Hooray for affordable housing decision It is...

Hooray for affordable housing decision

It is a delight to finally have council members with the political

will to support a project that has been endlessly debated and

desperately needed for a very long time.

As a 50-year resident of Orange County, and a 30-year resident of

Laguna Beach, I have advocated affordable housing with the League of

Women Voters.

I have worked with the Orange County Community Housing Corporation

( a nonprofit organization ) and with the Orange County Fair Housing

Council to support projects for low-income residents. I served on a

county task force that developed an “inclusionary housing program”

that the county passed, but subsequently defeated by pressure from

developers.

Walled and guarded private enclaves do not contribute to a sense

of community. We need to welcome and house a broad and diverse

population in order to enrich our social environment and to support

schools, artists, local business, and all the varied amenities our

city offers.

MARY W. MILLER

Laguna Beach

Congratulations to our City Council on going ahead with the

affordable housing project on Glenneyre Street.

It is always alarming when development costs begin to rise and it

would be all too easy to chicken out at the first sign of trouble.

The council made it plain that there is a strict limit to such

increases but kept the project on track.

The loan from the Housing In-lieu Fund involves money that can

only be used for affordable housing. Because earlier decisions were

postponed, the construction costs for the public parking spaces have

escalated. Another delay would only make those spaces more expensive.

We have a development that will bring many advantages to the city

-- much needed housing, more public parking, an attractive craftsman

style building -- and a developer with great experience and

competence to guide the project to completion and ensure it is well

run.

It was not an easy decision but the right one.

COLIN HENDERSON

Laguna Beach

I am very pleased that the city approved the affordable housing

project on Glenneyre Street.

Over the years much of the affordable housing that has existed in

Laguna has been torn down and redeveloped into expensive units or

private homes.

The condos in North Laguna and the development on Nyes Place and

South Coast Highway are two examples. Another example is the housing

on Third Street that is being eliminated for the proposed senior /

community center.

Many people who work in Laguna and whose services make this city

function find it very difficult, if not impossible, to live here.

This is not a healthy situation for any community.

Furthermore, it is, as Mayor Toni Iseman stated at the Feb. 11

City Council meeting, a project that can be pointed to with pride to

other county leaders to show that affordable housing can be included

in coastal communities.

I was relieved and grateful that council members Elizabeth Pearson

and Steve Dicterow finally did approve the additional funds. It would

be irresponsible and disgraceful for the City Council to turn its

back on this crucial affordable housing project at this stage.

ANNE FRANK

Laguna Beach

Dog waste can be a health hazard

The Coastline Pilot requested comments concerning dog access to

Laguna Beach parks, an issue Kalos Kagathos Foundation has been

researching and addressing since 1972.

That year, the foundation conceived and hosted, on behalf of

Laguna Beach Mayor Roy Holm and his council, a city forum addressing

the controversial issue of animals, animal owners and their

neighbors.

The forum’s guests represented recognized authorities who

addressed the need to consider and enforce city ordinances

restricting dog-owner use and abuse of city an school parks, beaches

and playing fields.

Two medical researchers from Tulane University and UC San Diego,

Russell Van Dyke and Philip J. Goszienski, have confirmed that dog

fecal waste contains, in thousands of microscopic density, intestinal

parasites that contaminate the sand, grass and dirt at beaches, parks

and playing fields.

When ingested, these parasites migrate throughout the body,

infecting the heart, kidneys, liver and spleen, causing skin

infections, lung disease and loss of eyesight, swollen lymph nodes,

enlargement of liver and spleen and eye tumor.

Larva of these worms carry toxocariasis and salmonellosis not

subject to mandatory reporting but clearly dangerous diseases

precisely because they are so often unrecognized.

Reasoned, educational notice, combined with total prohibition of

dogs at city and school parks, beaches and playing fields, is no less

draconian than normal precaution and protection against any other

threat to public health and welfare. Major European cities are well

aware of these dangers and post signs alerting dog owners that they

need to remove their animal waste and have educational and police

enforcement.

Picking up and disposing dog waste does not remove its infectious

health threat. Well-educated bans and enforcement will prove to be

well received and applauded with gratitude from Kalos Kagathos

Foundation to the city of Laguna Beach.

