Extraordinary year for city

To paraphrase an old television show, “That was the year that was.” And what a year it was!

It turns out the “really real” Laguna Beach was much more exciting than the MTV version: 2005 had enough high drama, tragedies, calamities and near-misses to keep the community on the edge of its seat for months on end.

The last half of the year was dominated, of course, by the landslide that hit June 1, just as the city was getting into the frenzied swing of summer.

In trying times, heroes are made, and this year proved no exception to that rule.

Mayor Elizabeth Pearson-Schneider deservedly tops our list of newsmakers, as she held the community together through rough seas with a calm, sure hand. Aside from leading community meetings where landslide victims could find help and information, Pearson-Schneider also came up with a brilliant strategy to put money into the pockets of those in need -- the Adopt-a-Landslide-Family campaign.

In the end, of 22 families ousted from their homes, all have found shelter and have even been able to send their children back to the local schools. This is a huge accomplishment for such a small city, and could serve as a blueprint for other disasters. FEMA, take note!

There are, of course, many other heroes who came forward to work in the spotlight and behind the scenes to give financial, emotional and spiritual support to the distressed, and to help rebuild the collapsed neighborhood.

This was, indeed, a year of extraordinary giving. Even as pockets were emptying for the landslide-distressed, community members swung into action to lend aid to the Gulf Coast victims -- human and animal -- of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The giving wasn’t confined to victims of major disasters: The Girl Scouts gathered twice the number of winter coats in their annual drive to warm the homeless.

As if to punctuate the “bigness” of this year, in the last weeks, the beaches were battered by monster surf, the likes of which had not been seen in years.

In the background, of course, the city had its usual share of community flare-ups and controversies, which you can relive in our week-by-week wrap-up of the year in news, presented in two parts. The first half of the year will appear this week, the second half next week.

As the year closes out, one thing is certain: This is a community that cares. Witness the laughter at the foibles and missteps of city leaders -- such as the “no nudes” edict for City Hall sculpture or the brouhaha over the color of AIDS Day ribbons -- and the anguish over the demolition of the old Pottery Shack.

We trust that 2006 will see the continuation of that caring.

Happy New Year.