Tree restriction, not view restoration What...

Tree restriction, not view restoration

What should the city do about view preservation?

The city is careful to assure construction of a new structure or

addition to an existing structure will not adversely impact the view

of the neighboring property owner(s). However, the city does nothing

to address the problem of trees that block a view, essentially doing

what a new building or building addition would not been allowed to

do.

Tree size and height should comply with the same standards we

apply to structures. This issue can be resolved by a new ordinance

that limits tree height to the lesser of 15 feet or the lowest point

of the rooftop of the structure. The new ordinance would require all

property owners to comply with the ordinance within one year of a

complaint by a neighbor. If the property owner failed to comply, the

city would trim the trees and collect the cost from the owner. The

new ordnance can protect every element of a view. The objective of

the new ordnance is to allow a clear view of the ocean horizon line

including Catalina Island.

So called “view restoration” will not work. This would require

every property owner to photograph their view the day they purchase a

property, which would not be something most new property owners would

think of they day they close escrow. Any “view photographs” would be

subject to challenge over the view angle, time of day, seasonal

change in foliage, type of filter, lens or camera, what view is left

out of a photo and any number of other issues. How could a long-time

property owner prove its original view from 10, 15 or 20 years ago?

JACK BLOODWORTH

Laguna Beach

The tree that saved my life

It was the old pine tree that sat outside our fence. It was here

when we moved in more than 25 years ago. If it could talk I bet it

would have had a story or two to tell. It’s gone now but not after

having saved my life on that fateful day.

I was reading, like I always do on my day in bed in the yard, when

I heard the sound. There was no warning, just the sound of the crash.

There was no mistaking that it wasn’t good. I poked my head out from

behind the fence, and there it was. A tan SUV, with the tree indented

like a fingerprint into the front grill. The tree was broken in two.

The owner of the vehicle, almost hysterical, came running down the

street yelling, “I thought it was in park. I thought I put the truck

in park.”

The neighbors whose tree it was came walking out of their house

wondering what had caused such a loud noise. She looked at the

vehicle and the tree and said to the owner of the vehicle that it was

all right, not to mind about the tree. The vehicle owner’s face

relaxed in relief.

My neighbor and I stood there and looked at the tree after the

vehicle owner left. My neighbor looked sad. I said to her, “You know

if it wasn’t for that tree I would have been hit by that SUV.”

She said, yeah, but that was a special tree. “The original owners

planted it and I promised them when I bought the property that I

would keep it and take good care of it for them.”

I tried to comfort her and told her that she had taken good care

of the tree. We both agreed there was nothing we could do at this

point.

Months went by and when we would make eye contact on the driveway

our eyes would always drift back to where the tree stood. One day I

suggested to her that we plant another tree it its place where the

old one was. A few months later I brought one home and we did just

that.

Now she comes out and we both look at our new tree and acknowledge

how ever day it looks more and more like the old one. The new tree

will need many years before it will potentially save anyone’s life.

Many of the neighbors noticed something was missing and commented on

how they had always liked it. The tree may have just been a tree to

passers by on the street, however, it was sentimental to us and the

tree most likely saved my life.

We’re glad to have our tree back!

DEBBIE HERTZ

Laguna Beach

Mascot change is affront to history

Having grown up amid the vibrant artistic landscape and remarkable

community closeness of Laguna Beach, I was extremely disappointed to

learn of the hasty Laguna Beach High School name change from the

Artists to the Breakers.

Far from being merely a trivial issue, the decision to change the

high school namesake is an affront to our city’s rich artistic

history and originality. In addition, it is a testament to a

misguided sports culture that values competition and victory,

fierceness and aggression, over good, clean fun.

The double-meaning of the name Breakers is clear and represents a

sad and distasteful acquiescence to a sports world filled with

supposed competitive ideals like “Buccaneers” (brutal, murderous

pirates), “Spartans” (Roman-era warriors renowned for their ruthless

killing ability) and “Sharks.” Fantastic, our athletes now have the

“proper” sports inspiration to break bones and crush opposing teams

like mighty tidal waves.

But what can they do for the actual world in which we all live?

The Artists was a name and ideal that we could all stand by, as

individual athletes and as a community who believes in the power of

living artful lives. In the sports we played, we endeavored to create

masterpieces of athletic ability; to be the best we could be. Often

times, as evidenced by the tremendous amount of championships won by

Laguna teams, this drive for personal and collective excellence

resulted in solid win records.

