Bark Park is no place for skate park

Mallory McCamant

Regarding your editorial on May 28, “Three barks for getting that

skate park built”:

You’re right, the City Council’s job is to work for the benefit of

all Laguna residents. Then how about some consideration for the

residents of a dozen properties next door to the proposed site?

There is a canyon community adjacent to this property that cares

for its quality of life. We also care about the welfare of our youth,

but putting a skate park in the Dog Park is not the answer to either.

It is an unsafe location for the skateboarders, a bad location for

the dogs and shelter animals next door and a particularly bad

location for those of us who live here.

You seem to think that dogs and skateboards can peacefully

co-exist. Clearly, you have not spent much time around dogs. Placing

these facilities side by side is an invitation to problems, for the

dogs and the skateboarders.

But setting that issue aside for a moment, what about those of us

that would have to live with the noise and further congestion, every

single day?

The canyon is too busy already. We are the ones who will have to

deal with the constant racket, the cigarette butts flying into the

dry tinder of the canyon, the agitated dogs, the traffic congestion

and the lack of parking. Somehow, our interests keep getting lost in

the shuffle.

You want to “give them somewhere to go and encourage such a

healthy activity.” Seven skate parks exist in South Orange County:

Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, San Clemente

and two in Irvine. There are plenty of safe, public skating

facilities a short drive away. There is nowhere we can drive to get

our quality of life back.

* MALLORY MCCAMANT is a Laguna Beach resident.