Protesters out in force

The handful of war protesters at Main Beach swelled to between 300

and 500 on Sunday, before a single rocket was fired in Iraq.

Now that the first salvo begun, the protesters face the dilemma of

protesting the war without undermining the soldiers, sailors and

marines that are fighting that war.

“I have faced that repeatedly, and my feeling has always been the

best way to support our boys and girls is to bring them home out of

harm’s way,” longtime antiwar activist Jeanie Bernstein said. “I am

an antiwar activist and a peace activist -- you can’t separate the

two.”

Bernstein is opposed to war, no exceptions.

“I was opposed to the Korean War, the Vietnam War and Desert

Storm,” she said.

But how does opposition affect the men and women who respond to

the call to fight those wars?

Laguna Beach insurance agent Patrick Freeman remembers coming home

to San Francisco after a year in the thick of battle in Vietnam. As a

soldier in daily combat from December 1966 to December 1977, Freeman

had heard little about protests against the conflict. He was

unprepared for the conflict he found at home.

“My wife picked me up, and we were driving through Haight Ashbury

when I saw people burning flags and draft cards, and I almost cried.”

Freeman said. “I felt betrayed.”

Times have changed, he said.

“I don’t think the protesters now will bother the military,”

Freeman said. “They are older, career military, not young idealistic

draftees. And the military has changed. It has to be more open with

its people than it was in Vietnam.”

War was different then.

“Wars now are over quickly,” Freeman said. “Vietnam went on too

long. In this case, we are going to get out as soon as we can.

“And the weapons used by Saddam against our military will prove

the justification for the war,” he said.

In the Vietnam era, those in military service didn’t need or get

proof, Freeman said. They believed in the country and they didn’t

question the call to duty or their obligation to follow orders.

“When you are there, you do what you gotta do,” Freeman said.

Raised and educated as a Catholic, a graduate of the Jesuit-run

University of San Francisco, Freeman believes in St. Thomas Aquinas’

10 principals of a just war.

“It’s absolutely the last thing you do,” Freeman said. “But if you

or your allies are threatened, you don’t hold anything back.

Unfortunately, some people will get killed.”

Freeman was an infantry captain in Vietnam. He saw 160 soldiers

under his command killed or maimed. They died, and he fought for the

rights that protesters are exercising when they demonstrate against

war, as unpalatable as many veterans find that.

“Protesters don’t bother me anymore, as long as they don’t

physically harm anyone else,” Freeman said. “That’s what I was

fighting for.”

Anti-war activist Bernstein expects the number of protesters

against the Iraq war to swell: that is what happened with Vietnam,

although not with Desert Storm.

“Desert Storm was over so quickly,” Bernstein said.

Some people will back off from protests, she said, because they

feel that once the military is engaged, they have to feel they are

there for a just cause.

“However, as time goes by, at least during Vietnam, oppositions

grows,” Bernstein said. “And there already was so much opposition

before this war.”

Bernstein was not among the demonstrators Sunday -- she was out of

town. But her longtime friend and antiwar cohort Eleanor Henry was

there.

“I didn’t have my clicker, but protesters were lined up 20 to 25

deep from the Ocean Avenue crossing to Broadway on Sunday,” Henry

said. “There were at least 500.”

Police estimated 300.

“I don’t expect the protests to be heard in Washington,” Henry

said. “The man [President Bush] is ‘deef.’”

Henry anticipated larger crowds of protesters since the war

started Wednesday. She planned to dress in black as a show of

solidarity with the women of Iraq and Kuwait for a gathering planned

for Thursday night.

“We had previously agreed to meet on the day after the terrible

day when the shooting started,” Jeanie Bernstein said. “Wednesday was

that terrible day.”

-- Barbara Diamond

Council puts traffic plan out to bid

Some say city officials put a whole lot of carts before the horse

Tuesday night.

