MAILBAG: Tree preservation outweighs ocean views

I strongly disagree with your stance on views. (“Take a look at views,” April 3.) I vote for trees over ocean views: towering, glorious, mountains of green jutting into the blue sky.

Here’s some advice to anyone whose life is so empty they sit around lamenting a tree-obstructed view of the ocean: Open your door, walk out and head to the ocean until you at last find an unobstructed view of the big blue. Once there start counting your blessings.

Finally, send me the location. I want to plant some trees.

JJ FLOWERS

Laguna Beach

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Boom owner moving ahead with plans

As much as I would like to see a queer corner back at Mountain Street and Coast Highway, I am not holding my breath. (“Dream of a new Boom still alive,” From Canyon to Cove, April 3.)

In maintaining “The Garden of Peace and Love” at the end of Mountain Street this past week, I could not help but notice that the house Steven Udvar-Hazy purchased on the north side of Mountain was gone.

I am assuming his AIG bonus was not returned.

Laguna Beach

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Officials need to watch gang graffiti on beach

Laguna Beach is two places, Laguna and the beach.

Three weeks ago, I was walking south on Main Beach and my eye caught a big display of L.A.-style graffiti on our seaside cliffs below the Village Center.

The graffiti looked somewhat faded. It is black on a block wall, perpendicular to the sand. The graffiti is about 65 feet long and about 5 feet high. It is definitely gang-related as it references an Asian gang and has a signature moniker mostly done in urban areas.

I called the police and reported the incident. They promptly called me back and said the city would be told of the graffiti after the matter was filed and cataloged. The police keep a scrapbook on the graffiti, as the pattern and signatures are important to solving the crime.

Rumor has it the most of our elected city officials rarely stroll on the sand.

Rumor has it that one city administrative officer who earns more than $200,000 hasn’t walked (or driven, because they have that privilege) on the sand for more than 15 years.

So it is no wonder the graffiti remains intact on our beach for more than a month.

More shocking than seeing graffiti blight on our beach zone is the fact that our city has not attended to removing it.

So, Mayor Kelly Boyd, paint out that graffiti wall. Now.

PAUL MERRITT

Laguna Beach

Nature not nurturing to humankind

The notion we survive in nature by the skin of our teeth is a proposition deeply offensive to the modern sensibility.

Evolutionary geneticists say the 7 billion people on Earth can trace his inheritance back to 5,000 human survivors of a mysterious population crash that killed millions 70,000 years ago. The next time Laguna celebrates Earth Day, how about a few minutes of silent tribute to those 5,000 unsung heroes without whom we wouldn’t be on Earth at all if nature had its way.

DONN B. TRAGNITZ

Laguna Beach

SUPER Project must fix ‘improvements’

Given all of the sound and fury surrounding the SUPER Project proposal, I walked the Aliso Canyon last weekend with some good friends to see for myself the state of the creek and what changes the SUPER Project envisions. My observations:

?Invasive plants have been allowed to proliferate to the point they are choking the creek. Who is responsible for this lack of attention?

?There are pipes exposed all along the canyon but well above creek bed. Do we need to destroy the creek to secure these pipes?

?Past efforts to channel the creek have actually made the situation worse. What impacts will a new effort have on the creek?

?The stink of pollution emanating from the sewer treatment plant is the primary source of air contamination noted. How much of the fecal pollution in the creek now is a consequence of this process?

?The private property owner at the end of the county road has installed a razor-wire festooned gate at their property boundary preventing the realization of a long promised “mountain to the sea” trail. Can’t this gate be opened now?

?The Aliso Canyon wilderness is a hidden jewel. Everyone should walk this canyon to see for themselves the beauty of this incredible wilderness setting before it is destroyed.

The current SUPER Project proposal envisions the pouring of a lot of so-called “soil concrete” along the riverbed, the artificial grading of the creek banks and the construction of a concrete wall along the sides of the creek floor.

The potential future long-term impact to the canyon and creek from this proposal can be seen in the Aliso Creek Wildlife Habitat Enhancement Project (ACWHEP) near the center of the Aliso and Woods Canyon Wilderness Park.

This older project was designed to mitigate creek bank erosion and create new wetlands but has resulted in severe negative impacts on the canyon itself.

If you want to see a mitigation project “gone bad” this is it. Then close your eyes and imagine the impact 26 other similar mitigation structures will have across the entire creek bed and for the length of the canyon floor!

The SUPER Project Concept document states: “Nearly all the available land (in the Aliso Creek watershed) has been built out with the only significant undeveloped areas being in the Cleveland National Forest and the Aliso and Wood(s) Canyon Wilderness Park.”

It would be a shame to see the last stand of wilderness land and watercourse in Orange County inadvertently destroyed because we were not paying attention.

Some of the goals for the SUPER Project, such as cleaning up the creek’s waters, are worthwhile and need to be met but not at the cost of forever losing our wilderness creek and canyon.

There must be environmentally appropriate alternatives available to the current SUPER Project proposal.

(Sierra Club? LCC? LCF? LG? Anyone?)

ARMANDO BAEZ

Laguna Beach