this story, which didn't fully make it to this site as it is more of a beach-focused gathering than a travel story. Of course you can try to qualify for the Marines and then you will be traveling, most likely.
Not enough to make you crazy?
I just joined twitter after I managed to get my old blog working. Then I checked into LinkedIn to see what my network is up to...Joe Shaw, Patty Roberts, and Denise Morrison, to name a few.
It's 2 a.m. and I've not even touched on the edits of the Southern California Strong Man competition from Saturday, while just hours away, the Marines will be marching on the beach, providing me with a whole new set of images and videos to contemplate. Since all these events are time sensitive, I am actually posting events for April right now, and am hoping to start working on the winter 2009 season.
For those who live in my region (California), I recommend you check out some of the free summer concerts this year. Nearly every city has them this summer. And the farmer's markets number in the hundreds, with many starting up in approx. one month for their summer run. I'll be heading on the road soon, visiting the Central Valley, California, and hoping to make it to the Shasta Cascade and Northern Coast regions to my favorite spots such as Bigfoot Country -- Eureka, and my favorite hotel up there, the Carter House Inn. The world's tallest redwood trees live in the region, and after just visiting the world's oldest redwoods in Sequoia, I have a basis for comparison.
I hope your spring is shaping up. When times get tough (and they are for most of us), at least the gasoline isn't too high, and the hotels are still offering deals, so you can get on the road and spend a few hundred bucks, well worth it if you can spare the time and the dime.
It's 2 a.m. and I've not even touched on the edits of the Southern California Strong Man competition from Saturday, while just hours away, the Marines will be marching on the beach, providing me with a whole new set of images and videos to contemplate. Since all these events are time sensitive, I am actually posting events for April right now, and am hoping to start working on the winter 2009 season.
For those who live in my region (California), I recommend you check out some of the free summer concerts this year. Nearly every city has them this summer. And the farmer's markets number in the hundreds, with many starting up in approx. one month for their summer run. I'll be heading on the road soon, visiting the Central Valley, California, and hoping to make it to the Shasta Cascade and Northern Coast regions to my favorite spots such as Bigfoot Country -- Eureka, and my favorite hotel up there, the Carter House Inn. The world's tallest redwood trees live in the region, and after just visiting the world's oldest redwoods in Sequoia, I have a basis for comparison.
I hope your spring is shaping up. When times get tough (and they are for most of us), at least the gasoline isn't too high, and the hotels are still offering deals, so you can get on the road and spend a few hundred bucks, well worth it if you can spare the time and the dime.
Mission San Juan Capistrano Events
Mission San Juan Capistrano - Mission Fine Art Gallery, "Lasting Impressions"- San Juan Capistrano runs through March 30, 2009.
Mission San Juan Capistrano's Lasting Impressions, an art exhibition featuring the work of 13 local artists who operate the Mission Fine Art Gallery in San Juan Capistrano, is featured through March. If you've not been to the mission, it celebrates the return of the swallows in March, as well. The colorful past is remembered with fountains, architecture and a simple lifestyle beyond the gates of this charming establishment set in an historic district.
Exhibit is free with paid admission to the Mission.
LOCATION:
Mission San Juan Capistrano
26801 Ortega Highway
San Juan Capistrano
INFORMATION:
(949) 234-1317
Mission San Juan Capistrano's Lasting Impressions, an art exhibition featuring the work of 13 local artists who operate the Mission Fine Art Gallery in San Juan Capistrano, is featured through March. If you've not been to the mission, it celebrates the return of the swallows in March, as well. The colorful past is remembered with fountains, architecture and a simple lifestyle beyond the gates of this charming establishment set in an historic district.
Exhibit is free with paid admission to the Mission.
