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.
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