Montage should have opened sooner This letter...

Montage should have opened sooner

This letter is in response to your question regarding the opening

of the Montage.

We are delighted that it is finally opening and we wish it nothing

but success. Their success is our success and we should do everything

possible to help them become a class attraction and financial asset

to the residents of this city. Our only regret is that it didn’t get

to open two years ago, which would have been entirely possible

without all the needless self-serving opposition. The city would have

already received around $8 million during those two years for the

benefit of all of us.

DAVE AND DIANE CONNELL

Laguna Beach

Montage opens after a balance of activism

We are absolutely delighted that the Montage Resort and Spa is

finally ready to open. Development can be a positive thing, as well

as the balance of activism to curb it. It is through efforts and

agony on both sides that we maintain quality and controlled growth.

Yet, in the end, we must keep our city moving forward and keep making

it better. Now it is time to welcome this beautiful new neighbor into

our community.

We thank the Coastline Pilot for presenting a question every week

that challenges us to take time out of our busy lives and to get

involved, even in this limited fashion. So, we feel compelled to

write in support of a project like this which enhance our city.

JUDY, GRAY AND DARRIN TRUDEAU

Laguna Beach

El Morro country picnic was rockin’

I don’t know how many parents were able to take the time to attend

the country picnic with their kids at El Morro School this past

Monday, but “Waaahhoooo.” What a blast. In celebration of the new

soccer field/playground, the school, under the supervision of

Principal Joanne Culverhouse, offered a hoe-down as promised by El

Morro’s student body president, Sadie Drucker. Sadie’s dad is none

other but the legendary Lee Rocker, rockabilly aficionado

extraordinaire. He and his fellow bandmates offered up an hour of

non-stop, heel-kicking, booty-shaking music that had the wee ones and

their fortunate parents alike dancing through lunch hour.

Now I don’t know about you, but my friends and I followed Rocker’s

original band, The Stray Cats, through the ‘80s, dancing to their

infectious music in New York City at CBGB’s and Max’s Kansas City. I

smiled on Monday as my own son and his classmates watched Rocker’s

band and wondered if those kids realized just how lucky they really

were. More importantly, did their parents?

With the ocean breaking in the background, and Rocker generously

and soulfully plucking his shiny, silver base to the tunes of Hank

Williams in the fore, I was impressed with the sight of our little

folk appreciating the sounds of great music, at a great school in a

great town. When the bell rang and Culverhouse mournfully announced

that the first- through third-graders had to return to their

classrooms to study, my husband and I joined the students in the

collective “awe” and booing that emerged from the audience. I wanted

to scream out “just on more!” as I had when I watched them as a child

myself. School was never that fun when I was young.

Those dang hillbillies sure rocked our town on Monday and we loved

it. Thanks for your generous support of our schools, children and

town, Mr. Rocker. You are one hillbilly in a million.

LISA GENESTA

Laguna Beach

Reasons behind one of the dog problems

Yes. It’s about the dog pooh, again. A letter to the Laguna Beach

community thanking all the many dog owners who do a responsible job

of cleaning up after their dogs. There are many of us who remain

conscientious. A special big “thank you” to those many dog owners who

also pick up after other dogs whose owners still don’t get the

picture. Many dog owners do their utmost to keep peace in our

neighborhoods by cleaning up when they can even after other dogs.

These good citizens deserve an extra applause.

I have noticed what seems to be two major components of the dog

pooh problem and the ongoing battle of keeping both public and

private property clean of dog droppings:

1. Neighbors who simply open the door each morning and evening to

let their dog out to roam the neighborhood and relieve themselves.

These dogs are unattended and leave neighbors angry when dog

droppings are left on their property or on side walks close by.

2. The other culprit is the family nanny or housekeeper who must

walk the dog or dogs as part of their duties but who refuse to pick

up after the family dog. Some of these family helpers are frequently

pushing strollers and walking the family dog at the same time. It is

clearly the responsibility of the dog owner to inform their family

employee to clean up after the family dog during these walks.

JIM GOTHARD

Laguna Beach

A toll for Laguna would clear the streets

Kudos to the City Council members who passed the affordable

housing project on Glenneyre.

However, I was given another solution than attached parking on

National Public Radio the other morning: the bus. In London, the

streets are so clogged with vehicles that it is charging a toll to

drive on them. In Rio and other cities the streets are designed

virtually for buses only, streams of them. Subways are not practical

because of the expense of building them.

Thus the better use for that attached parking might be another bus

terminal. The bus system in Orange County has evolved over the years,

and it serves a lot of people, such as day workers and seniors.

Laguna’s could undergo a massive expansion.

The first think we should do to get the cars off Coast Highway and

Laguna Canyon Road is place toll booths at the borders of our town.

To drive through Laguna should cost $30. That will encourage people

to park and ride the buses. Residents would be exempted. Tourists

could get vouchers that would be stamped by merchants and motels,

etc. so they could at least receive a partial refund. The important

thing is to get the through traffic to go to the freeways inland and

stop clogging out streets and encourage others to ride the buses.

While there are magical cars of the future being designed by Ford

and General Motors and others, they do not solve the problem of there

being just too many of them on our streets and highways, no matter

how little pollution they produce.

ANDY WING

Laguna Beach

Design Review isn’t way to view issue

I don’t know a lot about city planning, but I know the wrong tool

for the job when I see it.

To say that the Design Review process is the proper means for

resolving the visual intrusion problems that will be created by this

tract map is like saying we have a fine Emergency Room and so don’t

need to practice good medicine.

This town is hopelessly wedded to the Design Review process, to

the point that our own Planning Commission can’t see when it’s

supposed to fulfill its commission -- i.e, plan. Design Review is so

busy because we have so many problematic legal building sites in

Laguna. To create more new lots with built-in visual intrusion

problems flies in the face of good planning and neighborhood

compatibility.

Instead of avoiding impacts by insisting on a down-sized tract

map, we are told this is a “good deal” and offered Design

Review-style measures like landscape screening and mansionization.

Maybe we should re-name them the “Dealing Commission.”

KEITH M. JOHNSON

Laguna Beach

State should take money offered by El Morro

Life is full of trade-offs. It looks like the residents of El

Morro Village have put something on the table that’s definitely worth

talking about.

In exchange for them paying higher rents, the state gets $10

million to complete Crystal Cove State Park. I like that. I also like

the fact that at the end of their lease extension, they agree to

leave El Morro.

In the end, everyone wins, which is a good outcome if you ask me.

STEPHANIE WALKER

Corona del Mar

* 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. If you would like to submit a letter, write

to us at P.O. Box 248 Laguna Beach CA 92652, fax us at 494-8979 or

send e-mail to coastlinepilot@latimes.com. Please give your name and

include your hometown and phone number, for verification purposes

only.