LOCATION:
Mission San Juan Capistrano
26801 Ortega Highway
San Juan Capistrano
INFORMATION:
(949) 234-1317
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Balboa Island in Newport Beach
Oh Balboa! "There's no place like this that I know," said a friend, as we walked along the waterfront on Balboa Island yesterday. Personal boats tied up to the docks of multi-million dollar homes (even in a down cycle they cost millions) stood dry dock as the tide was low. There are not hotels on Balboa Island, a manmade island created in the early 1900's as a dredged out area that a developer tried to get people to invest in for a few hundred dollars per lot. 'What a joke!' many said. Yeah, it's a joke allright. Kind of like the joke on the hill near my home where no one thought people would actually buy on lots that were previously home to oil derricks. Now the houses are worth millions.
In Balboa they have that same old dredging problem rearing its head again, and as we walked along the bay after hopping off the Newport Beach ferry (now costs $1/each way on foot), the big tug whistled a warning as it pushed its huge bin field with dredge material to an offshore dumping ground. It's costing Newport Beach a lot of money to get the harbor dredged.
What's especially noticeable, however, is that somebody has money. I counted at least four homes totally torn down and in states of building as new waterfront mansions. And this is during a the economic meltdown.
Balboa Island has no hotels, no fast food chains (except Starbucks), and the two access points are over a bridge or via the ferry boats. It offers quaint charm with streets named for gems, and many European style houses with doors that open on the top to let the fresh air in.
Balboa Island attracts thousands of people during the day to shop and dine. There are many super restaurants ranging from affordable to upscale. And there are lots of cute boutiques, kids stores, and gift shops.
The next time you visit Southern California, be sure to check out the island charm of Balboa, just a stone's throw (22 miles) from an island offshore, Catalina.
In Balboa they have that same old dredging problem rearing its head again, and as we walked along the bay after hopping off the Newport Beach ferry (now costs $1/each way on foot), the big tug whistled a warning as it pushed its huge bin field with dredge material to an offshore dumping ground. It's costing Newport Beach a lot of money to get the harbor dredged.
What's especially noticeable, however, is that somebody has money. I counted at least four homes totally torn down and in states of building as new waterfront mansions. And this is during a the economic meltdown.
Balboa Island has no hotels, no fast food chains (except Starbucks), and the two access points are over a bridge or via the ferry boats. It offers quaint charm with streets named for gems, and many European style houses with doors that open on the top to let the fresh air in.
Balboa Island attracts thousands of people during the day to shop and dine. There are many super restaurants ranging from affordable to upscale. And there are lots of cute boutiques, kids stores, and gift shops.
The next time you visit Southern California, be sure to check out the island charm of Balboa, just a stone's throw (22 miles) from an island offshore, Catalina.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Better Travel Photos
I just filled out one of those Knols, the new beta from Google. I thought I knew some tips about travel photos, so I supplied a four-points "how-to" story of improving your images you take on vacations or journeys. Here's what I wrote. When something is second nature and you do it day and night, all your life, the words don't always translate the knowledge bank you may have on a subject. I do recommend that others dive in and talk about their expertise in some subject, be it real estate or cooking. It helps you examine how well you are communicating with others and in my case, I don't spend much time doing that.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Cigarette Beach Ban Bill
I am a proponent of clean beaches. Who isn't? I don't know anyone who actually prefers to find syringes, coke cans, cigarette butts and tons of plastic on the beach after a typical rain storm washes the stuff from the rivers into the ocean, then back again onto a beach. With that in mind, I had to ponder a recent email from Surfrider foundation, asking me and anyone one their autosend email list to support SB 4: Keep our beaches cigarette butt-free! Provided a ready-made letter to email to my congressional representatives, the letter supports efforts introduced as No Smoking at State Parks and Beaches Act (SB 4) by Senator Oropeza.
