Mailbag: Village Laguna supports Zur Schmiede, Iseman but not as a slate

Planning Commissioner Rob Zur Schmiede is concerned that Village Laguna’s support of his candidacy along with Councilwoman Toni Iseman’s might be interpreted to mean that they were running as a slate. We want to clarify that our support does not create a slate.

Village Laguna is recommending two candidates for Laguna voters to support. It does not imply that Iseman and Zur Schmiede have chosen each other to run as a team.

We’d like to explain what our endorsements are about.

Given Village Laguna’s 40-plus-year history of fighting for our village, many Lagunans look to us for information that will help them make their decisions in city elections. We take seriously our responsibility to keep them informed.

This year, after a forum including all seven candidates held at City Hall on Aug. 25, a meeting of the general membership was held to compare the candidates’ platforms with our values and decide which ones to support. Those present voted overwhelmingly to support Zur Schmiede and Iseman as the best exemplars of those values.

In particular, we chose Zur Schmiede because of his record of dealing with residents’ issues as a Design Review board member and a planning commissioner, his thoughtfulness, and his firm grasp of what makes Laguna the place we love to live in. We want to spread the word about him among Lagunans who share our objective of preserving the city’s unique village character.

Our support in no way threatens the independence that he so values. We’re confident that his independent thinking is going to be good for the city. We’re working for his success, and we encourage Lagunans to vote for him and Toni Iseman in November.

Ginger Osborne

President, Village Laguna

*

Bike fun for some is costly for others

What ever happened to common sense? Oh yeah, it was destroyed by political correctness and environmental extremism.

The latest example of this is the designating of portions of our badly needed, over-crowed roadways just so some folks can ride their bikes around. As each new rule to make life easier and safer for these recreational riders is enacted, they get bolder and more demanding.

There are problems with running stop signs, riding in huge herds, riding abreast instead of in-line, often crossing over the space allotted them, no lights in the dark on too many. Incidentally, most of the roads are largely paid for by taxes on cars and fuel, so it’s about time there should be a usage tax applied to bicycle riders.

Dave Connell

Laguna Beach

*

City still no help to businesses

I was away for two weeks visiting two cities working hard to attract and grow their business base. Returning, I have found that once again Laguna Beach has turned its back on businesses in our community.

Seems that a business like the Mozambique is too big for Laguna’s “largely a quiet residential area.” Strange, I thought that the restaurant was located in a commercial zone, not a residential zone.

Along with the observation that it is “largely a quiet residential area” residents want more parking. Also, reopening a dining space would exacerbate unnamed problems that haven’t actually been solved by nameless persons. The answer is in the wind? Who’s looking for answers?

Unsaid is that residents are part of the problem because many have abandoned their garages, i.e., parking spots, in favor of a bedroom or rec room. Also unsaid is that the city has been absent of any planning for expanded public parking while they fiddle away saving a digester that is lost in antiquity. Once again it is the business’s fault that the public has not been served. Forget about the city that collects their taxes.

Then again, the Planning Commission city said no on Sept. 10 to parking lifts on the basis that they would be ugly. Truly an astounding observation. Rejecting additional parking utilizing an approach accepted around the world as a parking solution because they are not pretty. Where are our artists that could make them artistically relevant — for a commission of course.

But the whopper of them all was when Planning Commissioner Ken Sadler voted against rooftop dining for Rock’n Fish at the Heisler building because doing so would allow the business owners to make a profit. If it isn’t the Planning Commission’s role to solicit and approve profitable businesses, then where does responsibility reside?

Not residents living in the past, they want dime stores that went bankrupt decades ago. Residents of the future don’t, they just use FedX and UPS (the two best resident-serving businesses in town) to deliver their internet purchases.

Nothing like a vacation from insanity to pep you up.

Dennis Myers

Laguna Beach