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
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