People live here…

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• Holy crap (so to speak). 😁 Crazy that people need to be told that! 😳

• The only question I ask is : why rebuild the bridge & open up to more traffic from the south?

• More problems will ensue if you make Big Sur accessible to the public. The days are long gone for anonymity & isolation with the advent of the internet. Publicity is ruining the area. Close off the access if you want Big Sur to regenerate into its former self. Period. People will be what they will be. You will not change them. You have to change if you want change.

• Congratulations with the "wake-up call. How to communicate this to our 5th District leader and to start a future drive for the Coastal Area. It will require a crowd control structure, limited residence to keep the "explosion of infiltration down.
  Waking up , just in time seems to be the reality before total destruction by commercial greed and no respect by those that want to exploit the residential expansion. This may include part of the residential newcomers.

• private property and no trespassing signs mean nothing when your driveway is off highway 1. what the touron sees is a place of privacy, as needed. it's a mess. not to mention what my dog loves to eat or roll in.

• Some observations from my first trip to the southside in a month or so:

  - new signs between the top of the trail and the southside shuttle area letting folks know that the fine for having a fire is $5000

  - new sign between the top of the trail and the southside shuttle area in Chinese (not quite sure what it said, but it's about time there are multi lingual signs in Big Sur)

  - JPB was deserted both times I passed it (admittedly , both times were before noon)

  - lots of bicycles on the road, lots of the electric bicycles from Loma Vista, plus lots of regular bicycles presumably coming from the south and taking advantage of the lower traffic volumes

  - a few hot heads in their "hot" cars steaming up and down the highway, presumably also taking advantage of the lower traffic volumes, hopefully they don't "meet" the bicyclists.

  - a CHP patrolling the road - yay - hopefully they're there in the evening looking for illegal camping / campfires

  - state park vehicle heading up and down the highway too (not sure if they were doing anything)

  - it's still fairly quiet down there, a lot noisier than it has been people wise, but only a small percent of what it would have been last summer, I got to hear a whale blow in the fog from the side of the road.

  • I, too, saw a CHP on Nacimiento Road. I waved enthusiastically.

• A cunning invention is needed - a "Crap Sling" catapult, triggered by a cut infrared beam at squatting bum height. This to be set up in regularly fouled spots. And using the offending stools as amunition (recycling, very green) A sting operation could be induced by installing a neetly visible lavatory paper dispenser.

  While it's unlikely to deter anyone from doing it again elsewhere, it would score 12 on the Richter scale of satisfaction. If a remote camera was triggered too the results would be endlessly watched on Youtube and so generate payments.

• While I am totally sympathetic to the people with driveways directly off the highway ( ours has a gate) my question is this: what, pray tell, is the alternative? It's not like people are driving to Big Sur to deliberately crap in your yard, or on Garrapata beach- where I am reluctant to even walk anymore, because of the filth. I haven't driven across country in a while, but typically there are signs, such as: last services for X # of miles. Here we just have the benefit of Zero planning, Zero accountability, a Commission pimping out the area, and Zero infrastructure in terms of bathrooms, wildfire danger signs Etc. What a total clusterf**k!!

  • The thing about where Martha lives is that it is 15-20 minutes to town north and about 1/2 hour to Big Sur south. There ARE mileage signs for both Carmel and Big Sur. That should provide the information they need. Poor planning is poor planning and all the signs in the world are not going to change that.

    https://bigsurkate.blog

• Kate,
  We know that there aren't any bathrooms in between, but tourists don't. Mileage signs aren't enough, clearly! Plus, people aren't going directly from Point A to Point B, they stop at beaches, trails and bridges. A few years ago a friend of mine got stuck in a 3 hour traffic jam and had to pull off to pee on a side road...she was mortified, and I'm sure she didn't leave a disgusting mess, but again, what were her options? Infrastructure is a critical need-we need bathrooms for tourists, period.

• Ha! Is that sign approved by the CA Coastal Commission to be placed in view from the scenic highway?