BRUCE S. HOPPING

Laguna Beach

Other ways Laguna wastes tax money

This is an addition to last week’s letter from Jimmy MacLardy

(“City shouldn’t spend money to raise taxes,” Coastline Pilot, Feb.

7), who so well pointed out that the city of Laguna is using our

taxes to promote our paying more taxes, and using one of our highest

paid city employees for a junket to Sacramento.

MacLardy pointed out that the city could save a bundle by

contracting our fire and police protection with the county with

better pay for our firemen.

What was not included was the fact that many other services such

as gardening, street maintenance, sewer maintenance, vehicle

maintenance, etc., should be contracted out with another big savings.

We in Laguna Beach are already paying the highest taxes per capita

in all Orange County. Why do we have such a bloated bureaucracy for

such a small town?

For instance, we pay for a lifeguard service, but that is the

county’s responsibility. Ask and you will be told, “Oh, we’ve always

had it,” or “We would lose control,” or some other lame excuse.

The city manager has announced that “employees will not be

reduced, only city services.” Does that mean that the city employees

will just work less? Or have longer coffee breaks and longer lunch

hours. Employees are not furloughed, why should services be reduced?

Actually, I would expect that all employees would work harder to try

to keep their jobs.

I second MacLardy’s question, so well put. It is the city manager

that will benefit from continuing empire building? If not that, why

aren’t the most economical methods utilized?

Also, why is the parking fund always used for everything except

creating much needed parking? This is another example of poor

financial management. Had this not been a long-standing practice, a

new parking structure could have been built and paid for in cash.

Instead a bond issue will be required, which will also add to our

taxes.

LEE REYMER II

Laguna Beach

Controversial art is something to aspire to

After having exhibited in and been at the reception where well

more than 300 people attended “Pretty Lies -- Dirty Truths,” which is

a protest against a war with Iraq by “4 score” of artists at the B.C.

Space Gallery at 235 Forest Ave., and learning that Picasso’s

tapestry Guernica had been covered at the U.N., I called the Pageant

of the Masters director to see if any anti-war art would be in the

program for this coming summer. I was told, “We did that last year.”

The B.C. Gallery exhibit will be running as long as this crisis

exists. The gallery is open six days a week. Mark Chamberlain is

attempting to have the show travel to other exhibition spaces. It

certainly deserves to, not only because of the content, but the

variety of media and techniques of expression. They are an education!

By the way , there’s no public art in Laguna that would have to be

covered for Colin Powell, George Bush or others.

ANDY WING

Laguna Beach

El Moro already belongs to public

In response to the full page paid advertisement fluff piece on the

“new, intriguing proposal” for El Morro, I would like to remind the

El Morro Trailer Park residents that this is not your land.

Since 1979, it has belonged to California State Parks. Their

mission statement reads: To provide for the health, inspiration and

education of the people of California by helping to preserve the

state’s extraordinary biological diversity, protecting its most

valued natural and cultural resources, and creating opportunities for

high-quality outdoor recreation.

Note that there is nothing here about providing low-income housing

to residents of a neighboring city, destroying a watershed or

preventing access to natural resources.

The State Park Department’s plan, in contrast, provides for

environmental restoration of El Moro Canyon and Creek, day use

parking, picnicking and beach access, and a 60-unit campground (not

an RV camp). The El Morro residents, desperately seeking to extend

their leases, hide behind Denny Freidenrich and “First Strategies

LLC” by absurdly comparing their situation to the Crystal Cove

historic cottages.

In that case, public opposition resulted in denying inappropriate

coastal development. In this case, Freidenrich would have us believe

that the State Parks plan is inappropriate and that dense housing,

continued taxpayer-supported subsidies, and denial of access is a

better way to go.

Both the residents of Laguna Beach and the overall California

electorate have voted repeatedly with their pocketbooks to acquire

and preserve open space for the benefit of all Californians. Please

reject the alternative plan and support the State Parks plan which

will return El Moro to its rightful owners.

RICK WILSON

Chairman, Laguna Beach ChapterSurfrider Foundation

Aliso Viejo

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

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

likely appear next week.