Week 3: Project 3B

BEACHES: MANHATTAN AND PISMO BEACH

When one hears the word “beach” he or she may think of sun, sand, water, picnics, and surfing. But each beach is as diverse as a culture, people, or ethnicity. Beaches are unique to the area and topography of a state. I believe that humanities cannot not just be a study of the people that visit, work, and live in an area, but humanities also encompasses the land that contributes to the reasons why people visit, work, and live, in an area, which helps lead one to understand a specific culture much better.

I viewed Meredith Porter’s blog about beaches. She compared and contrasted Mission Beach and Point Lobos. She stated, “Studying and comparing two beaches connects to the study of the humanities because understanding a location leads to a better understanding of that place's culture, literature, music and other elements that we study in the humanities.” I felt this was a very well thought response about why she felt this connected to the study of humanities. It was one of my favorite definitions after reading through many of them. Her descriptions were vivid and allowed me to see how she also needed visual descriptions to take a mental field trip. I found it very nteresting how some people are very good verbalizers and visualizers. This is a very important skill to master when learning from and teaching others. It is important to see how each person interprets information.

I decided to research Manhattan Beach and Pismo Beach. They are located in Los Angeles. Both residents from surrounding neighborhoods utilize the beaches for the majority of the year since the weather in Los Angeles is mild and has an average temperature of 70-90 degrees throughout many months in a year. Manhattan Beach and Pismo Beach offer sightseeing, golfing, parkland, bicycling, and picnicking areas jut to name a few of the amenities. Manhattan and Pismo both have walking access and large piers in which to view the beaches. One can see Manhattan and Pismo each from Highway 101. 

However much alike, Pismo Beach is much smaller than Manhattan Beach. Pismo is located on the “Central Coast of California” (www.wikipedia). Manhattan Beach is located in “southwestern Los Angeles, County” (www.wikipedia).

The film, Jerry Maguire in 1996 showed Manhattan Beach, for Rene Zellwegger’s house was located in the Tree Section of Manhattan Beach. The sand on Waikiki Beach in Hawaii is literally from Manhattan Beach. “Much of the sand on Waikiki Beach was purchased by developers from Hawaii in the late 1920s, who negotiated a deal with the Kuhn Brothers Construction Company to ship the city's sand across the Pacific from Manhattan Beach to Waikiki Beach for over 10 years.[9] The only remaining sand that resembles Manhattan Beach's original landscape can be found at Sand Dune Park” (www.wikipedia).

Pismo Beach was renamed to Oceano and then to Grover Beach, for many who renamed it thought that no one would go to a city in order to go to a beach. I learned that both Pismo Beach and Manhattan Beach are charming city beaches, but Pismo Beach is unique to festivals and Manhattan Beach is unique to movie sets. Pismo Beach has themed weekends including Jazz and Clam Festivals. Pismo Beach is also exploring more pier development, whereas Manhattan Beach is not. Pismo Beach has much smaller communities surrounding it than Manhattan Beach.

Both beaches have cliffs, large ocean waves, acres of sand, large piers, and many residents and visitors alike. They create a large playground for many Los Angeles residents. Each beach is unique to its neighborhood, meaning that Manhattan is close to the film industry for location sets, while Pismo draws more activity from festivals. Regardless, each one has a variety of visitors that walk and enjoy the sun, sand and surf.

I learned that the beaches bring in large amounts of tourism, but the town can readily enjoy all they have to offer. Even though each one is in the city of Los Angeles, they are charming and unique in their own special way.