Rye Beach Needs Real Protection: Resident Letter

In a letter, Rye resident Nicolette Flosse explains to MyRye.com readers that Rye Town Park's Oakland Beach needs real protection. What do you think? Post a comment below.

The beauty of Oakland Beach is disintegrating into sand full of cigarette butts, empty beer cans, broken glass and used condoms. 

I remember our real estate agent pushing the beach as a selling point stating that only the residents of Rye had "beach rites". And so we decided along with other factors that the quality of Rye was what we were looking for. In the three years that we have been here, I have been to complain to the town parks office on numerous occasions regarding the garbage on the beach. Each time I am told that they clean the beach every morning and that the machine cannot pick up cigarette butts or all of the trash that is left behind. 

(PHOTO: We already have Mr. Floatie, we don't want guys like you) If the visitors to the beach cannot throw away their cigarettes, then why should they be permitted to smoke on the beach. On a hot day, there is nothing worse than trying to keep my family away from the secondhand smoke in trying find a spot on the beach away from the cigar and cigarette smokers. There is always the overwhelming concern about dogs on the beach, in the park, etc. and I have yet to come across any dog remains that were threatening the health and safety of my children. Yet, after an hour and fifteen minutes at Oakland Beach, I had to deter my son from playing with cigarette butts, empty beer cans and broken beer bottles.

The final outrage, being the cause for this complaint, was when my four year old daughter excitedly ran over to our towel saying that she found a balloon and was going to blow it up.  In complete shock, myself and the other mothers in our play-date panicked as we scrambled to keep the condom away from her mouth.

With the taxes we pay as a Rye resident, I should not be forced to concede to the filth our beach and pay thousands, upon thousands of dollars to join one of the many clubs in our area to keep my children safe at the beach.  It's time to ban together to strengthen the laws regarding smoking and debris on our beach.

Nicolette Flosse, Rye, NY

Comments

[mbeard@optonline.net]

There are plenty of examples where semi-public beaches stay clean and have rules that keep some of these issues contained. Look to many town in New Jersey and Greenwich example is a good one. No smoking laws exist all over, can we not pass the same ordinance for RTP and the Beach. I stopped going to the Beach a few years ago because of the garbage. I do not bring out of town guests to the beach either-it's embarrassing. Anyone that would run for mayor and make this a priority I would vote for.

[Scooter]

Crye -

More garbage cans = people will clean up. I would agree with you if the people using RTP were Rye residents. We live in a beautiful town, only b/c we keep it clean, tend to our properties and keep them in good repair.
Unfortunately, a large part of the RTP crowd comes frome elsewhere, and don't give a Floatie about whether their garbage makes it to the can. They are lazy, sloppy and usually obnoxious.

[Crye Resident]

After reviewing the headlines on this blog, I can only wonder if there is anything right with this town. How many signatures do I need on a petition to officially change the name of Rye to Crye?

[Crye Resident]

Most times it's as easy as making garbage cans accessible and people will clean up. If there isn't enough garbage cans or the placement of the cans not convienient, the beach will be most likely be littered with garbage.

[Throw Otis to the curb]

Part of the problem is Otis sits on the RTP Commission. Otis is such a pansy and a politician that he appears to be afraid to say anything to the Town of Rye officials. They take advantage of this weakness and continually stick it to Rye taxpayers.

For this reason and others, Otis needs to go now. At the very least Otis needs to get thrown to the curb with the rest of the garbage in November.

[Scooter]

Life's a Beach -
You're making the mistaken assumption that more parked cars means greater revenues for the park. Not so - it means more revenues to individuals, but not the park.
There's a better way to generate - and keep - revenue.
Stop the political patronage. Review the number of paid employees and reduce the number of them to what is needed to run the park to maintain order and cleanliness.
Hire enforcement professionals who won't drink all day on the job in the office (and then drive home, sometimes detouring through someone's front lawn).
Ticket those who litter, indecently expose themselves or play radios at excessive volumes. This will greatly benefit the majority by discouraging sloppy behaviour by a few.
Stop the practice of running the park as a strictly cash operation. Anyone want to guess how much of the income from parking revenue disappears every day as the sack of money makes its way to the bank?
Adhere to normal accounting practices. Every year, the city of Rye subsidizes the operations by overtaxing its residents. The money goes into a black hole which the Town of Rye never adequately explains.
Once the parking lot is full, stop taking cars. This will reduce the damage to the grass, result in fewer people and result in a more beautiful park experience for users.

[Lifes A Beach]

The grass area can hold approx 10 times more cars than the paved area. To break even you'd have to charge 10 times more. What do you think that would do to attendance? Even just doubling the beach fee from $7 to $14 would kill attendance. How is the grass abused? I have walked my dog there and it looks fine. Not a lot of wear and tear.

Face it -- if you want RTP to stay open without additional significant taxpayer funding, you need to utilize the grass area.

Sorry

[protectRTP]

Why can't we limit the number of cars that can park at RTP to the number of spaces in the parking lot? Let supply and demand help figure out the cost to park at the RTP. Perhaps it should cost more? The residents of the towns that support RTP should be encouraged to use the park and beach. I am a resident and am disgusted by the way our beach and park are abused especially in the summer months. Those in charge are allowing this abuse.

[ObamaNation]

Ok let's look at this issue! Let us cook up the perfect mess.

1st-RTP Commission, who needs to make the sharp pencils that run the park, City of Rye, Town of Rye, Village of PC and maybe Rye Brook happy.

So, they charge a higher non-resident rate for all our new friends that can't park in the Playland Parking lot because it's "full", so the customers come to RTP and find parking.
Then, the new customer's find out, they have to pay additional cash to sit on the sand, or perhaps they just stroll over to enjoy Playland. If they stay in the park, they turn the non-sand areas into a dump. And what do we do then? Pick up after them and the commission prays for nice weather during the week so they can continue to make the all-mighty buck.
I don't know if this is possible, but could the RTP be limited to residents of Town of Rye, City of Rye and PC? Greenwich did this in the past, No? They only way we make a dent in this problem is to limit the patrons to residents. Sounds cold, but why not? Pay one Price at Pland will only make the RTP more attractive.
I look forward to seeing what Myrye blogers think. Don't forget the SPF. And perhaps a dash of respect for good old Ma Nature!

[Jim Amico]

Why do they let so many people in?
Why do you think.....$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Maybe we can ask some of the Forest Ave. and neighboring streets residents if they would petition the City to allow visitors to park on their streets.
I don't see why it should be a problem.......the City allows both sides of the street parking on Midland Ave. every weekend and all week except for a few short hours. It's no biggie - except one day another kid WILL GET STRUCK BY A CAR, sustain minor injuries,life altering injuries, or worse (GODFORBID)!!!