{"id":41698,"date":"2025-11-07T00:59:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T00:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/41698\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T00:59:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T00:59:06","slug":"swimmers-reopen-china-beach-using-private-donations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/41698\/","title":{"rendered":"Swimmers reopen China Beach using private donations"},"content":{"rendered":"

At China Beach, the water is frigid and the currents are treacherous, but what has been keeping swimmers on dry land wasn\u2019t the hazards \u2014 it was the federal shutdown. Until now.<\/p>\n

The sandy shoreline, part of the federal Golden Gate National Recreational Area, reopened Wednesday thanks to donors who pooled a modest amount \u2014\u00a0just $2,500 \u2014\u00a0to pay for basic maintenance services.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s just a drop in the bucket of the frozen federal budget, but it\u2019s enough liquidity to get the trash picked up at China Beach for about two weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s wrong that we should have to, but we are willing to have this in our life,\u201d said Radha Tomassetti, who has been braving the waters for 11 years and communicates with about 150 swimmers via a WhatsApp chain. \u201cWe need to swim.\u201d<\/p>\n

The National Park Service confirmed Thursday that the beach had reopened after closing to visitors as part of the federal shutdown<\/a> that started Oct. 1.<\/p>\n

The beach lovers\u2019 initiative is part of a pattern: If the feds can\u2019t get their act together, San Franciscans will just do it themselves. <\/p>\n

\u201cGovernors and partners in several states have been working with the National Park Service to establish short-term agreements with donations to help maintain operations during the lapse in appropriations,\u201d a spokesperson said. \u201cThese agreements allow visitor centers and other facilities to remain open and accessible to the public using state- or partner-provided funds until federal funding is restored.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similar arrangements have been made at Alcatraz and Muir Woods (opens in new tab)<\/a>, where concessionaires have paid to keep attractions open.<\/p>\n

Sunset resident David Yacubian, 51, got the donations flowing for China Beach with a GoFundMe campaign (opens in new tab)<\/a> to cover the $130-per-day maintenance cost the park service requires. The fundraiser exceeded its goal, raising $2,500 from 31 donations.<\/p>\n

The funding will last through Nov. 19, he said. \u201cIf the shutdown persists we will look to extend and may reach out for further donations,\u201d Yacubian wrote Wednesday in an update to contributors.<\/p>\n

On Thursday morning, the gates were open, trash bins at the beach appeared tidy, and there were a few cars parked in the lot. Signs warned that the park might not be up to its usual standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are doing our best to take care of your parks at this time,\u201d a sign said, \u201cbut some services and amenities may not be available.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the period when China Beach was off limits, many swimmers dove into Baker Beach, which Yacubian said has dangerous conditions and challenging shore breaks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was partly a safety concern,\u201d Yacubian said, concerned as visitors began jumping over gates to access China Beach, prompting park police to respond.<\/p>\n

Yacubian\u2019s path to reopening the beach began when he learned that other Golden Gate National Recreation Area facilities had circumvented the shutdown. The Parks Conservancy kept Alcatraz open, and vendors funded the reopening of Muir Woods.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just called the park service and said, \u2018Hey, what would it take for us to reopen China Beach?\u2019\u201d Yacubian recalled. If he could come up with the minimum maintenance fee for at least three days at a time and sign an agreement with the Department of Interior, the department would welcome visitors back to the beach.<\/p>\n

One aspect of the arrangement that Yacubian emphasized is the direct benefit to park service employees who would otherwise remain unpaid during the government shutdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe money for private funds like this goes straight to the park service employees that work,\u201d Yacubian explained. \u201cIt\u2019s not like the money is getting held up in any way. It goes straight to somebody that\u2019s working there over the two-week period.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At China Beach, the water is frigid and the currents are treacherous, but what has been keeping swimmers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[28100,28101,101,103,102,104,106,105,933],"class_list":["post-41698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-china-beach","tag-golden-gate-national-recreation-area","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-swimming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}