Southern California city dealing with unprecedented beach crowds
Longtime residents and city leaders in Laguna Beach say this summer has been unlike any other. Fleeing the scorching inland heat, visitors have flocked to this affluent coastal community by the tens of thousands, crowding beaches and, according to locals, leaving behind unprecedented amounts of trash. “I’ve never seen the influx of trash, people, crowds, rescues, sirens in my entire life,” said Greg Viviani, a Laguna Beach native who runs the popular Instagram handle SoLagLocal. In a video shared on July 1, Viviani emptied a trash bag full of beach toys and garbage that he collected in a single morning. Greg Viviani empties a bag of trash collected on the beach in Laguna Beach on July 1, 2024. (IG @SoLagLocal) “This has to stop. This is killing our town, killing our way of life … this is ridiculous,” he says. Laguna Beach Mayor Sue Kempf hears the complaints. “Since I’ve lived here, I’ve never seen so many visitors, and the people who have lived here 30, 40, 50 years have said the same thing,” Kempf told KTLA’s Chip Yost on Friday. While the volume of