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Let me fill you in on Kelowna's newest attraction, called "Mushroom Beach!"
Imagine a place where the rules don’t apply, where one is free to openly use drugs and consume alcohol to their heart's content right along the shores of Okanagan Lake, where the restrictiveness one finds by wearing clothing is not a problem, as nudity is a go, and where you can answer the call of nature while enjoying the lush and fragrant surroundings of a neighbouring garden.
If it sounds too good to be true, see for yourself.
On a warm summer evening, you can join the 100-plus people enjoying Mushroom Beach at the end of Lake Street, right by the underpass into City Park. You can check out the latest events right on their very own Facebook page! If you feel out of the loop, you should, as everyone in town knows about it, including City Hall and the RCMP! (Don't worry they can't shut it down – according to a community police liaison "the RCMP cannot train officers fast enough to meet the policing needs around the province.")
The optimist might say that I should be thankful to live so close to such a popular party hotspot. I have tried! I have tried to be open-minded and welcoming to the hippie-esque vibe people are attempting to create at Mushroom Beach. I, too, find some of our western norms a little confining, but the events of the last couple of weeks have caused me to question this acceptance.
I moved into my neighbourhood so that I could walk to the end of my street and be at the beach. I can't do that anymore. I can't take my four-year-old daughter to a place that is packed with drug-users, where people are so drunk they can't stand up straight, and where the vocabulary of the people using the beach is not suitable for even late-night cable. I can no longer explain to her why she must walk home to use the "potty" when she watches person after person relieve themselves in the bushes.
Since this rowdiness ramped-up this year (yes, this is year three of the popular recreation destination), I have been phoning bylaw and the RCMP frequently in an effort to make the users of "Mushroom Beach" feel unwelcome in the neighbourhood. However, the people who really feel unwelcome (and sometimes even unsafe) are me and my daughter, along with all the wonderful people who call this neighbourhood home.
We need help to reclaim our neighbourhood!
Dayna Margetts
