BY JEREMIAH BUDIN JUL 19, 2016
New Zealanders raised $1.7 million during a crowdfunding campaign this year—including $254,000 from the country’s government—to save a beach from a potentially unfriendly buyer and turn it into a national park, in the feel good property buying story of…honestly, probably the past century.
Businessman Michael Spackman purchased Awaroa beach in 2008 for $1.4 million, and while he was cool and let the public use it, once he put it on the market people worried that the next buyer would not be. Their fears were proven true when another businessman named Gareth Morgan tried to buy private use of the beach from the very crowdfunding campaign that had been set up to prevent that exact thing from happening. The campaign rejected his sizable “donation” and was able to raise enough to buy the beach from Spackman anyway.
Meanwhile, in the United States, there is talk of ending federal protection of public parkland!!!