What He Saw in Laguna Canyon’s ‘Tell’ Told Him a Thing or Two

After reading Calendar’s two-page laudatory but very questionable coverage of Laguna Canyon’s “The Tell” (Sept. 3), I revisited the site just to make certain my eyes hadn’t deceived me.

Second time around, you can ignore the sheer ugliness of that 600-foot strip of plywood pictorial bologna and the rubbish about it being “poetry” or “depicting family life as it is now” and concentrate on the anti-development statement “The Tell” is supposed to be making.

Do photos of bikini bottoms and Coke stands, Barbara Walters and Chinese dogs make a forceful statement about the necessity to preserve the beauty of Laguna Canyon? I think your reporter wore rose-colored glasses or maybe his lemonade was spiked by the photographer-promoters.

He made no mention of the destruction of the land or the tearing up of animal habitat. The duped city, of course, first began that damage with earthmoving equipment, both machine and man-hours paid for by taxes. The city fathers (and mothers) who approved this venture, committing resources to it, should have their heads examined.

In a community where you almost have to file an environmental impact report to put out a garbage can, I doubt an EIR was even considered for this canyon rape job of which an admitted goal is a Guinness record.

Mention was made of a $10,000 contribution by the Festival of Arts. To see what their $10,000 bought or wrought, I hope the committee members have driven out to “The Tell”--unmistakably marked by a junked car half buried in sand. From there, the artistic endeavor goes down. The festival was likewise duped.

The late Ansel Adams would rotate out of his grave at the sight of what has been done in the name of conservancy and photography.

THEODORE TAYLOR

Laguna Beach