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Sean Parker Builds Beach-Access App To Atone For His Rule-Violating Wedding (wral.com)
An anonymous reader quotes the Associated Press:
A tech billionaire whose elaborate wedding in a redwood grove violated California rules has helped create a smartphone app that shows users a map of more than 1,500 spots where people can get to the coastline. The California Coastal Commission unveiled the YourCoast app at its meeting Thursday in Newport Beach. "This is an only in California story," Commission Chair Dayna Bochco said in a statement. "Where else could you find a tech mogul partnering with a regulator to help the public get to the beach?"
Sean Parker, co-founder of file-sharing service Napster, agreed to help make the educational tool after he built a large site resembling a movie set for his wedding in an ecologically sensitive area of Big Sur without proper permits. However, the commission determined the construction in a campground area wouldn't harm the environment and the wedding was allowed to proceed. Parker, a former president of Facebook, also paid $2.5 million in penalties, which helped fund hiking trails, field trips and other efforts to increase public access to the popular tourist area. It was a rare high-profile coastal violation case resolved with cooperation rather than a legal fight.
Sean Parker, co-founder of file-sharing service Napster, agreed to help make the educational tool after he built a large site resembling a movie set for his wedding in an ecologically sensitive area of Big Sur without proper permits. However, the commission determined the construction in a campground area wouldn't harm the environment and the wedding was allowed to proceed. Parker, a former president of Facebook, also paid $2.5 million in penalties, which helped fund hiking trails, field trips and other efforts to increase public access to the popular tourist area. It was a rare high-profile coastal violation case resolved with cooperation rather than a legal fight.
It may be an unpopular opinion but I think that allowing the rich to break some rules in exchange for making things better for others is a good thing.
The whole point of being rich is to be able to do things you and I can't do. And reserving a spot of nature that is not available to the commoner in a way that doesn't damage it won't hurt anyone, so let them do it. In exchange they give us something good. Win/win: they have their little eccentricity, I have my beach access app.
Pure equality is not a good thing, some resources are limited. Letting no one access them would be a waste, and letting everyone access them would be a catastrophe. So let the rich have them, and in exchange, make the more common resources more accessible for everyone else.