A taste of New Orleans

Peppertree Lane’s Bourbon Street Bash netted $22,000 for the Red

Cross and Habitat for Humanity.

The whole lane was blocked off for the Sept. 29 fundraiser.

“We still have more money coming in, and Peppertree Lane will

match whatever the total is,” said Katy Moss, property manager of the

lane.

Philo and Diane Smith own the lane, one of the city’s most

picturesque thoroughfares. Diane Smith did the floral decorations for

the fundraiser.

The event was the idea of Partners Bistro proprietor Rick Sadleir,

who spent three days preparing a lavish buffet of French

Quarter-inspired cuisine.

A table was laden with ham, cole slaw, red beans and rice,

mushroom salad, pork po’boys, shrimp creole, pecan-fried chicken with

black bean sauce, and whitefish dip.

Complimentary wine was served at the saloon and the bistro. La Rue

du Chocolat and Gelato Paridiso donated the sweets.

The Mardi Gras theme was carried out in brightly colored napkins,

complimentary wines and “N’Awlins” cocktails served at the saloon and

the bistro. Guests were presented with shiny strings of beads by

volunteers at the lane’s entry gates on South Coast Highway and

Ramona.

Volunteers who signed up for gate duties included John Hoover, Tom

Greenwell, Anthony Joseph, Kim Bailey, Kate Riegler and Elaine Smith.

Smith is the newly appointed development director at the Laguna

Beach Community Clinic. She previously worked as the Laguna Playhouse

development manager and ran twice for city clerk.

“Katy recruited me for this event to do sign-ins and signage,”

Smith said.

Opportunity drawings were held for a bicycle from Crevier BMW, a

signed self-portrait by Frank Interlandi, a one-night stay at Montage

valued at $600, dinner for four at Cafe Zoolu, $200 gift certificates

for Sorrento Grille and French 75, magnums of Ferrari-Carano

Chardonnay and Tresor, and an electric barbecue donated by saloon

owner Michael Byrnne.

Other sponsors included Jay Frerking and Mike Harley.

Gary Hogan’s band played Dixieland jazz.

“I grew up in Louisiana,” Hogan said. “My father played the

clarinet.”

Hogan came to Laguna via El Toro, where he was stationed as a

member of the U.S. Marine Corp band.

Kent Broussard also comes from Louisiana, and he just couldn’t

miss the event.

“I live across the street, and when I saw what this was, I had to

come,” Broussard said. “I am from New Orleans and my family -- mom,

dad, brother, sister -- and friends were evacuated.”

Also on the guest list: Realtor Zolita Scott, co-president with

Moss of the Laguna Beach Exchange Club; Jim Moore and John Gustafson,

who lived in Bluebird Canyon until their home fell down, guests of

Bonnie and Jonathan Wolin, owners of Fiore; Don and Lauri Romero;

Ernie and Mayor Elizabeth Pearson-Schneider and City Councilwoman

Cheryl Kinsman; Mike and Kathy Conway; Linda Humes, new co-owner of

the renamed Tides Inn; Carl and Cheryl Post, who formerly underwrote

Brandy’s Friends, a drug abuse prevention center for young people;

and her mother, Rose Conklin, 85, the oldest volunteer at the

Festival of Arts.

*

About 100 residents attended a meeting attended a public service

presentation by local geologist Jamie Fink, hosted by Village Laguna

in response to the Flamingo Road landslide.

Fink had good news and bad news.

“We have development in Laguna Beach in problematic sites,” Fink

said. “There is potential for something to happen again.”

However, steps can be taken to make property less vulnerable.

“Control drainage and irrigation and use sound geological and

engineering practices on all-new construction,” she said. “But

sometimes a risk is a risk.”

Contributing factors to the risk are the steepness of the slope,

soil and rock characteristics, rainfall and the direction of the

slope -- south-facing slopes are apparently the most susceptible to

slumping or sliding.

Asked why the city continues to approve development on hillsides

in the light of more advanced information, Fink said two words:

Diamond Crestview.

The city opposed development of the area, but property owners went

to court and won the right not only to build but to build bigger than

the property owners who did not participate in the lawsuit.

“Are all our hillsides vulnerable?” Bonnie Hano asked.

No one knows for sure.

* OUR LAGUNA is a regular feature of the Laguna Beach Coastline

Pilot. Contributions are welcomed. Write to Barbara Diamond, P.O. Box

248, Laguna Beach, 92652; hand-deliver to Suite 22 in the Lumberyard,

384 Forest Ave.; call (949) 494-4321 or fax (949) 494-8979.