Public advocate on beach patrol

One of the priorities of the state's new public advocate, Ronald Chen, is making certain New Jersey's beaches are accessible to the public. Toward that end, the advocate's office has published a 2006 beach guide, http://www.state.nj.us/publicadvocate/reports/pdfs/BEACH_GUIDE.pdf, that opens with an overview of the history of beach access issues.

The guide includes information about beach fees, parking, restroom and changing facilities, and disability access for beaches in Monmouth, Ocean, Atlantic and Cape May counties.
It also includes an e-mail address, where comments about the beach guide or concerns regarding beach access should be sent: beaches@advocate.state.nj.us.

Here are our two suggestions for improving next year's guide: Make it available before the summer begins rather than halfway into the season, and make it clear on the first or second page of the guide, as the press release announcing the guide did, that the public advocate is committed to ensuring compliance with beach access regulations and that he encourages the public to inform him about problems with beach access, ranging from inadequate parking, to excessive beach fees to inadequate facilities.