Pedestrians get the short shrift On a...

Pedestrians get

the short shrift

On a recent Friday afternoon, I was driving home on Forest Avenue,

approaching the Glenneyre intersection with my 7-year-old grandson

and his friend. Turning left onto Glenneyre, I noticed two older

couples in front of Tuvulu’s, attempting to enter the crosswalk. They

were hesitating, especially because the car in front of me whizzed by

without a glance or thought of stopping. I made eye contact with the

foursome, smiled and waved them on, indicating that I would wait

while they crossed the street.

I noticed a Laguna Beach Police officer behind me, but I wasn’t

concerned because I was doing the right thing -- wasn’t I ? All of

the sudden, a speaker from the officer’s patrol car stopped this

intersection in it’s tracks. The people in the crosswalk stepped back

onto the curb with bewildered looks.

With the pedestrians back on the curb, I mouthed “Sorry” to them

and completed my turn. I do hope they finally made it safely across

the street. I know the officer did not stop for them, as he was in a

hurry to pull me over in front of the library.

As he approached my car, he asked what I thought I was doing,

holding up traffic like that. I explained that I have been an avid

walker and hiker in town for more than 30 years and always make an

effort to give pedestrians the right of way and certainly appreciated

it when someone stops for me. “I was just trying to be polite,” I

said. His muttered response as he walked away from my car was

something like: “Polite doesn’t cut it.” Not a great example to set

for the young boys in my back seat.

I have the utmost respect for the Laguna Beach Police Department

and the work it does, but I have equal respect for locals and

visitors in our town and certainly pedestrians in all towns.

A few years back, a local resident lost her life in this same

intersection, which necessitated the stop sign at Forest and

Glenneyre. There is simply no contest between a pedestrian and a

vehicle.

The tension displayed on that nice Friday afternoon was not

necessary. Had I been able to let those folks cross the street, we

all would have still gotten where we were going with smiles on our

faces.

KATE TSCHUDIN

Laguna Beach

People create

the conflict

Regarding “Is design review too contentious in Laguna,” absolutely

not! They are principled and fulfill their responsibilities well in

preserving the character of the many different neighborhoods. They

are consistent.

It is the people who appear before them that are contentious!

STANLEY ROSEN

Laguna Beach

Residents cut

out of revisions

Major items that will disempower residents and promote high

density development are suggested additions to the design review

revision and land use element revision process.

The revisions suggested will give developers carte blanche to pick

and choose what, where and how they develop. It will remove the few

remaining constraints and will be a relapse to “Mansionization.”

In the last Land Use Element public hearing, [Planning

Commissioner] Norm Grossman announced his intent to form a

subcommittee consisting of [architect] Morris Skenderian and two paid

Montage consultants. The purpose of this “subcommittee” was to

construct the final draft of the Land Use Element that would go

before the city council anticipated to be around mid-September. Don’t

subcommittees usually report back to committees? The meat of this

document, being the policies, was left out of the public input

process, although it is being included in the activities that are to

be undertaken by the subcommittee. When brought to the city’s

attention, they now claim they have rectified the situation; however,

we’ll never know for sure.

Laguna, under current planning laws, has limited future

development potential. I don’t have a problem with this. I don’t

necessarily believe thinking of creative ways to promote future

development needs to be one of the objectives of the revision

process.

Two proposals that residents should be concerned about are zoning

overlays and mixed use. Zoning overlays will allow the city

“discretionary judgment” to incorporate additional zoning codes to an

existing sector. This would also relieve developers from having to

obtain variances, one of the most efficient blockades currently in

place. This is being promoted as a solution to “streamline” the

design review process. It is pro-development. .

“Mixed use” will allow for higher-density housing by allowing more

development in areas that are now [governed] by setback requirements,

required space between buildings and off-street parking and more.

This is being sold under the guise of “livable cities.”

