Even so, none of the residents I spoke to said they thought it was time to move to higher ground. <\/p>\n
You’re reading the Essential California newsletter <\/p>\n
Sign up to start every day with California’s most important stories.<\/p>\n
By continuing, you agree to our Terms of Service<\/a>, which include arbitration and a class action waiver. You agree that we and our third-party vendors may collect and use your information, including through cookies, pixels and similar technologies, for the purposes set forth in our Privacy Policy<\/a> such as personalizing your experience and ads. <\/p>\n A media circus Massive waves crash along the Long Beach boardwalk as onlookers take video<\/p>\n (Jack Dolan)<\/p>\n Just before high tide at 7 p.m. on Monday night, dozens of curious onlookers streamed down the narrow peninsula, having ignored the road closure signs erected by the Long Beach Police Department earlier in the day.<\/p>\n Everyone wanted to see for themselves the spectacle that had been all over their social media feeds.<\/p>\n Many had done their research and seen the four-, five- and six-million-dollar asking prices for Peninsula homes on Redfin and Zillow, and they made only a token effort to mask their schadenfreude as the punishing waves rolled in.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m so glad that\u2019s not my three-million-dollar house,\u201d said one guy filming with his iPhone.<\/p>\n \u201cThree? Ha! Guess again,\u201d replied another, also filming.<\/p>\n The people who didn\u2019t have their cameras pointed at the violent collision between land and sea seemed to have them pointed at themselves, giving live updates to God-knows-who, like so many wannabe Weather Channel correspondents.<\/p>\n One guy in cargo shorts and a battered Ramones T-shirt kept casting dirty looks at the sky, clearly annoyed at the thumping of the TV news helicopters \u2014 there were at least three overhead at all times \u2014 drowning out his commentary.<\/p>\n Not enough to scare the locals Massive waves crash along the Long Beach boardwalk<\/p>\n (Jack Dolan)<\/p>\n In the middle of it all, Peninsula resident Jim Hickman stood between the sea and his hundred-year-old house, cradling a martini.<\/p>\n Unlike the makeshift sand berms built by the city, his house is protected by a natural mound fortified with resilient pickleweed. As bulwarks go, it certainly isn\u2019t much to look at, but it seemed to offer just enough elevation to spare his property from the brutal beating his neighbors\u2019 homes were taking just a few dozen yards to the north.<\/p>\n Hickman expects his house to be standing for at least another century, he said. His square jaw and Ernest Hemingway-like beard gave him a strange air of confidence and credibility.<\/p>\n Then, as the setting sun cut through an astonishingly large and loud plume of ocean spray, lending the whole scene an apocalyptic orange tint, he added with a smile and a shrug, \u201cIf I\u2019m wrong, I\u2019m wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n A few blocks north, on the narrow side street where the waves were hitting hardest, Jenn Rinear stood in the middle of the road with her neighbors and other assembled onlookers.<\/p>\n Every now and then, instead of hitting the wooden boardwalk and shooting several stories skyward, a swell would simply surge over the top of the wall, sending saltwater and debris down the street.<\/p>\n Rinear\u2019s house \u2014 which was notably downhill from the boardwalk \u2014 had been in her family since 1951, she said.<\/p>\n Of course she knows how fraught it is to keep the house. As we spoke, we were both lifting our feet and shaking them to get the flood debris out of our flip-flops. But does she think it\u2019s time to sell and get out?<\/p>\n \u201cNo,\u201d she insisted, rubbing the back of her neck and keeping a wary eye on the sea. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing better than the ocean. It\u2019s where I feel God, it\u2019s where I feel grounded and it\u2019s where I feel happy.\u201d<\/p>\n Top stories A postcard promoting a train line to Southern California, the \u201cLand of Sunshine,\u201d featuring palm trees.<\/p>\n (From Patt Morrison\u2019s private collection)<\/p>\n What happened to L.A.