The council voted 3 to 2 to award a $141,000 contract to

StudiOneEleven to refine the Village Entrance master plan; voted

unanimously to add highways to the five-hour parking limit of

commercial vehicles on city streets; and voted 3 to 2 to relocate the

corporation yard -- all projects that will affect or be affected by

traffic and parking availability.

Then, the council voted to adopt a request for proposals for the

preparation of a Downtown Specific Plan Area Traffic and Parking

Management Plan, to include a traffic study.

“None of those projects should have been approved until after the

traffic study is done,” said Carolyn Wood, former chair of the city’s

Parking, Traffic and Circulation Committee.

A proposal to establish a staging area for contractors at Big

Bend, which also would have an effect on traffic, was continued to a

future meeting. And relocating a proposed skate park to Big Bend was

referred to Caltrans for a safety appraisal.

Councilwoman Cheryl Kinsman presented the request for proposals

for the traffic management plan, which was received with kudos from

council members and interested community members.

“Now I understand why it took so long to prepare,” said Mayor Toni

Iseman, who pushed for a timeline that would allow the traffic study

to be undertaken this summer.

Kinsman said she wanted it to be right before she presented it.

She agreed that some projects should be delayed until the study is

completed. Not, however, the relocation of the corporation yard to

the ACT V lot, which she supported as member of the Village Entrance

Task Force while serving on the Planning Commission.

“That puts the cart before the horse,” said Laguna North spokesman

Don Knapp, who opposed moving the corporation yard.

“Not so long ago, I was an advocate of moving the yard,” Knapp

said. “But I saw the error of my ways last summer when peripheral

parking was proven successful.”

“We haven’t done the homework on the impact on traffic and

congestion downtown,” he said. “We need the traffic study first.”

Mayor Iseman and Councilman Wayne Baglin, who earlier in the

meeting was honored by the Laguna Canyon Foundation for his diligent

service to open space conservation, also opposed the relocation of

the corporation yard.

“We don’t have a consensus,” Baglin said. “We will spend $5

million and have an albatross in the canyon, where they are not

usually found, and asphalt all around City Hall with no money to do

anything about it.”

Councilman Steven Dicterow said the money might not be there and

might never be there.

“But at least we can get rid of the eyesore of the corporation

yard,” Dicterow said.

The council majority of Dicterow, Elizabeth Pearson and Kinsman

also are trying to get the project processed through the county. The

parcel has never been annexed by the city.

Councilman Steven Dicterow has asked staff to study the

feasibility of adding a parking structure to the project.

The only other development on that side of Laguna Canyon Road is

the Laguna School of Art and Design, which was built and landscaped

to blend into the canyon.

The cost estimate of $3.5 million to move the corporation yard may

be low, City Manager Ken Frank said. It was made several years ago.

Frank repeatedly refused to guess what the Village Entrance would

cost. Figures bandied about Tuesday ranged from $2 million to $20

million.

“We don’t have a good track record on costs,” Baglin said,

referring to Treasure Island Park, which began with an estimate of

$2.5 million and ended up costing $9 million.

No funding sources for the Village Entrance have been established.

“The way [the request for proposals] was written, it will work

concurrently with the design team of the Village Entrance,” Kinsman

said.

The notice inviting proposals will be released April 15. Proposals

will be due June 13 and a selection made by the council July 1, which

allows a high-summer traffic count, but also specifies commute and

Saturday traffic. No specific direction was given for off-season

traffic counts.

Phase One is to be completed by Nov. 15 and submitted for review.

The city has allocated $110,000 for the plan. That will pay for

only the first phase, which focuses on collecting data and on the

Village Entrance.

The completed traffic management plan might cost $400,000 to

$500,000, said Planning Commissioner Norm Grossman, who assisted

Kinsman in the preparation of the request for proposals.

Kinsman said her two-phase version is based on, but broadens, the

draft request document, approved Oct. 9 by the Planning Commission.

“Money is a very big consideration. That’s why it was split, and

also I wanted to work in the Village Entrance design,” Kinsman said.

“We have no estimate for Phase Two. It’s a huge amount and can’t be

done for the amount budgeted.”