But even after losing, the name Artists reinforced the fact that

we had done our best and we had grown as athletes and people. It

reminded us that life isn’t just about winning, it isn’t just about

“breaking” your opponents, it’s about creating a vivid and fulfilling

masterpiece. It’s about having respect for each other, pursuing one’s

passions and promoting a better society and environment. It is about

the art of meaningful experience.

Who cares if other team members are so ignorant and simple-minded

they don’t recognize the vital importance of artists in the world?

What has a Spartan ever done for the world besides shed blood?

Artists have innovated and healed, explored and created. They have

ushered in new thought and better ideals. They have effectively

fought for women’s rights, environmental conservancy, freedom of

expression and endless other watershed causes. Artists have

consistently changed the face of the world since art itself was first

created thousands of years ago.

While I value the ocean immensely, I nonetheless feel that

renaming our teams the Breakers was a terrible idea. There should be

a re-vote in which either Laguna Beach High School alumns or the

entire community can vote.

DEREK OSTENSEN

Laguna Beach

Laguna Beach High School

class of 1999

Don’t do away with victorious years

For years the night before our high school football game with

Laguna Beach, a bonfire was held on our Capistrano campus. The climax

of the night was when an effigy of a Laguna football player, clad in

maroon and white, was thrown into the flames. Invariably, during the

night, the resourceful Artist rose from the ashes and beat us up

Friday night, 33-6.

This happened 26 years in a row. Our team vowed revenge “next

year” but it never happened. So eventually our whole town took up

hate toward Laguna in order to cope with our yearly loss. We hated

the school, everyone in Laguna and especially the football team. If

the district attorney had known of our venom he could have indicted

all 761 residents of San Juan Capistrano as hate criminals!

Recently I read in the paper that the students of Laguna High had

adopted the mascot Breakers for their school, dropping the name

Artists because it wasn’t fierce enough to inspire victory. Since

today’s students have shunned 66 years of Artist heritage, do they

have to send back all the championship trophies to the C.I.F. because

their mascot wasn’t gnarly enough? Hey, then that nullifies more than

26 losses. Cool.

Although I hated the Artists, I still respected them. I wouldn’t

wish a mascot change on my own worst enemy (which Laguna is).

For the last few years, I’ve been working at the Festival of Arts

in the summer. Guess what? Laguna is a nice town with very nice

people. I may have squandered 50 years of my life hating good people.

Oh well.

Last summer I drove past our former rival and noted that the most

prominent building at the school was the Artists Theater. Are they

going to chisel the name Artists off the front of the building? I

don’t think so. Maybe this could be the deal breaker. Or as they say

in CB lingo the Breaker breaker.

Go Artists! Go away Breakers!

PAT FORSTER

Capistrano High, Class of

1962

Other sports teams have already taken the “Waves,” “Dolphins,”

“Seals” and “Lions.” So “Breakers” is probably as good an ocean name

as can be found because all the sea life has been virtually fished

out off our shores.

Since the hills and canyons are also a significant part of Laguna,

possums, racoons and skunks could have been considered. However, if I

were voting, I’d nominate the Red Racer, the magical snake. The

Laguna “Red Racers.”

Also, Breakers is charged with meanings such as breaking bones. Is

that what we want Laguna teams associated with?

ANDY WING

Laguna Beach

Solutions to El Morro problems

After reading the many news stories in the newspapers two ideas

came to me.

I live in El Morro Village Mobile Home Park. The Village shares a

low fence with El Morro Elementary School. The residents here have

made contributions for school projects.

Idea No. 1: Start a fund to build a high security fence at the

property line between the school and the public campground. It would

protect children from molesters.

Idea No. 2: Have the state install a “Traffic Amber Alert” signal

near the traffic light at El Morro school. It might scare away the

abusers.

ALFRED AGEE

Laguna Beach

Change doesn’t make sense

It disregards logic and is contemptuous to replace a 30-year-old

community with a public campground and day-use area when they can

co-exist.

* The El Morro community occupies only a small acreage of the

12,000 total acres.

* It has been demonstrated, including detailed plans to the

state, that co-existence is possible and profitable.

* The environmental report is disingenuous and self serving. No

significant impact to the area! Come on! The economic well-being of

the local area as well as the state is surely best by retaining the

El Morro community.

* Transient usage next to a school and the city of Laguna Beach

can’t be as desirable as the retention of the El Morro community.

THOMAS A. ROSKO

Laguna Hills

Asking residents to move not wrong

To paraphrase Winston Churchill, “Seldom has so few denied so many

for so long.”

