City manager’s efforts appreciated [Note: this letter...

City manager’s efforts appreciated

[Note: this letter was sent to City Manager Ken Frank.]

As a 30-year resident in this beautiful resort village,

appreciation and gratitude are my daily feelings. This note comes

much delayed, but nonetheless, the sentiment has been with me for

years.

You, your city maintenance crew and magical gardeners continue to

perform amazing feats on a daily basis. Namely, keeping this

village’s streets, sidewalks, parking areas, and gardens beautifully

clean, trimmed and fresh.

This is accomplished in the face of constant tourist and local

foot traffic. Your quarterly gardens bring an array of color one

enjoys and looks forward to with each walk through town and our

magnificent parks.

My residence is on Ramona Avenue. Using the top of the Glenneyre

parking garage as a path on daily walks down to the post office and

through town, one can observe countless tourists, many of whom do not

always take care of their trash and litter. It continues to amaze me

how clean your maintenance crew keeps that deck in the face of this

constant use.

You have one person on your staff that has been here for many

years. He’s always friendly, informative and brings a fresh, lively

attitude to his work and all that come in contact with him. It is my

pleasure whenever walking through this beautiful village to run

across Anthony doing his journeyman work with enthusiasm, along with

a friendly greeting to me.

Mr. Frank, it must be very expensive to keep this village so

sparkling clean along with the beautiful landscapes, but please know

it is appreciated, and a source of great pride to me as a resident

here. So you know it is money well spent.

JOE ESSY

Laguna Beach

Owner of ‘Dip’ lot should hedge his bets

For several months the Laguna Beach City Council and Assistant

City Manager John Pietig have been negotiating the price the city

could pay for the aptly dubbed “ Dip House” lot. The lot, which is at

1530 Glenneyre, in the dip, has been staked for almost two years in

one configuration or another in the center of the Bluebird Canyon

stream. If agreement between the city of Laguna Beach and the owner

is not reached by May 17 when the City Council meets, the next step

may send the [proposed] “Dip House” to the Coastal Commission. If so,

it is unlikely that a coastal permit would be issued for this

project.

As Kenny Roger’s song aptly says, “a gambler knows when to hold

‘em and knows when to fold ‘em.” It may be just the time for the

owner to fold ‘em and accept the more than generous offer from the

city. If the Coastal Commission’s findings are against this project,

it would absolve the city of all responsibility, leaving the owner to

hold a worthless lot.

ANNETTE STEPHENS

LEAH VASQUEZ

Laguna Beach

Strings attached

to Montage gift?

To assist in having the senior center become a reality, all

Lagunans are appreciative that the Montage has given $500,000 as a

gift for the center.

The concern with a gift of this magnitude is that something may be

expected in return. The definition of gift is a “voluntary transfer

of property from one person to another without any compensation for

it and without any obligation”.

We can only hope that not only does the Montage not expect

preferential treatment but that our elected and appointed officials

feel the same.

Most people understand that the primary goal of any business, and

in fact, its number one fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders,

is to maximize profit. Let us not forget that the Montage is a

business with a profit motive. So I caution us to beware the Montage

bearing gifts. Let’s not be like the city of Troy and gleefully pull

the Trojan horse into our town only to find out that it was not a

gift at all but a ruse by the “gift” giver to fulfill their desires.

We know the Montage will be coming before the city for various

development permits. There will be those on the City Council and

those who will come before the council who will feel obligated and

supportive of reciprocal gifts.

We cannot allow the Montage to have any development not held to

the same standards as everyone else.

The city need not and must not give any compensation for this

gift.

I apologize for being cynical. I hope that the Montage’s $500,000

is a true gift, and they do not expect reciprocal generosity from

Laguna Beach, but after the last election and how they used their

money to influence it, the Montage unfortunately deserves to be

viewed cynically.

JOHANNA FELDER

Laguna Beach

Denying ‘Dip House’ project isn’t fair

I applaud Jeff Garner’s perseverance in attempting to develop the

parcel now known as the “Dip House.” He would like to put a

residential unit on a residential lot in a residential neighborhood.

Four years and countless dollars later, he is no closer to building

than he was at the outset.

The city has had a fund for purchasing open spaces. If they didn’t

want this space developed, they could have purchased it years ago.

But they did not and it remains a legal building site. A lot cannot

be both legal and unbuildable at the same time. Whatever happened to

fair play and reason?

Neighbors, who understandably don’t want their views compromised,

cite safety reasons in opposition to this endeavor. The truth is

there has been no data presented to substantiate that this part of

Glenneyre is more (or less) dangerous than any other.

This is a relatively short stretch of about 100 yards with a four-way stop at each end. I drive it daily. One is either proceeding

from a complete stop or braking in anticipation of another stop.

There is simply no space in between for undue speed.

As a neighbor of this project, I urge the design review board to

support it as legal and long overdue. Four years is long enough.

MICHAEL HALLINAN

Laguna Beach

Pious prudes

can’t see beauty

Bravo! Gene Cooper for SOUNDING OFF last week (“‘Fig leaf’ police

usurping public’s rights,” April 22, 2005). You eloquently expressed

my thoughts and, no doubt, the thoughts of other uninhibited

inhabitants (say three times fast) of Laguna Beach.

Why do pious prudes perceive dirtiness in the beauty that their

revered deity created?

Can the dirtiness be all in their obsessed minds? What next from

the moral prigs? Requiring diapers be put on dogs and cats to hide

their you-know-whats?

NIKO THERIS

Laguna Beach