\u2019s \u2018perfect\u2019 Mediterranean weather?Girl\u2019s family sues singer D4vd over her deathRelatives of Celeste Rivas Hern\u00e1ndez, the 14-year-old girl who prosecutors charge was killed by the singer D4vd, filed a lawsuit seeking damages over her death<\/a>.The family has also called for David Anthony Burke, a.k.a. D4vd, to face the death penalty if he is convicted.The dangerous allure of Sunset CliffsAt least three people have suffered injuries and have needed to be rescued<\/a> this summer at Ocean Beach\u2019s Sunset Cliffs, leading police to ramp up enforcement as locals debate the merits of safety versus a need for youthful rites of passage.Participants, mostly males 14 to 20 years old, are drawn to the thrills of the jump amplified by social media and anchored by a feeling of invincibility.More newsCommentary and opinionEditor\u2019s pickMore picksThings to do The \u201cStar Wars in Motion\u201d exhibit at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art features Luke\u2019s landspeeder from the 1977 original film.<\/p>\n (Ariana Drehsler \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n Today\u2019s recipe Citrusy spiced pumpkin loaf cakes are spiked with fresh orange and lemon juices and drizzled with maple syrup icing.<\/p>\n (Katrina Frederick \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n The first day of fall is two weeks away, so it\u2019s the perfect time to start thinking about fall recipes. This autumn loaf cake<\/a> is a good place to start as it combines pumpkin-spice warmth with a citrus brightness, thanks to a tart syrup that soaks into the loaves once they come out of the oven. <\/p>\n Question for you<\/p>\n Have you given up your gas vehicle and joined the growing number of EV drivers in California? Tell us why or why not at essentialcalifornia@latimes.com<\/a>, and your response might appear in the newsletter this week.<\/p>\n Bonnie P. says, \u201cI have a fully electric BMW. Fabulous car! Handles like a BMW plus I haven\u2019t been inconvenienced by going to a gas station in almost three years. I plug in for a few hours at home and I\u2019m ready to go. Easy. Brilliant.\u201d <\/p>\n Seth O. says, \u201cI have had my Blazer EV for a year and a half and would never go back to an internal combustion engine again. I probably pay 1\/3 to 1\/4 per mile of the cost of gasoline. I charge at home after 9 p.m. when my electric rates are low. I have never worried about range limits at all. I don\u2019t miss the gas stations. The ones where I live are dirty, don\u2019t print receipts, have their displays vandalized, never have cleaning materials for the windshields, and the tire fillers never work. When I do travel, a variety of apps on my phone and car always lead me to a charging station. There\u2019s no looking back.\u201d<\/p>\n Photo of the day (Christina House \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Games Here\u2019s today\u2019s mini crossword<\/a>, plus our other free, daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and jigsaw games<\/a>.<\/p>\n Have a great day, from the Essential California team<\/p>\n Jack Dolan, investigative reporter How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com<\/a>. Check our top stories<\/a>, topics<\/a> and the latest articles<\/a> on latimes.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Huge waves slammed into the boardwalk on the Long Beach Peninsula over Labor Day weekend, spraying multimillion-dollar oceanfront…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,2299,1085,891,2300,2297,340,2303,63,2302,1086,1459,2301,2298,74,225,315,688],"class_list":["post-458273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-civic-revolt","tag-covid","tag-covid-19","tag-days","tag-essential-california","tag-israel","tag-l-a","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-may","tag-pandemic","tag-part","tag-president-biden","tag-red-county","tag-san-diego","tag-state","tag-time","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458273","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=458273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Massive](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788962891_706_.gif\")
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<\/a> An elephant seal is released at Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro as volunteers from the Marine Mammal Care Center look on. El Ni\u00f1o could bring waves of starving sea lion pups<\/a> to California beaches. <\/p>\n![\"Mini](\"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/21\/ec\/25146a67473fbc80fa9a6e5bdb82\/minicrossword-kyle.svg\")
<\/p>\n
Hugo Mart\u00edn, assistant editor, fast break desk
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew Campa, weekend writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters<\/p>\n