Editorial:

We’re closing the book on 2009. It was a rich and varied 12 months for Huntington Beach, and our front-page centerpiece for this issue is the top 10 stories of the last year — from the possible annexation of Sunset Beach to the Golden Bear reunion to the ongoing flaps over the senior center and the Downtown Specific Plan.

But as we know, any community has its missteps as well. So as the year draws to a close, the Independent presents the following Dubious Achievement Awards for 2009:

The Instant Karma’s Gonna Get You Award goes to the people, whoever they are, who defrauded the Taste of Huntington Beach of more than $11,000 by printing and selling counterfeit tickets to the culinary event. It was a cheap act, but even more lamentable considering the proceeds were meant for the local children’s library and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Huntington Valley. However, we salute those people in the community, many of them anonymous, who donated funds to cut the loss.

The Proof That We Still Need Feminism Award goes to the organizers of the Hurley U.S. Open of Surfing, who bestowed a record $100,000 on the men’s champion of the July competition — compared with $10,000 for the women’s champion. The organizers noted that the women’s prize was the biggest it’s ever been, but since they have power to dictate the amounts, we strongly suggest that they make the winners’ checks equal in 2010. Either that, or take a cue from Jan and Dean and give prizes to two girls for every boy.

The Where’s Robin Hood When You Need Him? Award goes to City Councilman Devin Dwyer, who announced in October that if the city didn’t change its policy on ticketing parked cars during street sweeping, he would shred up his 12th — yes, 12th — ticket on the dais and resign from the council. In the end, the city didn’t budge, and Dwyer backed down, depriving Huntington Beach of what surely would have been its most entertaining political moment of the year.

The Shady Entrepreneurs of the Future Award goes to the parents and students who bought early tickets to the Bell Game, then sold them for exorbitant amounts on Craigslist. The annual football game between Edison and Fountain Valley high schools is a major community event, which meant plenty of parents ending up shelling out $55 for adult tickets that were supposed to go for $8. For the students who dreamed up a scheme like that: We give you an A for economics and a D for moral responsibility.

The Snub of the Year Award goes to Huntington Beach itself, which got left off Surfer magazine’s 2009 list of the 10 Best Surf Towns in America. Granted, the magazine’s editor-in-chief said the main reason Huntington was cut from the list was because it was too big to qualify as a “town.” But to us, that’s like taking the Louvre off a list of the top 10 art museums in Paris because it’s somewhat bigger than the Musée Picasso.

And of course, we’re not biased at all.