Stolen "Bruce's Beach" to be returned

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Originally published at: Stolen "Bruce's Beach" to be returned | Boing Boing

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The story is both depressing and up-lifting at the same time, it’s what I call a Monday story.

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I’m glad the county is doing what the city wouldn’t. Plaques are all well and good, but this is a case where restitution can be made without any credible objection.

The 1920s were a particularly terrible time for PoC in America. I am sure there are plenty of other families like the Bruces who are long overdue for compensation.

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Also all the other decades.

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Wow, an actual act of reparation, let’s hope they can make full use of the beach (and what is probably some pretty valuable real estate now).

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Dep-lifting?

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I used “particularly” for a reason. Not every decade in American history saw things like the KKK taking over statehouses (e.g. Indiana’s) or city-wide pogroms like the Tulsa riot. The 1920s were bad even by America’s generally low standards.

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Hopefully this means we’ll start looking at the use of eminent domain through the entire urban renewal and highway era. Any real reckoning with the use of law to seize land is going to be a long process.

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Well, it’s certainly a start, now all of the land stolen from the indigenous First Nations people should be returned to the rightful owners, the tribes and the existing members thereof.

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I was thinking the same thing. On that front, there is small progress being made…

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Probably worth a whole lot more as a golf course, or as a billionaire’s private playground.

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Yeah, I’d love to see something, but wholesale return is simply not realistic. People back then settled where people now tend to collect, water sources, oceanside property, etc… The sheer value of the land just in CA that is occupied/owned by non-native peoples is probably several times the GDP of the planet.

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The GDP of the planet in 2020 was about 85 trillion.

The value of all taxable property in Southern California hit $2.6 trillion this year, up 6.5 percent or $160 billion from a year ago, numbers from local assessors offices show. A portion of those assessments also include such “personal property” as business machines, planes and boats, but those items account for just 5 percent of the total.

Now, 500 years of compound interest (also known as “you’re better off leaving it in the idealized fictional bank that never goes bust”) can really ratchet up those debts.

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It’d be depressing if the County asked for back tax or the present Bruces weren’t awesome… (aand cue the TripAdvisor ratings for Bruce’s Beach, not pages about Bruces. Doooownlist then.)

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Indeed, and in LA in particular redlining and a host of other racist policies were used to turn prosperous communities into poverty-stricken ghettos.

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I read about this in the SF Chron… it’s not a done deal. Apparently, there is a state law that has to pass due to some contingencies in the original land grab documents, or subsequent title transfers. Here’s hoping it passes, and the county does the Right Thing.

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Now add in the Bay Area, Sacramento, etc…

May have been a bit hyperbolic, but you get the point.

Now add in other states… Repayment for mineral and oil rights for materials already extracted, rent for the past 200+ years etc…

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Now reboinged.

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