Delino described the document as the most important item on the

council’s agenda Tuesday.

“Cheryl did a bang up job, and it has Freddy Talarico’s

fingerprints all over it,” Delino said.

He recommended adding to the document that the goals are to

promote residents’ access to and through Downtown and to promote the

economic sustainability of the Downtown businesses and the art

festivals.

The request for proposals was approved with the change suggested

by Delino and with the addition of the word “accidents” in the

direction for assessment of the pedestrian and vehicular Downtown

traffic.

Legion Street was correctly substituted for Park Avenue as the

southern boundary of the Downtown Specific Plan area.

-- Barbara Diamond

Council backs bid to protect shores

The combination of trampling hikers, animal-collecting high school

students and declining water quality is reportedly ruining the marine

habitat at Treasure Island.

To save the area, Coastal Resources Management Senior Marine

Biologist Rick Ware filed an application in November to the

California Coastal Commission nominating the Treasure Island

shoreline, including offshore waters, as a state marine park.

The City Council voted Tuesday to back Ware’s cause and take more

steps to proactively preserve the area.

“The council’s objective is protection and restoration of the

Treasure Island marine habitat,” Councilman Wayne Baglin said, “not a

record of its death.”

Ware is in his second year of a five-year, $500,000 city contract

to conduct an intensive study of Treasure Island’s environmental

progress, especially since the addition of the Montage Resort.

After a presentation by Ware detailing the diminishing growth of

marine life in the area, Baglin said he wasn’t happy.

“What I kept hearing here was that we’re going to have a five-year

study of ‘death of a reef,’” he said. “I see, after five years, we’re

going to be trying to restore it.”

In Baglin’s five-pronged motion concerning the council’s action,

he suggested the council first write a letter to Mary Nichols,

California secretary of state resources, explaining the problem and

asking how to protect a marine environment “on the verge of being

lost.”

He also said Montage Resort management must propose a public

education program and recommendations for enforcement against those

damaging the area to the council by May 30 for an implementation

program this summer.

The education program would be in collaboration with Ocean

Laguna’s TideWater Docent program.

Ware’s study hasn’t included monitoring the water quality in the

area, which Baglin said has to change in his motion, approved by

every member but Cheryl Kinsman.

“We’re paying him $500,000,” she said. “We can’t just spend all

our money on one little cove. What about the rest of Laguna Beach?”

The boundaries of the proposed marine park extend about 1,200 to

1,800 feet offshore and about 2,400 feet long, at a depth of 40 to 60

feet. Sandy beaches, intertidal zones and shallow reefs would be

protected.

Ware said most visitors to Treasure Island go straight to the

intertidal area and “trample right over animals and plants,” singling

out students on field trips as common culprits.

“After telling students for three or four days that they can’t

come down here,” Ware said, “they still come down. And their teachers

are still sending them down to collect animals off your reef here at

Treasure Island.”

He’s also seen sport-fishing from the reef and sport-fishing boats

come in from Dana Point.

Enforcing laws against such activity is currently in Marine

Safety’s hands.

“As far as citations go, the lifeguards do not have the

resources,” Chief of Marine Safety Mark Klosterman said. “We’ve

requested in the past, through the budget process, a more dedicated

marine officer. That’s just not a viable option, and therefore we’re

pursuing this docent program.”

The TideWater Docent program intends to have trained volunteers in

Laguna’s coves in time for the influx of spring field trips by

surrounding communities.

“The problem is not just Treasure Island,” Director of TideWater

Docents Fred Sattler said. “It’s all of our coves.”

Program members hope that by teaching children and adults about

what they’re destroying, they’ll think twice before they trample.

-- Mike Swanson

Councilman Baglin pleads not guilty

Councilman Wayne Baglin pleaded not guilty on March 14 to six

counts of felony conflict of interest.

A pre-trial was set for April 4, with a jury trial to begin May

19.

The Orange County district attorney filed the charges after the

Orange County Grand Jury voted to indict Baglin.

