\u2018Big Little Lies\u2019 tourism is killing California\u2019s pristine coast

Big Sur has a big little problem.

The dreamy coastal city set on a precarious cliffside has survived massive mudslides, heavy rains and fires, but it may not be able to overcome a deluge of Renattas, Bonnies, Madelines, Celestes and Janes.

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Fans of HBO’s “Big Little Lies,” a show about wealthy women who mostly drive up and down the coast thinking about their murderous secret, are flocking to the town, clogging up roads and disturbing residents and their pristine natural scenery.

Last weekend, locals draped a neon-yellow banner over the town’s iconic Bixby Creek Bridge, claiming: “OVERTOURISM IS KILLING BIG SUR,” the Los Angeles Times reports.

The bridge, which appears in the show’s opening sequence, is one of the most-photographed bridges in the country. Lately, local news outlets say, it’s turned into a disastrous hellscape of tourists, who trample wildlife and defecate in the surrounding scenery. Locals say it’s only gotten worse since the arrival of “Big Little Lies.”

Tourists have even taken to using the bridge’s emergency call box for pizza orders, Dave Potter, a former county supervisor running for Carmel mayor, told the San Jose Mercury News. “People try to make restaurant reservations,” he said.

A video from July 4 shows a seemingly miles-long line of cars waiting to get a spot at the view point for the bridge. The location has endless tags on Instagram from tourists posting introspective pictures at the hazy cliffside. You can almost hear Michael Kiwanuka cooing the show’s opening credit song in the background.

















The banner installed last weekend — and then promptly taken down by law enforcement — was the latest attempt from locals to try to dissuade tourists from clogging up Highway 1. A rather Renatta Klein-esque “Big Sur Hates You” Instagram page popped up briefly, and has since been replaced by a more Bonnie Carlson-like “Big Sur Educates” account. Both have shamed the behaviors of the tourists trashing their area.

“Sometimes I think people should go through a nature etiquette course before being let into Big Sur,” one pissed-off Californian commented on a picture of a tourist popping a squat near the bridge.

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