Anyone ever notice that when it rains hard, it often floods Bayshore Boulevard? Such that, in places, it completely covers the roadway. It has everything to do with rain, wind, nearly sea-level elevation, periodic high tides and over-taxed sewers.
Anyone ever notice something else? A flooded Bayshore is a magnet for locals. I’ve seen canoes and even wave runners. Cell phone-camera toters and bare-footed kids are a given. Courtesy of Tropical Storm Andrea’s outer bands, Bayshore was flooded again recently. It attracted the usual gawkers.
And while a shimmering, newly-expanded waterfront will always be a beacon to little kids, here’s what I’ll never get: older teens and parents with toddlers wading around shoeless. What is it about E. coli scenarios that is not deterrent enough? What is it about submersed, foreign objects disgorged by those over-capacity sewers that aren’t disincentive enough?
Sight-seeing on Bayshore after a storm is understandable. Not realizing the public health implications is not.