While I live in a beach destination that has already outlawed smoking at the beach, is adding photo cameras to major streets for red-light runners and enacting more and more legislation removing my rights as an individual, I am becoming weary of yet another law to chip away at any freedoms that remain. I do not smoke, and it angers me to see people through trash of any kind on the ground. But being the logical sort of person I am, I don't hold any false illusions about trash. I was actually paid by the American Plastics Association once or twice to cover a few beach events such as beach clean-ups, in which their representatives participated. How many of us do not buy orange juice or milk in a plastic container, own plastic trash bags in our home or use plastic of any sort? That's impossible, of course. And yet, plastic consumption by animals and fish outnumbers cigarette butts by quite a large sum, as I recall. But who among us can ask for a ban on plastic? My beach, alone, requires all soft drinks and other consumable beverages not be brought onto the beach in glass containers. So, there's not much choice to avoid taking the number one polluter onto the beach for most citizens.
That brings us to cigarette butts. Should people smoke at all? No, of course they shouldn't, but they do. Legislators are working hard to increase taxes on cigarettes so that the average person will spend a larger chunk of his or her income buying this legalized drug proven to be highly addictive. Am I for outlawing cigarettes? No.
As for beaches, if the solutions my city and others create to monitor citizen behavior have any impact, maybe they can create a smoking section for smokers, along with video cameras that take pictures of cigarette butts hitting the ground. The offender can go online and look at the photo, then send his $500 to the courts for this offense. Creating regulations don't always work if there aren't people to regulate and police activities. The best solution might come from education, but the tobacco companies can easily outspend the school systems in educating youth to smoke or not.
From my perspective, we should not focus on one item such as cigarettes, but look at a big picture in which plastics, the number one invader should be factored into this equation. So am I for this bill or not?
Here what the Surfrider Foundation tells me is At Stake:
"Cigarette butts are frequently cast onto the sidewalk and streets, and then pushed into storm drains that flow to streams, rivers, bays, lagoons and ultimately the ocean. Unfortunately, this means ecosystems have a higher chance of being impacted by cigarette butts. Many smokers incorrectly believe that cigarette filters are made of biodegradable cotton. In fact, cigarette filters contain a type of plastic (cellulose acetate), which slowly breaks down, but unfortunately never fully decomposes.
Cigarette filters are designed to trap toxic chemicals. When submerged in water, the toxic chemicals trapped in the filter leak out into aquatic ecosystems, threatening the quality of the water and aquatic life. Biologists have also found butts in the stomachs of young birds, sea turtles and other marine creatures. Studies indicate the chemicals in cigarettes are leaching into our water ways and are deadly to water fleas (a small but important microorganism that lives in most lakes and streams and the ocean).
Cigarette butts may seem small, but with an estimated 4.5 trillion butts (worldwide) littered every year, the toxic chemicals can add up quickly! Cigarette butts can cause other environmental problems, such as fires.
In a recent press release, Senator Oropeza cited several reasons to support her bill:
* The US Environmental Protection Agency has determined cigarette butts to be the most frequently found marine debris item in the United States .
* Smoking-related debris poses a persistent and serious threat to marine life and beachgoers over California ’s 1,100 miles of coastline.
* Ingestion of cigarette waste by marine animals interferes with their ability to eat and digest food.
* According to the Ocean Conservancy, in 2003 smoking-related items (in the form of cigarette filters, cigar tips, tobacco packaging, and cigarette lighters) accounted for 38 percent of all debris items found on beaches in the United States .
* Cigarette butts are not biodegradable and can harm the ecosystem as they contain more than 165 toxic chemicals.
* According to the California Department of Forestry (over a five-year average), smoking has been found to annually cause more than 100 California forest fires and more than 3,400 acres of damage.
* Smoking has caused four of the 25 worst wildfires in California, from 1929-1999, including the 1999 Jones wildfire, which destroyed 964 structures and the 1999 Oakland Hills fire, the largest dollar fire loss in United States history. The $1.5 billion blaze destroyed 3,354 homes, 456 apartment buildings and 2,000 vehicles.
Numerous local governments have already imposed bans on smoking, including bans in local parks, beaches and piers in Huntington Beach , Laguna Beach , Long Beach , Los Angeles , Malibu , Newport Beach , Redondo Beach , San Clemente , Santa Monica , Seal Beach San Diego, and Solana Beach."
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