Introducing The Silver Strand 4 All Campaign!

Nothing defines our region more than the beach.

For many San Diegans, time on the beach is essential to daily life, promoting mental and physical health—not to mention all the memories! Yet for many low income communities, beach access is out of reach. In 2019, our Transportation & Planning team illustrated inequitable beach access by taking a group of students from City Heights (a community that relies heavily on transit) to the beach via bus. A KPBS reporter joined the nearly two hour series of bus rides to the beach and reported on it here.

Then in 2021, several of us biked to the Silver Strand and camped out on the beach, an event helped inspire the Silver Strand 4 All Campaign! After years of advocacy and community planning around beach access, this campaign is the next step and will work to see a new campsite created at the Silver Strand. This stretch of coastline would be dedicated specifically to beach camping, an activity we believe many in our communities would enjoy with improved transit access to the beach.

Acknowledgements:

Special thanks to Outdoor Outreach for teaming up with us on this, to Parks California for funding the above video, to California Coastal Conservancy and Parks California for funding us for the event, to the San Diego Foundation for helping fund the ongoing work, and thanks to all who’ve supported more equitable beach access, and stay tuned for more updates on the campaign!