San Clemente is one of southern California’s most picture-perfect beach towns – a capital of American surf culture since the 1950s. In two years, 2028 Olympic surfers will compete at Lower Trestles, a world-class surfing beach.
But the town’s longtime cultural and economic driver, its beaches, are now under threat. As pounding waves driven by late-summer storms in the Pacific devour chunks of the California coastline, some of San Clemente’s beaches are growing narrower, the sand increasingly eaten away.
Beach erosion has become a crisis all along the southern California shoreline this year, with towns from Dana Point and Long Beach to Malibu sustaining dramatic damage.
Beaches are now narrow and drop off steeply. That sounds like any sea wall building will be wasted as the sea wall is undermined. It also sounds like any build up of sand will be washed away pretty quickly. It looks like “time and tides wait for no one” is the way of it.
The time to have helped was 30-40 years ago when tackling global warming was a lot cheaper.
No
Sucks that the beaches are eroding, but that happens everywhere.
Fuck em.
Among cities within 25 miles, San Clemente leans more Republican than 25 of 35 neighbors. San Clemente runs about 31 points more Republican than California as a whole. California leans Democratic overall, while San Clemente is one of the few Republican-leaning pockets.
San Clemente, California had 62,226 residents on July 1, 2025 (Census Bureau estimate); median household income $140,062, median home value $1,721,005.
Donald Trump has continued to deny climate change as a “hoax”, “con job” or scam”. But in southern California, a historically conservative area, the effect of extreme weather events linked to the climate crisis have suddenly become very, very real.
And these people who love to deny government assistance on any form, are asking for government assistance.
On a hot October Friday, Kathy Ruiz, of Laguna Niguel, was sunbathing on a mostly-empty Aliso beach, not far from where construction equipment was repairing the Laguna beach parking lot damaged by early September storm surges.
“As far as people expecting the city to protect their homes, I don’t think that’s reasonable,” she said. “I think maybe they shouldn’t have built so close to the beach.”
Some residents want the government to build up sand berms to protect homes against the coming storms, Ruiz said, but she was skeptical.
“Nature is going to take its course,” Ruiz said. “I think all that stuff is in vain.”
They should have sold to an idiot climate denier while they still could.