The mobile home residents have enjoyed this unique enclave since

1979, including an extension of their leases to Dec. 31, 2004. They

signed a waver of relocation benefits requiring them to pay for the

removal of their mobile homes.

Now they question the State Conversion Report, citing: pedestrian

access to the beach; the transient population threat; kidnapping;

amphetamine labs in RVs; thousands of ugly Winnebagos; and other

horrors.

The El Morro Community Assn. displays abysmal selfishness after

enjoying 20 years of unparalleled ocean-front living -- plus an

additional five-year extension.

The travesty of defining their removal as a morally and fiscally

bad idea is ludicrous. Kudos to the Department of General Services,

the Sierra Club, Mary Fegraus and the many others who are working to

bring this long-needed conversion to a state park for use by all

taxpayers.

As for Janine Arendsen, while I admire her chutzpah, quote: “If it

comes to it, I plan to stand on my trailer and make them pull me down

before they take it away.” There will be many of us willing to gently

but firmly remove her and any of the other “400” who would defy the

law.

JIM REDDON

Laguna Beach

Tragic news not so far away

What were you doing when you first heard about 9/11?

Barbara and I were drinking lemonade seated on top of a

500-year-old defense wall. The wall surrounds Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Three sides of the wall face land, one side falls about 500 feet

straight away to the Adriatic Sea. The elderly woman who sold us the

lemonade came out and started talking to us in her language. She was

agitated. We were not getting it. She started using her hands. She

made three gestures over and over.

With each hand, the palms facing each other she moved her hands up

and down. Then she made a slicing motion at an angle. Finally, she

took each hand and faced her palms down toward the ground and waved

her hands back and forth palms down.

The idea was still not getting across to us. In frustration she

motioned to us to follow her into the lemonade stand, which tuned out

to be her home. We passed through a teeny tiny living room into a

teeny tiny bedroom and there was a teeny tiny TV. After looking at

the towers explode and burn 10 or 15 times we expressed gratitude,

and departed; feeling like that slicing motion entered our hearts and

guts. Almost immediately and still up on the wall overlooking the sea

and the city that nine years previous was 80% bombed by the Serbs and

now rebuilt, we met a couple from the USA.

We told them the news straight away. At hearing the news they

started smiling, as if waiting for the punch line. We are still

waiting.

MICHAEL HOAG

Laguna Beach

A little piazza clarification

I apologize for any confusion I caused Mr. Ferrazzi or others

regarding my reference to a car-free piazza in Huntington Beach. I

did not mean to infer that Main Street was closed to traffic. I was

referring to the pedestrian mall and shops adjacent to the movie

theaters on Pacific Coast Highway near Main Street.

I am glad to hear that Main Street is sometimes closed to traffic

for special occasions.

BARBARA HOAG

Laguna Beach

Keep careful eye on Design Review

An important means to stop the “mansionization” of our town is to

prevent any situation where a Design Review Board member might accept

a bribe (yes, bribe!) to approve a large home or remodel.

Why would someone sit approximately five hours every Thursday

evening and often take the abuse heaped on them from the public, in

addition to visiting the sites and perform other homework incumbent

with the job ... all for free? I do understand the spirit of

community involvement and volunteerism, but the evidence seems

empirical that something is crooked here. Why is the Design Review

Board constantly granting variances (which is nothing more than

permission to break the law) and why is this town, which prides

itself on it’s “village character,” being paved over with

wall-to-wall mansions?

The solution to avoid any conflict of interest is to mandate that

two board members go to each site to meet with the applicants. It is

when only one member visits the homeowner, that the environment is

ripe for bribe-taking.

To my knowledge, none of the board members is independently as

wealthy as the homeowners whose projects they are voting on. What’s a

grand or two -- or 10 to the homeowner who wants to get his/her

15,000-square-foot mansion approved?

Let’s not delude ourselves. Recognize that avarice, bribes and

money under the table can play a real role in the world and even in

our little hamlet.

Take steps to prevent bribes from occurring! Do not allow solo

visits by design review board members.

JAY LAESSI

Laguna Beach

What’s up with the flight pattern

Is anyone in Laguna Beach city government “listening” these days?

For some reason the number of daily airline flights that go over

our beautiful part of the world has increased 10 fold in the last two

months. Now instead of the occasional morning Southwest flight

leaving from John Wayne Airport, we are in the path of flights

beginning as early at 6 a.m. and continuing throughout the day until

well past 10:30 p.m. Obviously LAX and/or Long Beach have decided to

send their flights out into the ocean and then straight across our

town. They fly low, they fly often and they fly LOUDLY.

