Crystal Cove 2

Posted on September 8, 2002 in Photos The Orange

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The gated communities encroach closer in the intervals between my visits to this park. You have to be on the beach and against the cliffs to mark no sign of the shaving away of the coastal chaparral and its replacement by straw-colored hillsides waiting for a New England landscape to grow. Developers have paved and connected paths which allow the new residents to evade the parking fees that those who come from beyond the immediate neighborhood must pay; and they have set up gates so we cannot intrude on their privacy. There’s no fence around the beach, yet, to keep us from the park. But as parking becomes tight and the mansions fill the blocks, I believe that this small wonderland will become effectively private.

Each day leaves us with less and less true land as the machines of the developers plow, pound, scrape, flatten, and cover its native character. Here, again, is a link to some people who are trying to do something.