Mailbag: Is fishing the biggest concern to the city?

Mark Bosko’s outstanding analysis of the “homeless problem” in Laguna Beach (“Homeless should not be exempt from laws,” Mailbag, July 17) clearly stated what many in our community have been privately thinking, following the city’s settlement of the ACLU lawsuit.

The ACLU should certainly wish to accept the basic tenant that laws must be enforced equally to all, and anyone violating them must be held accountable for their action, with no free passes allowed.

So, why should an “easy does it” approach to law enforcement with the “homeless” prevail in Laguna Beach? Has the ACLU made the homeless into some sort of icons at City Hall?

There are very serious immediate problems confronting our city. Begin with the “homeless,” and add budgetary problems being caused by a reduction in revenue as the state “resolves” its own financial problems on the backs of the cities. Toss in a serious water shortage due to the drought, continuing efforts at mansionizing of our neighborhoods by overzealous developers and Realtors, add on our terrible year-round traffic gridlock, and our City Council has a plate full of major problems to deal with.

How did our council ever allow its attention to be diverted from such major issues? Just how could fishing in “Laguna’s Ocean” take precedence over our major critical problems and become a more pressing item of concern? It’s time for the council to get their priorities straight. It’s time our immediate and serious problems were placed in their proper perspective.

DON KNAPP

Laguna Beach

Fishermen now the ‘enemy’ in Laguna

You would think the Republicans and others would organize their own “Village Laguna,” which has long been a mouthpiece for Arnold Hano. Perhaps Village Laguna has done such a good job running the city that no Republican group is needed, but really, is it true Hano called Mayor Kelly Boyd a “slaughterer” the other day?

Is Boyd the enemy because he enjoys fishing in the ocean?

ROGER CARTER

Laguna Beach

Sea life needs protection

I love living in Laguna Beach. I was born and raised here, and the thing I love the most about this town is how much people care. Witness the incredible uproar over the City Council’s vote to recommend all of Laguna’s coastline be a marine reserve. How lucky we are to live in a place with such an incredible resource, and the hundreds of people who care enough about it to argue! That said, we have to take a step back from the council’s difficult vote, and look at the bigger picture:

Do we need marine protected areas? The answer is a most resounding “yes.” Ninety percent of our biggest fish are gone. Species are depleted, and if we want to keep fishing, we need to do something. Yes, we have to control pollution. But we also need to end over-fishing, and give these creatures a bit of space to grow and reproduce even if its just so that we can catch bigger fish in the future.

Fishing technology has changed, but the fish haven’t gotten that memo. Instead, more and more of them are caught by more and more people, leaving fewer to reproduce and leaving an unbalanced ecosystem behind.

Do we need to be respectful of people who fish, either for fun or for a living? Yes, we do. But we can accomplish both with reasoned dialogue and a step away from the hysteria that’s surrounded this debate.

ALLISON JONES

Laguna Beach

Marine reserve will promote tourism

Tourism is Laguna’s top job producer and top revenue generator, according to the Visitor’s Bureau. If there continues to be a decline in our tidepools, habitats, size, numbers or diversity of fish, we will lose an important attraction for tourists. Already we are seeing empty storefronts and the loss of many of our favorite businesses. We need to be promoting Laguna as “green” and an “eco-destination” that supports the commerce of our town and a marine reserve will help. A marine reserve will attract people from all over the world to come and see such an amazing piece of nature.

Fishermen can also fish north at Crystal Cove to Newport Beach and on the edges/outside the reserve. To the south, more fishing grounds would exist from heavily kelped Niguel Shores/Salt Creek and the Dana Point Headlands to Camp Pendleton, Oceanside (fishing grounds of more than 30 miles). It is only logical, as most of the fishing boats are docked in Dana Point or Newport Beach, and therefore leave and come back to those docking areas. They can easily drive a little north or south or even west into deeper waters for commercial fishing.

As a resident of Laguna Beach, let’s leave the seven miles by three miles with Mother Nature and give back such a small piece of the coastline for such a great cause.

CHRISTINE HYNES

Laguna Beach

Horse race in 1852 beats Jackson event

That Michael Jackson memorial extravaganza was really something. Was there ever anything that topped it?

There was an event in 1852 that was truly a must-see event. Everyone who could attend went to Los Angeles to see the nine-mile horse race between Sarko and Black Swan. Most everyone from San Diego to San Luis Obispo attended.

To remember the dates: In 1776 the Spanish founded the mission at San Juan Capistrano, 284 years after Columbus discovered America. Only 45 years later, in 1821 Mexico won its independence from Spain. Only 25 years later, the United States won California and other lands, winning the Mexican War in 1846. The US recognized some of the Mexican land grants, so Pio Pico (the last Mexican governor of California) and Jose Andres Sepulveda were owners of large ranchos.

From 1837 to 1842 Sepulveda received grants known as Rancho San Joaquin which later was sold to James Irvine and others to become a 50,000-acre portion of the Irvine Ranch.

According to President Emeritus of the Laguna Beach Historical Society Belinda Blacketer, it went from “Newport Bay southeast to the center of what was then Laguna Canyon Creek, and is now the middle of the block between Broadway and Ocean Avenue.”

Pico and Sepulveda had quite a race in 1852, Pico himself losing $1,600 and 300 head of cattle.

The owners of the great ranchos may have been even more extravagant than Michael Jackson; on important occasions wearing outfits that cost more than $1,000.

Sarko was a race horse owned by Pico, and Sepulveda purchased an Australian horse, Black Swan.

In the 1952 book “The Irvine Ranch” by Robert Glass Cleland, he writes:

“In 1846, when Pio Pico’s governorship and the Mexican regime came to a simultaneous end in California, the two brothers, Pio and Andres, were among the three or four largest landowners in the state. Like [Jose Andres] Sepulveda, they were also passionately devoted to horse racing and indulged quite as freely as Don Jose in the reckless wagers of the time.”

Cleland quotes Thomas D. Mott, one of the spectators of the race:

“No preparations were made to put the track in condition, and not much of the race outside of start and finish was seen, as mustard on both sides of the road was ten feet high. The length of the course was nine miles, or more properly speaking, three Spanish leagues .... Everybody in the country was present and the whole country as far north as San Luis Obispo and south to San Diego was depopulated. They all came to see the great race.”

Robert Glass Cleland continues:

“The wagers included ‘$25,000 in cash, ... 500 horses, 500 mares, 500 heifers, 500 calves and 500 sheep’ to the great chagrin and impoverishment of the Picos and the many other backers of the stallion, the mare [Black Swan] won the race by some 75 yards.”

Quite a race, I wish I had seen it. But it is always something as Cleland writes:

“After the victory, Sepulveda bought Black Swan and took her back to the Rancho San Joaquin. There the mare stepped on a nail, contracted lockjaw and died.”

GENE FELDER