I would like to ask our city manager and City Council if they

would be willing to focus some of their time on this real-life issue

instead of worrying about, as I read in the Coastline Pilot two weeks

ago, whether an important use of our tax dollars is putting up pretty

signs at the entrance of our town.

KENDALL LOCKHART

Laguna Beach

What an annoying waste of water

Driving on Crown Valley Parkway from work each night (between 11

p.m. and 1 a.m.) I’ve noticed hundreds of gallons of water wasted as

the medians are flooded!

I hope Laguna Niguel will wake up and realize we’re experiencing a

drought! Even worse, they’re tearing up El Toro Road to install more

raised islands for wasting more water.

My short showers and brown lawn seem pointless as Crown Valley

Parkway and soon El Toro Road flood the tarmac nightly.

Help!

CHRIS S. MCCALLA

Laguna Beach

Tourists more annoying than ever

I for one am thrilled beyond belief to be rid of the tourists for

this summer.

I have spoken to many in town and they all concur both for the

relief and on several other factors. The tourists this year were more

rude and obnoxious and ill-mannered than in years past. Apparently

being a tourist means you can leave your manners at home (that is, if

they had any to begin with).

Good riddance.

SKIP HOUSTON

Laguna Beach

Thanks for giving candidates a stage

I want to thank Village Laguna for taking the time and effort,

once again, to organize a forum to meet the local candidates and

debate their campaign platforms with them in order to determine which

candidates would best serve Laguna Beach.

The payoff for us is that Village Laguna’s endorsements have

provided guidance to Laguna’s voters as to which candidates support

the city’s best interests. The Coastline announced Village Laguna’s

latest endorsements as Iseman and O’Neal for City Council and Turner

and Jenkins for the school board. City Council candidate Steve

Dicterow did not win endorsement, which is an appropriate reflection

on his voting record.

I urge the citizens of Laguna to compare the positions of the

endorsed candidates to the rest of those running, and I hope you will

come to the same conclusion as Village Laguna.

Please vote.

JOHN SELECKY

Laguna Beach

Speaking up for the other faithfuls

About one in 10 Lagunans embrace a faith that is somewhat

different from the faiths of the other nine in 10.

They are difficult to distinguish because, in many ways, they are

similar to the nine in 10. They too are good citizens and neighbors,

possess family values, are friendly and generous, kind and loving,

honest, moral and ethical, law abiding, etc. They work for peace,

freedom and justice. Who are these approximately 2,500 unrecognized

women, men and youngsters in Laguna Beach of different faith and what

is that faith?

They are your co-workers, managers, customers, teachers, students,

librarians, bankers, professionals, service providers, entertainers,

politicos, volunteers, etc. People you encounter every day. They put

their faith in the self and in other human beings. They are

autonomous individuals who are blessed (to borrow a term from the

nine in 10) with senses with which to observe, a mind with which to

think, reason and decide and a free will to take positive actions,

accepting responsibility for their actions.

Their faith is not ostentatious, nor is it holy or mysterious.

They eschew lofty edifices, clergy, rituals, dogmas and ancient

scriptures. The closest thing they have to sacred writing is the

Constitution of the United States. Their faith is private, personal

and direct, no intercessors required. Their mundane faith values the

natural over the supernatural. They’re not organized, not a sect or a

cult. They place more importance on the original words in the Pledge

of Allegiance “with justice for all” than they do in the words “under

God” that were a later afterthought. When tragedy befalls the nation,

they are proactive rather than reactive. They don’t look to place

blame, but to look to solve, in a peaceful way, the underlying human

conditions that precipitate tragedy. Sin and retribution are not part

of their faith.

They find that they can do more good with hands than with lips

that pray (thank you, Robert Ingersoll). They venerate living

heroines and heroes more than saints.

If they have any religiosity it is to do good and no harm to self,

others or where we all live. Not because they must do so or else, but

because they know deep in their hearts and consciences that it is the

right and humane thing to do.

Proselytizing is not part of their faith so they won’t come

knocking on your door unannounced, unless to borrow a half cup of

sugar (and later share with you the cookies that they make). They

realize that others can be as comfortable in their faiths as they are

in theirs and so show respect to both the others and their faiths.

Plainly stated, they live and let live.

The earthly rewards of these different faithful are a clear

conscience, freedom from guilt, personal pride and the pleasure that

comes with accomplishment. Oh, and also to sleep later on Sunday

mornings. So there! The infidels have been exposed.

NIKO THERIS

Laguna Beach

* The Coastline Pilot is eager to run your letters. If your

letter does not appear it may be due to space restrictions and will

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