Dr. Beach digs N.Y. locale
Clean white sand and easy parking
SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — An annual list of top 10 beaches released yesterday includes two in Florida, with the list’s creator saying he’s not worried about pollution from the oil spill.
Dr. Stephen Leatherman, director of Florida International University’s Laboratory for Coastal Research, who is also known by the friendly nickname Dr. Beach, included Siesta Beach in Sarasota and Cape Florida State Park in Key Biscayne, on his list of best beaches.
The number one beach this year is Coopers Beach in Southampton, N.Y., on the east end of Long Island. It offers pristine white sand gently sloping toward a shoreline of lapping waves, convenient parking, and nary a gum This is Leatherman’s 20th year of compiling a list of the country’s top 10.
Once a beach makes it to the top spot, it is retired from consideration in future years, he said.
Leatherman added that designation as the country’s number one beach usually brings as much as a 20 percent bump in tourism.
