MAILBAG - Nov. 23, 2007

All homes must be made wildfire-safe

As portions of Southern California recover from the recent firestorms which ravaged property and businesses, it is wonderful to see Kelly Boyd, Ken Frank and the City Council take proactive action and revaluate city policy focusing on protecting our homes, families and our fireman from the dangers of a Sant Ana driven firestorm.

According to the San Diego Fire Department, a home burned every 11 seconds in the recent fires and entire neighborhoods were left to burn, as they were deemed undefendable.

Our local fireman have told us in an recent inspection, a wind-driven fire in Laguna can sweep through our neighborhood’s steep hillsides and ravines in less than 20 minutes, as ill-maintained trees and the brush will allow for fires to hopscotch from home to home in minutes.

We fear the terrain and landscaping of South Laguna will create an undefendable situation where dozens of homes are left to burn because of the area’s landscaping, power lines and brush.

Our home has been deemed fire safe and a potential refuge in a fast moving firestorm, as we have gone to great strides to make our property a staging ground in defense of a fire for our community. Working in coordination with the Laguna Beach Fire Department, we also built a turnaround for emergency vehicles with a fire lane and added a high pressure fire hydrant. However, all this could be negated unless private property owners make their landscaping safer for the community and the fire department.

We are all interconnected due to close proximity of our homes in a suburban community, and should take into account living in a near-desert environment with periodic episodes of prolonged drought. For years, remodeled and newly built homes have been required to adhere to policy dictating that the aesthetics of landscaping have to give way to the pragmatic concern for fire safety; which means brush has to be cleared; trees require setbacks from the residence, and extensive planting of fire retardant landscaping.

Basic landscaping standards should apply to all residents of Laguna in consideration of the fire threat and mutual proximity of our homes. We would like to encourage the city council members who have previously not taken fire safety as a top priority to revisit your respective positions, and please act quickly and require unimproved private property owners to clear brush at least 150 feet from homes, extend the weed abatement program to include ill-maintained trees 10 feet from homes, and remove all eucalyptus, palms and pines within 200 feet of the undeveloped hillsides and ravines, and 20 feet from power lines.

JEFF and CATHERINE THORNTON

Laguna Beach

Better use for Day Labor Site

I understand lawyer [Gene] Gratz, who represents the Crosscultural Council in Laguna that operates the Day Labor Site, has offered to use his own money (instead of our tax money) to support the site. This is a great offer and the city should immediately accept his generous offer and move the Day Labor Site to Gratz’s property and return the state’s property to the taxpayers.

Gratz can then spend the rest of his life defending himself in court for his own violations of federal laws for aiding and abetting illegal aliens.

Another good fallout of his generous offer is that the Caltrans property in that area up to the exit/entrance to the city’s new maintenance and parking facility could be used for another short lane to merge the traffic exiting from the yard toward town into the four-lane portion of the canyon road. This would be of real value to the citizens and city employees since it would greatly enhance the safety and flow of traffic.

If you haven’t tried it, turn into our new maintenance and facility parking area in the canyon and then exit toward town. You will immediately see what a great safety idea this is and I have no idea why Caltrans didn’t insist on it from the start. (I wonder why the city didn’t take this obvious safety measure in the first place; could it be because it would have eliminated the Day Labor Site?)

And, if Gratz doesn’t really want to support the Day Labor Site with his own money, the city and Caltrans should still use that property and the adjoining property and put in that short but important safety merging lane.

DAVE CONNELL

Laguna Beach

Laguna has a culture of acceptance

There is no illegal human being. Laguna Beach has always been a place where peoples’ right to be and the environment is fought over. “Bohemian” is a word used to describe early Laguna. The dictionary [defines “bohemian” as] “an artist, poet, etc. who lives in a unconventional and nonconforming way.” The first greeter in the 1880s. The march in the canyon. The 11-year fight against Caltrans to stop construction of a planned freeway through town. The Christmas Concert. Dante’s gay and straight bar at Main Beach. The arrest of gays at West Street beach by the sheriff. Bob Gentry, Laguna’s gay mayor who told people when he announced his campaign that he was gay. Our own police department (why did they give all those parking tickets to people at Anneliese’s Fun-raiser?) Our outstanding lifeguard service. Artists, writers and our outstanding high school drama department. We are different.

If the xenophobes close our day labor hiring site in Laguna Canyon, we’ll think of something else. Latinos and other workers put a lot of positive energy into this town and they are part of our history and heritage which is here to see, especially on the boardwalk, Saturday and Sunday. We are an open society.

ROGER CARTER

Laguna Beach

Bible could explain beheadings

Not to be overlooked is another possible explanation for the beheaded animals found on Laguna Beach beaches recently. (“Animal carcasses found on beaches,” Nov. 16). Look in Deuteronomy 21.

NIKO THERIS

Laguna Beach