During one of the public hearings for the land-use element

revision process, Grossman said zoning overlays and mixed use

development approaches would include relaxing open-space zoning and

allow for development in these areas. Is this what you as a resident

want to see occur in this city? When I heard this, I clearly knew

where I stood on the item.

Grossman delivers shiny packages that never contain anything

substantive for the benefit of residents. He has one objective --

pro-development. There is a zoning code applicable to Norm and his

concepts -- it’s the ozone.

DEBBIE HERTZ

Laguna Beach

Labor center is

backed by ruling

Bill Rihn and others have been writing letters to the editor

reinforcing their belief that the city, and the government in

general, are working against the law because they are providing a

site for day laborers to find jobs and residents and contractors to

find workers. I manage apartments, and I admit that I am one of those

people who go to the hiring area to hire people to clean up and paint

apartments, dig out weeds and keep our apartments and homes and

ultimately the city more attractive.

The real issue is not one of the city making a decision to provide

a hiring area for the day workers. It was a decision by the Supreme

Court that every person has a right to solicit work, whether it is on

the sidewalk downtown, in front of a home or on Laguna Canyon Road.

This is why the city of Lake Forest recently rescinded its order that

day workers could not congregate at the intersection of Jeronimo and

Lake Forest. It was quickly pointed out that it could not make such a

decision. It could, however, identify a specific area where the

laborers could solicit work.

This is exactly the decision the Laguna Beach City Council came to

several years ago. The North Laguna Community Association had

received many complaints about day laborers at the Circle K on North

Coast Highway. These complaints were forwarded to the council, and

the decision was to have a location in Laguna Canyon near the lumber

yard that would be managed to ensure both appropriate behavior by the

workers and fair treatment by the employers.

If enough individuals do not want the hiring area in Laguna

Canyon, the city can rescind its decision to have a centralized area,

and leave the day laborers to their own choice of locations. Perhaps

to North Coast Highway, South Coast Highway or the sidewalks at Main

Beach.

Personally, I like the way it works now.

WAYNE L. PETERSON

Laguna Beach

* EDITOR’S NOTE: o7Wayne L. Peterson is a former City

Councilmanf7.

Bring the troops home from Iraq

The news from Iraq three weeks ago devastated Ohio. In a matter of

hours, 20 Marines from the Brook Park area were killed in two of the

deadliest attacks on U.S. troops since the war began. Sipping my

daily coffee in town, I thought how they just as easily could have

been from Laguna Beach.

After looking at all the particulars, it’s time to bring our

forces home -- without any further delay.

Much has been publicly debated about the war in Iraq: how we

invaded that nation on high moral ground or a defunct weapons of mass

destruction argument; how we liberated the region from a tyrant or

made it more unstable; how troops died for a worthy cause or were

killed in vain.

Regardless of how you position U.S. involvement in Iraq, nothing

seems as poignant as this Ohio schoolteacher’s reaction to the 20

deaths from the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment: “How much more

are we expected to give? We are patriotic people. We love our

country. But how many lives are enough?”

I remember these same words being expressed 35 years ago, during

the Vietnam War. That’s where 58,000 young Americans were killed.

Bringing the troops home is not about being a disloyal Democrat or

patriotic Republican, a supporter or opponent of the president’s tax

cuts, CAFTA, Social Security reform or federal funding for stem cell

research. This is, plain and simple, the ultimate right-to-life

issue.

We have left tens of thousands of young Americans in harm’s way

and for what purpose? So Iraqis can write a constitution, patrol

their own streets, turn the electricity back on or drink clean water?

While each in its own right is a worthwhile goal, not one of them

justifies 20 Brook Park or Laguna kids being blown up on the side of

the road.

Thankfully, I’m not the only one who thinks this way. Paul

Hackett, a Marine reservist who served in Iraq, almost beat Jean

Schmidt in a very close congressional election east of Cincinnati. My

guess is had the devastating news about the Ohio Marines reached

voters before the election, Hackett, not Schmidt, would be going to

Capitol Hill.

