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
Nicolette,
I couldn’t agree with you more. We have been dealing with the same problem on Hen Island for years. I am confident that when the high tides come in Rye, Oakland beach receives some of our floating debris, as Hen Island acts as a filter for the floating debris in Milton Harbor. These issues cannot be stopped but with attention we can see a 95% improvement. I would be happy to work with you or anyone else to establish a committee with the City.
I have attached two photos from my website of our shoreline on Hen Island if you really want to get sick. Please be sure to read the information below the pictures as you will see this floating debris is also harmful to wildlife and dangerous to boaters.
http://healtheharbor.com/gallery/pages/environment/environment3.html
http://healtheharbor.com/gallery/pages/environment/environment2.html
The board of directors on Hen Island and many of the residents refuse to police the beaches for debris. It has been this way for years. So bad that when the island was purchased in 1952 the prior owners included a clause in the deed requiring the residents to keep the beach free of debris. Half of the beaches on the island are clean and half are ignored. If you look at the shorelines along the rest of Rye you will find almost all of the residents are concerned about the debris and have it cleaned on a regular basis.
I totally agree about the disgusting waste found on the beach.
I’m kind of confused why your children feel inclined to put everything in their mouths. Maybe you could talk to them about that.
Perhaps you didn’t read the whole article RBF, she clearly states that the child mistook the condom for a balloon and it seems pretty natural to me that a 4 year old would want to put that in her mouth. Maybe you could take a course in reading comprehension.
Mr. Sears,
Where can I meet that girl in the condom suite? She is cute!!!!
Mr. Floatie
The cigarette butts, the condoms, etc. aren’t the problem. Those things don’t get there by themselves. People put them there, and it’s the people that abuse RTP that need to be dealt with. If you look around Rye, these aren’t issues that crop up with any regularity with the exception of RTP and Playland. That would leave one to believe that Rye residents (the people who read MYRYE) are not the problem. I am acutely aware that we have no choice but to open our doors and shores to others. We have done that at RTP for many years. It is a shared venture with the people of Rye Town, and it has been available for use and abuse by anyone willing to cough up a few bucks to spend the day and leave their mark. This won’t change. What should change is how comfortable the people who abuse this beautiful park have been made to feel as they only follow the example of those, who on a variety of levels seem to want to turn RTP into Orchard Beach. Perhaps if the beautiful rolling lawns were left to be beautiful rolling lawns, and not turned into a parking lot for every 1992 Toyota with an oil leak, people might get the impression that someone actually cared about this amazing property. Maybe a fresh coat of paint more than once every third leap year might send a message that this wasn’t a place to dump your empty 40s. RTP is the definition of the word “shame”. What could be extraordinary, has instead become something of an embarrassment. Oh sure, during the cold weather months it looks great as you drive along Forest Avenue. Drive along Forest Avenue on a hot day at the end of June with a visitor from out of town, and they will certainly wonder why people go to such great expense to live in Rye. What RTP has become, at least during it’s “season”, certainly makes me wonder why I do.
I think you’re all missing the big picture. Rather than cleaning up all the broken bottles, cigarette butts, condoms and other detritus, why don’t we look to camouflage the trash by attracting the kind of beautiful women as seen in the photo with Mr. Condom? Are they Mr. Condom groupies, and if they are, could we entice him to spend time in Rye to counter-act the sinister message of Mr. Floatie?
Scooter;
Start a committee, let me know whe and where it meets. I’ll bring the beer.
Anybody know Olivia Wilde’s cell number? What about Jessica Biel?
This beach has been this filthy for years. I moved to Rye in 1991 and the beach was full of cigarette butts even back then. Besides the littering, it is just too crowded. Why do they let so many people in? There’s no room to walk. The cars are parked all over the grass, it’s so depressing to see a lovely park totally covered in cars. They should just limit it to a certain amount of vehicles.
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)!!!
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!
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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 –
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.
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.