Baglin’s attorney said at the time that the case against Baglin

was politically motivated, but did not identify a particular person

or group.

The councilman is accused of violating state law 1090, which

prohibits an elected official or members of his family from

financially benefiting from a contract with the agency the official

represents.

Baglin, a real estate broker, accepted a $36,000 commission from

the sale to the city of two lots on Third Street he brokered for

clients while sitting on the council. The clients paid the

commission.

Baglin did not vote on the sale, which would have been a violation

of the state’s political reform act and a separate violation.

-- Barbara Diamond

Council closer to sewer reconstruction

The City Council adopted a resolution approving the reconstruction

of seven miles of sewer pipes and 250 manholes at its Tuesday

meeting.

In addition to a $630,000 federal grant for sewer system

improvements, the staff is seeking a state grant and a low-interest

state loan for more improvements.

With help from the federal grant and the sewer fund, the city is

lining nearly nine miles of deteriorated pipes this fiscal year. The

remaining seven miles, plus the 250 manholes, are expected to be

rehabilitated over the next two or three years.

The state informed Laguna Beach that it would not enter into a

contract regarding low-interest funds, which would be necessary to

complete the improvements in two or three years, until it obtains

environmental approval.

-- Mike Swanson

Ebell Club to hold rummage sale

The Ebell Club of Laguna Beach will hold its annual rummage sale

from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Saturday at the Boys and Girls Club of

Laguna Beach, 1085 Laguna Canyon Road.

All proceeds from the sale are donated to fund local philanthropic

organizations.

Donations were made last year to the Boys and Girls Club, TLC,

Brandy’s Friends, the Laguna Chamber Music Society, the Thruston

Graduation Scholarship Fund, La Playa, the Skipper Carillo

Scholarship and the Laguna Beach High School scholarships.

-- Barbara Diamond

‘Only in Laguna’ ready to role

The fourth annual “Only in Laguna” fashion show is set for

Thursday at Tivoli Too.

The show will feature Laguna’s political and civic leaders

modeling fashion wear from local clothing boutiques. The proceeds

will benefit the Laguna Beach Community Clinic and the not-for-profit

No Square Theatre.

This year’s theme is “The Wonderful World of Real Estate.” The

event will take place from noon to 2 p.m. at Tivoli Too, 777 Laguna

Canyon Road. Tickets are $32, which includes lunch. Advance tickets

may be purchased at the Laguna Board of Realtors office, 939

Glenneyre St., or limited tickets may be purchased at the door. For

information, call 497-2474.

Village Laguna to host spring Potluck

Village Laguna will host a Spring Equinox Potluck Party to

celebrate of the arrival of spring. The event will feature fine wine

and delectable fare.

The public is invited to the party which will begin at 4 p.m.

Sunday at the home of Mary and Herb Rabe, 489 Pearl St., Laguna

Beach. Admission is $25 per person and can be paid at the door. For

reservations, call 494-4137 or send a check to Village Laguna, P.O.

Box 1309, Laguna Beach 92652.

Village Laguna is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving

and enhancing the unique village character of Laguna Beach. The group

has been actively involved in civic activities supporting numerous

causes.

Harpsichordist Eric Kinsley to perform

Laguna Beach Live! will present harpsichordist Eric Kinsley in a

free chamber music concert at the Laguna College of Art and Design.

Eric holds a doctorate of music from the Manhattan School of Music

and teaches at Southwestern Academy and California Lutheran

University. He has premiered works in Rome, New York and Los Angeles

and has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and

the New York Harpsichord Society. Works by Bach, Haydn, Scarlatti,

Aguila and Schrader will be presented, and Kinsley will give an

informative talk .

First Sundays is a free community program of art exhibits and

classical music concerts funded by the lodging establishments of

Laguna Beach, the Laguna College of Art and Design and contributions

from the audience. This concert is co-sponsored by the American Assn.

of University Women, Laguna Beach Branch.

The concert will be from 3 to 4:30 p.m. April 6. The College Art

Gallery opens at 2 p.m.