A generation ago, I was red-meat material for Vietnam. My draft

number was No. 1 in 1969. Today, my 25-year-old son is a step away

from being caught in the cross-hairs of Iraq. I know what it means to

commit U.S. forces to war. I have seen them go my entire life. Sadly,

so do the twenty Ohio families who must be crushed by the recent turn

of events half way ‘round the world.

I can’t begin to speak for these families but I can imagine their

pain. Despite what the president says, it’s time to bring the troops

home from Iraq. There is plenty of work for Marines to do here at

home -- protecting our Constitution, making our streets safe, keeping

the lights on or providing safe drinking water. Brook Park deserves

this kind of help and so does Laguna.

From today on, The Iraqi people need to figure all this out on

their own.

DENNY FREIDENRICH

Laguna Beach

Racism is pernicious affliction

Recent demonstrations at the day-labor site have exposed the

not-so-hidden racism of those who use their opposition to illegal

immigration as a means to manifest their true racist feelings. Seeing

spirited protesters waving American flags in unison with those of the

Aryan Brotherhood and neo-confederacy is a painful reminder of the

ubiquitous nature of racism, a dark corner of the human soul. Just

when you think America has this pernicious cancer in remission it

metastasizes once again.

Obviously, racism has been a shaping force in American history.

The fact that the government has now seen fit to pass laws against

“hate crimes,” no matter how futile, is nevertheless an indication

that prejudice and racism is deeply embedded in the national ethos.

Yet, no matter what laws we pass, they cannot exorcise what is

hard-wired to our collective unconscious. We can only use the tools

of law and a sense of moral empathy to keep racism and class warfare

in check.

The issue of “legal” versus “illegal” in the case of illegal

immigration is only a ruse or red herring. If today we made all

Hispanic laborers legal tomorrow the protesters would find some other

excuse to vent their hate. Bigots are like that. In their game of

smoke and mirrors, the opposition has couched its current debate in

legal terms to make it palatable to a society that prides itself in

being law abiding. It gets our attention.

Most Americans are offended by lawbreakers and rightfully so. We

are a nation of laws. This is an important part of how we define

civilization. Thus the term “illegal” is a cultural hot button. If

the issue of legality is truly what this whole thing is all about I

would say, “OK send all the lawbreakers back home.” However, no sane

person believes this. Even the Skinheads and Neo Confederates came

running at the sweet smell of racism. They know when the game is

afoot.

Our own regional protesters have added “economic reform” to

“legality” in order to justify their racism. How transparent!

According to two of their leaders, George Riviere and Eileen

Garcia, their protest against the site “... is and always will be

about the city using community assistance money to fund a project

that does not directly benefit Laguna

residents.” Not only is this blatantly untrue but just expressing

such a pathetic justification shows the mindlessness of the

opposition. All one has to do is look around town and note the Latino

Hispanic laborers serving the predominately white population

(including the hypocritical protesters).

The nannies take care of the kids (and dogs), the cleaning ladies

take care of the houses, the gardeners take care of the landscapes,

the construction workers build the houses (statistics show the

average new house would cost 25% more without immigrant workers), the

restaurant workers cook the food(whether it’s French or Italian), and

clean up after us.

Need I go on? We need the labor and the Hispanics need the work.

Face it ! It is a simple capitalist paradigm.

A day without Latinos would bring life, as we know it in Laguna to

a screaming halt. Who would do their work? At what price? The

Hispanic immigrant (legal or otherwise) is absolutely necessary for

the people of Laguna to keep their affluent lifestyle at an

affordable price. We get far more from the hardworking, inexpensive

migrant workers than the pitiful assistance given to them by the

city. In fact, I am proud of being a resident because of the humane

treatment given to the day laborers by my town and its churches,

especially when compared with other cities. We cannot do anything

about hateful white supremacists, but we can give more support to our

Hispanic immigrant workers, not less.

GENE COOPER

Laguna Beach