Out of the Blue: New mayor’s words are music to my ears
Happy new year, Laguna! By now you have probably made a significant contribution to our landfill. The holidays are the last Hail Mary by corporate America to wring every last penny out of us. When it comes to consumption, we’re No. 1.
Do you suffer from PCD — post-consumption depression? Are you addled and listless from mowing down so much sugar? It’s time to look ahead to the plethora of weight-loss ads we will now see.
In Laguna there’s a cure for PCD. Step outside. Look around. Take a deep breath. And recall how epic December was. Mostly sunny with little wind. Water warm enough to trunk it. Fabulous freaking sunsets served daily. Even the hillsides were emerald again — if only for a minute. Pure bliss, this town.
The tourists knew as well and were here to be happily separated from their money. Hey, we need to get ours too. But we don’t like the congestion, a stark reminder that we are becoming more and more a year-round destination.
Some in this town object to the crowds and believe that Laguna must remain a village, resistant to change. They want it the way it was, when the city was scaled for its time, when there was plenty of road for the cars.
Unfortunately, that ship has sailed. We are an international destination that has outgrown it’s carrying capacity.
We need to be forward-thinking about how to move people without sheet metal, and how to secure our future in the face of so much uncertainty. We can still be custodians of Laguna’s marvelous past. Preservation and progress are not mutually exclusive.
As the mayor of multimodal Paris said, “We need to keep moving forward or we risk becoming a museum.”
Our mayor in Laguna, Bob Whalen, is speaking of progress too. He wants to underground the power lines, not only in the canyon but the whole city. He wants to add a protected bike-and-hike corridor on Laguna Canyon Road that invites residents to our open space and offers visitors to a more practical way to enter. That’s progress and preservation — of lives.
But Whalen doesn’t want to stop there. Caltrans and the Orange County Transportation Authority are currently studying how to improve safety and traffic flow on Coast Highway from San Clemente to Seal Beach. And Whalen wants to put a plan in front of them to encourage the imagining of something magical and evolutionary for our stretch of the road.
He knows that the people “who make the most noise with the most coherent plan” usually get the money. And we have the analytics to warrant it. According to data compiled by the California Office of Traffic Safety, we’re the most dangerous pedestrian town for our size in the state.
Whalen envisions a multimodal road that possibly includes a bike lane and an express transit lane for full-time trolleys. He also thinks we need a cultural and performing arts center to showcase our visual, theatrical and musical artists. And guess where? At the village entrance.
Whalen’s right. Now that we’ve congratulated ourselves for stopping the garage, it’s time to consider the best use for this prized parcel. Why keep it a parking lot when it could be so iconic, fill such a void and provide such cultural sustenance to our community?
For those stuck in the belief that we should keep it the way to is but just add some landscaping, that’s not preservation. That’s fossilization.
And while we’re at it, let’s close downtown to cars to make it more livable. Or at least test some of the streets, which is what Whalen wants to do. Forest Avenue, Ocean Avenue, it’s time for your close-up.
We could test them both for a year and pull the experiment if it isn’t working. Like Michael Bloomberg did to much success when he was mayor of New York City.
I get the feeling Whalen might be the guy to get it done. He’s served Laguna for decades and knows we are a vocal and polarizing lot. That’s why he assembled a task force of 19 stakeholders for the Laguna Canyon Road plan. He knows to get things vetted at the front end by the community.
He’s thoughtful and reserved, but I suspect there’s a Bloomberg lurking inside. Just watch him perform as mayor. He’s succinct, pushes things along and has no tolerance for boorish behavior. When his face gets a little red, don’t get in his crosshairs.
Bob makes me bullish about our future.
So merry Christmas and happy 2015 — it’s gonna be a Whalen of a year!
BILLY FRIED has a radio show on KX93.5 from 8 to 10 p.m. Thursdays called “Laguna Talks.” He is the chief experience officer of La Vida Laguna and member of the board of Transition Laguna. He can be reached at billy@lavidalaguna.com.