BEIRUT SEASHORE Through People’s Eyes NAHNOO Survey Report 2018 Acknowledgements Yara Hamadeh Survey design, analysis, and report writing Elie Saad Fieldwork coordinator Victorio Abou Diwan, Diana Abou Ibrahim, Johnny Baaklini, Cynthia Bou Aoun, Dana Charafeddine, Raweya Dakdouk, Aya Kaadan, Evelyn Kanso, Roudayna Khcheich, Tarek Kheireddine, Riwa Mansour, Rachelle Mhanna, Karim Mufti, Zeinab Nasser, Elie Saad, Minas Said, Alia Wehbe Fieldwork-survey volunteers Maria Rajha, Suzanna Timani, Amine Zeidan Volunteers assisting in data entry cleaning and coding Jessica Chemaly Project Manager Table of Contents I- Background.............................................................................................................................. 1 II- The Survey ............................................................................................................................... 3 1- Objectives ................................................................................................................................... 3 2- Form, Structure, and Content ...................................................................................................... 4 3- Methodology ............................................................................................................................... 5 4- Limitations .................................................................................................................................. 6 III- Results ...................................................................................................................................... 8 1- Respondents’ Profiles ................................................................................................................. 8 A. Who are the visitors of the seashore and its space users? ........................................................... 8 B. Beirut Seashore, a space that cannot be subsumed into abstract generalizations...................... 15 2- General Overview ..................................................................................................................... 16 A. Purpose and frequency of visits: Why and how often do people come to the seashore? .......... 16 B. The seashore in one word.......................................................................................................... 19 C. How the different zones of Beirut seashore are perceived and branded? ................................. 20 D. Identified Problems of Beirut Seashore .................................................................................... 21 E. Suggested Solutions .................................................................................................................. 22 3- Historical and Socio-Cultural Overview ................................................................................... 23 A. Activities along the seashore..................................................................................................... 23 B. Historical use: Old rituals and practices.................................................................................... 23 C. The Seashore transformation over time .................................................................................... 25 4- Economic Activities .................................................................................................................. 25 A. Public or Private Beach? ........................................................................................................... 25 B. Cost ........................................................................................................................................... 27 C. Restaurants and coffee shops .................................................................................................... 27 D. Street vendors ............................................................................................................................ 29 5- Right to the Sea ......................................................................................................................... 30 A. Illegalities .................................................................................................................................. 30 B. Law awareness .......................................................................................................................... 31 Aspirations ........................................................................................................................................ 32 IV- Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 34 IV- Appendices ............................................................................................................................. 34 List of Figures Figure 1-Age Groups of Respondents ..................................................................................................... 8 Figure 2-Gender of Respondents ............................................................................................................ 9 Figure 3-Educational Background of Respondents................................................................................. 9 Figure 4-Occupation of Respondents .................................................................................................... 10 Figure 5-Nationalities of Respondents .................................................................................................. 11 Figure 6-Respondents' Place of Residence ........................................................................................... 12 Figure 7-Place of Residence of Respondents coming from other Beiruti areas and Mount-Lebanon .. 12 Figure 8-Mode of Transportation Used by Respondents ...................................................................... 15 Figure 9-Company ................................................................................................................................ 15 Figure 10-Purpose and Frequency of visits ........................................................................................... 17 Figure 11-Purpose and Frequency of Visits to the Different Zones of the Seashore ............................ 18 Figure 12-Beirut Seashore in One Word ............................................................................................... 19 Figure 13-Seashore Problems Identified by Respondents .................................................................... 22 Figure 14-Suggested Solutions by Respondents ................................................................................... 22 Figure 15-Identified Seashore Activities and Events ............................................................................ 23 Figure 16-Old rituals and Practices ....................................................................................................... 24 Figure 17-Did the Seashore Change Over Time? ................................................................................. 25 Figure 18-Beach Preferences for Swimming ........................................................................................ 26 Figure 19-Ever Been Into a Public Beach in Beirut .............................................................................. 26 Figure 20-Public Beaches Preference in Beirut .................................................................................... 27 Figure 21-Restaurants and Coffee Shops Customers on the Seaside and Opposite Side of the Sea ..... 28 Figure 22-With or Against the presence of Seaside Resorts, Restaurants, and Coffee Shops .............. 29 Figure 23-Buying from Street Vendors ................................................................................................ 29 Figure 24-Awareness of Illegalities along the Seashore ....................................................................... 30 Figure 25-Identified Illegalities ............................................................................................................ 30 Figure 26-Awareness of the Right to Access the MPD (Decree 4810 of 1966) ................................... 31 Figure 27-Awareness of the MPD Definition (Order 144/s of 1925) ................................................... 31 Figure 28-Will to Defend the Public Right to the Sea .......................................................................... 31 Figure 29-The Ideal Seashore from Users' Perspective ........................................................................ 33 “The right to the city is far more than the individual liberty to access urban resources: it is a right to change ourselves by changing the city. It is, moreover, a common rather than an individual right since this transformation inevitably depends upon the exercise of a collective power to reshape the processes of urbanization. The freedom to make and remake our cities and ourselves is, I want to argue, one of the most precious yet most neglected of our human rights.” David Harvey I- Background Naturally, beaches are unique coastal environments that shaped their socio-cultural, ecological, economic, and recreational values over time. Beaches are also a public good that should be protected and managed in a proper and sustainable way. In Lebanon, order 144/s of 1925 stipulates that public domain is inalienable, cannot be sold and cannot be owned over time. Land on the seashore is either a Maritime Public Domain (not parcelized into lots,