MAILBAG - Feb. 1, 2008

Hiring site serves community

I feel the city should continue with the purchase of the property from Caltrans. This isn’t an illegal immigrant issue. Continuing the day labor hiring site serves the community in many ways.

NANCI NIELSEN

Laguna Beach

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Day Labor Site makes city safer

Tom Harman doesn’t get it! The Day Labor Site in Laguna Beach is a protection for the citizens, not a boondoggle. Laguna Beach has a real problem with day laborers; they used to gather on the streets, urinate and defecate on public and private property.

They leered and made unsavory remarks to women “” especially young women as they went about their daily business. Most of these problems are caused by politicians like Harman who won’t allow anti-loitering laws to be used. Contractors should be fined for hiring illegal immigrants as should restaurants and others. All the laws needed to keep our cities safe and our quality of life good are in the books but our police are not allowed to use them because politicians consider them politically incorrect.

So our city manager and City Council, at the request of residents, took matters in their own hands and made our streets safe, which is their job. They are saving money by corralling the day laborers in one place. The streets are safe because contractors have to drive into an area off the highway.

The people who hire them are safe because the laborers no longer crowd their cars, they must form a line and act in a respectful way or lose their place in that line.

Instead of praising the city of Laguna Beach, Harman is condemning us and trying to get the illegals and other day laborers out on our streets again to create havoc, dirty our streets and private property, intimidate our residents, and take the time of our police department who have other things to do.

Do not confuse the issue of illegal immigrants with the day labor center. Nobody favors illegal immigration but we need a safe and convenient place for workers and employers.

MARTHA LYDICK

Laguna Beach ?

Editor’s note:Martha Lydick is president of the Laguna Beach Taxpayer’s Assn.

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Toll road opponents should attend meeting

All concerned citizens who can should attend the Feb. 6 California Coastal Commission meeting to stop the Foothill South Toll Road and save San Onofre State Park and Trestles Beach. Join me in taking a day off work, let’s fill the room and have a crowd outside and make a statement that this beautiful area is worth preserving.

Volunteer to drive your car or get a ride by calling (949) 939-7257, and we’ll organize carpools.

If you haven’t taken a hike through San Onofre Park and Trestles Beach, you have missed out on a great treat. San Onofre State Beach is one of California’s most visited state parks, with more than 2 million visitors to the beach portion each year. There are many reasons for the popularity of this beach and park.

Since it was recognized as a state beach in 1971, San Onofre has attracted surfers with its outstanding surf, quiet, accessible inland campground (in close proximity to the beach), and an environment that offers Southern California families the opportunity to experience the coast and nature in the middle of an otherwise overwhelmingly urban area.

The Transportation Corridor Agencies plan to build a toll road right through the middle of the park will ruin that for all of us, and for generations to come.

The park was established for the citizens of California by then-Gov. Ronald Reagan and then-President Richard Nixon.

At the dedication of the park, Reagan said, “I firmly believe one of the greatest legacies we can leave to future generations is the heritage of our land, but unless we can preserve and protect the unspoiled areas which God has given us, we will have nothing to leave them.”

Well, better hurry as the Transportation Corridor Agencies want to put a toll road right through the park. Please join me Feb. 6.

GENE FELDER

Laguna Beach

Editor’s Note:Gene Felder is vice president of the Laguna Canyon Conservancy.

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Some Sapphire remarks insult gay community

Last Tuesday, something unfortunate occurred during the City Council meeting. In our opinion it needs to be aired publicly.

The Sapphire Restaurant and the new Pottery Place were appealing a denial by the planning commission of a request to extend its hours of bar operations to midnight seven days a week. A number of neighbors and community leaders were present to speak about the impact that alcohol, traffic and crowds are having on our midtown neighborhood and argued against granting the appeal. Present in favor of extending the bar hours were Sapphire Restaurant supporters including Joe Hanauer, owner of the property, and Morris Skenderian, the architect for the Pottery Place and Sapphire Restaurant. All spoke eloquently, including Chef-Owner Azmin Ghareman.

In his exuberant support of the appeal, Skenderian made a comment that attempted to contrast the environment on South Coast Highway at that site now and 20 years ago. We imagine his intent was to stress to City Council that the presence of Sapphire was a positive one for the city. However, he went on to argue that businesses like Sapphire were preferable to the Boom Boom Room, the Little Shrimp and Woody’s that were the focus of that area 20 years ago.

This argument implied the patrons attracted to this area by businesses like the Sapphire were an improvement to what the area experienced before the demise of the three gay- and lesbian-oriented establishments. It came as a shock to those in the audience who heard the sentiments expressed, unintended though they may have been.

While we were surprised to hear such statements made in Laguna in 2008, what was equally distressing was to hear, during the council’s deliberations, Councilwoman Elizabeth Schneider appear to echo Skenderian’s comments arguing Sapphire was preferable to the Boom Boom Room.

Enthusiastically supporting a client’s appeal to city council is admirable. Using one’s oratorical skills to buttress the argument by burnishing the establishment’s attributes is also acceptable. However, words that denigrate a vibrant, active, historical and creative part of our village community in the process are not. Laguna is better than that.

JINGER WALLACE

Laguna Beach