SeeCalifornia.com

If you’re feeling a little kumba ya right now, it could be because you’re reminiscing about the good ‘ol days when you went to the beach, built a blazing bonfire,  sang songs, talked, ate wieners and s’mores, and filled your shoes with sand. California’s air quality rules nearly did away with the old-time tradition of building a fire, but the California Coastal Commission and newcomers in recent elections such as Newport Beach City Council have said that bonfires at beaches are important to Californians and they should stay. Previously, Newport Beach officials launched an effort to remove bonfire pits and went so far as to require visitors to use charcoal instead of wood last year. They even paid charcoal stewards to hand out pamphlets and enforce the charcoal only rules. Facebook petitions, heated newspaper columns, bonfire rallies and legislative efforts to save the wood-burning fire pits must have paid off. At Newport Beach’s Jan. 13, 2015 council meeting, members voted 5-2 to revert the pit rules back to allowing wood. Next, Carmel by the Sea is trying to tackle its beach bonfire situation which seems out of control due to a lack of dedicated rings to place the fires in (you could just go down to the beach and build a bonfire on the sand in a certain area.) And the beach capital, San Diego, struggled to keep its rings when city budget cuts threatened removal. A grassroots movement raised money in an effort that successfully kept them. Fighting to keep bonfire rings–  it’s the pits!