Residents in wealthy California town block access to public hot springs with boulders

This reminds me of cities after the Civil Rights Act getting rid of their public pools rather than being forced to integrate them.

"It's either just for me or no one can have it" is such a weird attitude.

I mean the most obvious malicious compliance here would be to make a bus line that runs to the tiny little parking lot at the entrance. Nothing the wealthy hate more than public transportation in their backyard.

The issue seems to be with parking at the trailhead, where a tiny lot allows for just eight vehicles. When that fills up, hikers have to park on roadsides.

County officials plan to create 62 new parking spots near the trailhead – which caused four homeowners to sue in protest in 2022.

They can go get bent.

It's a GOOD thing we don't TAX these Wealthy People! Otherwise they might have to give US access to the National Parks we paid for since they won't be able to Afford the Fines!

It’s not clear if the stones have been cleared.

🤡

More like, "we just got paid to not do anything about it". If they wanted those stones cleared they would have brought a fucking excavator, got shit done, and fined the people responsible over $10,000 for the cost of moving them.

$850/day to someone who owns a house worth an average of $7.2m really isn't much. These people are wealthy beyond belief and can easily pay that penalty. If the punishment for bad behavior is only a fine, then the bad behavior is effectively legal for the rich.

Montecito has so much money and influence that any freeway construction in the area has to avoid Montecito because they hate the noise and traffic. They are also used to getting their way. They want to be a small town of multimillionaires but the problem is that they are between a big city and a national park.

Wow. This is like those homeowners that were sued for blocking access to the beach in Malibu.

Eat the rich

Fuck rich people.

Every last one of them is a scummy, scammy piece of garbage.

It became popular during the pandemic when hiking surged in the area, and has also taken off on social media as a destination.

On one hand, fuck those rich people who live there. On the other hand, fuck those assholes that ruin places like this because they want to take pictures for social media.

What is it with you humans and your insistence that nothing matters unless you can keep it away from those who need it most?

Money sure seems to bring out the moronic meanness of people dont it

There needs to be hefty fines, with a time component, accumulating since the first notice

just waiting for the "non-local resident drags massive boulder down road after locals block entrance" news article to pop up now

Great... now I got to do a side quest to get to the hot springs.

If they're so wealthy, just chip in to expand the parking lot....how much can laying some new concrete cost?

honestly why don't they do a park and ride somewhere else and then just have a bus/shuttle service on high traffic days?

I'm trying to understand the situation, because the article is a little confusing. It doesn't sound like they were actually blocking access to the hot springs. It sounds like they were placing boulders to discourage people from parking along the road leading to the trailhead. There are only a few actual parking spots, and once those fill up people are lining the roads with their cars, possibly damaging private property in the process. I can understand the frustration. Though suing to stop the construction of additional parking seems counter-productive.