Shouldn’t a public park be for public use?

Gene Felder

If on the day of the Village Laguna Charm House Tour, Sunday, May 18,

I need to use the bathroom at Irvine Bowl Park, a.k.a Festival

grounds, and am refused access, I will be very angry. For many years

organizers of the Charm House Tour has hired the entire city bus

service and loaded its patrons along Laguna Canyon Road.

Those patrons are members of the public who should be able to use

the park’s restrooms. Festival of Arts / Pageant of the Masters

President Bruce Rasner ought to be ashamed of himself for the letter

he wrote to Village Laguna (concerning Village Laguna not being

allowed to use Festival grounds as a staging area for the Charm House

Tour).

Many years ago, as chair of the Charm House Tour, I received a

voicemail from an official of the Festival of Arts who saw our banner

and noted that I did not have permission to use the facility or their

bathrooms. I turned to then Mayor Neil Fitzpatrick on how to respond.

He advised that the Irvine Bowl Park is a public park, the bathrooms

are there for the public and to ignore him.

When San Clemente tried to take the Pageant of the Masters from

Laguna Beach, former president of the Laguna Beach Historical Society

Belinda Blacketer told the history of the park. She noted that the

original deed included recreation as a use, and at one time it was to

have a children’s “play area.” Belinda’s written comments include:

“The site of the Festival of Arts and Pageant of the Masters was

to be a community park, which was chosen in 1938. In April 1940, the

citizens of Laguna Beach passed a ‘Park, Music and Advertising Tax’

of 10 cents on each $100 of assessed valuation to purchase and

develop the Irvine property.

“The area that is now the festival grounds was shown on a map of

the proposed park site as the ‘play area’, the canyon where the

police firing range is now was to be used for ‘rustic trails’ and the

amphitheater the Festival wanted to build was to use a very small

portion of the park land.

“The Pageant of the Masters was to use the park (Irvine Bowl Park)

only two weeks of each year for the Pageant and Festival of Arts. In

exchange, the Festival of Arts agreed to pay the city of Laguna Beach

rent of $1,000 and 50% of the net income.”

If the public cannot use a park’s public bathroom, something is

seriously wrong.

* GENE FELDER is a member of Village Laguna, president of Laguna

Beach Historical Society, vice-president of Laguna Canyon

Conservancy, and board member of Top of the World Neighborhood Assn.