Rich Californians balk at limits: ‘We’re not all equal when it comes to water’ - The Washington Post

Resident Gay Butler rides her horse through a neighborhood in Rancho Santa Fe. 

(Sandy Huffaker/The Washington Post)

"I think we’re being overly penalized,

and 
we’re certainly being overly scrutinized by the world. 

It angers me

because people aren’t looking at the overall picture.

What are we supposed to do,

just have dirt around our house on four acres?”

~(Gay Butler: Interior Designer)~



Rich Californians balk at limits: ‘We’re not all equal when it comes to water’ - The Washington Post: Drought or no drought, Steve Yuhas resents the idea that it is somehow shameful to be a water hog. If you can pay for it, he argues, you should get your water.

People “should not be forced to live on property with brown lawns, golf on brown courses or apologize for wanting their gardens to be beautiful,” Yuhas fumed recently on social media. “We pay significant property taxes based on where we live,” he added in an interview. “And, no, we’re not all equal when it comes to water.”

Yuhas lives in the ultra-wealthy enclave of Rancho Santa Fe, a bucolic Southern California hamlet of ranches, gated communities and country clubs that guzzles five times more water per capita than the statewide average.

The restrictions are among the toughest in the state, and residents of Rancho Santa Fe are feeling aggrieved.

“I think we’re being overly penalized, and we’re certainly being overly scrutinized by the world,” said Gay Butler, an interior designer out for a trail ride on her show horse, Bear. She said her water bill averages about $800 a month.

“It angers me because people aren’t looking at the overall picture,” Butler said. “What are we supposed to do, just have dirt around our house on four acres?”