Editor’s Notebook -- Danette Goulet

As I drove down Pacific Coast Highway on Memorial Day, what I saw

looming out of the sand made my nose wrinkle and set my mouth agape.

Why it appears to be two pockmarked concrete slabs sticking out of the

sand, with a third resting across the top. The things were all vaguely

shaped like surfboards, but had no fins.

Was this meant to be art, I wondered aloud? They had to be kidding.

The same city that has a cool statue of a surfer (albeit naked)

cutting back up the face of a wave, now has a truly hideous pile of

cheap-looking stone greeting visitors to the coast at Beach Boulevard.

I am no art connoisseur, this is true.

But what is that?

“Surfhenge,” as it is called by some, is actually titled Surf Circle

and is considered “art work” that cost the city $45,000. That is just for

the statue alone. The city also spent $72,000 on surrounding benches and

lighting.

Now, I’ll grant you that it seems a better choice than a whale

carcass, the other contender for the spot.

But I fail to understand why, if the city is prepared to spend

thousands of dollars on art work, it can’t find something good. Why,

after much debate, did it have to choose the “lesser of two evils?”

Seems to me since both were lambasted by the public it should have

found another artist and more attractive artwork.

Finally, this monstrosity that stretches 18-feet in the air was

designed by Kathleen and Howard Meehan, who live in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

This from the same city that wants us to “Shop, Play and Stay in

Huntington Beach.”

I am all in favor of giving my sales tax dollars to the city of

Huntington Beach, but please -- spend it more wisely than that.

* DANETTE GOULET is the city editor. She can be reached at (714)

965-7170 or by e-mail at o7 danette.goulet@latimes.comf7 .