MAILBAG - Nov. 2, 2006

Firefighters’ mailer gave wrong

I am writing in response to the mailer produced by the Laguna Beach Firefighters Public Awareness Group, which, without my permission, included a photograph of me with one of the candidates. To the many who have contacted me, and I am sure to others, this flier implied that I am a supporter of Kelly Boyd.

While I am no longer an official spokesperson for the League of Women Voters, I was known as “Ms. League” in this community for a number of years until our very able Linda Brown assumed that role.

To protect the integrity of the league, I have never publicly supported or opposed candidates for city elections, and I continue not to. The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan organization pledged to supporting good government. Good government includes clean elections.

Should the members of the community imply that integrity is more important to the League of Women Voters than it is to the Public Awareness Group of the Laguna Beach Firefighters?

JEAN RAUN

Laguna Beach

Ted Taylor writings relevant to all

A giant among us has fallen. Ted Taylor, author of “The Cay” and “Timothy of The Cay” among other books, has died, his writing pen stilled. But even with his death, he will live on. Generations of children have read his stories; more generations will read him still.

People will tell you that “The Cay” was and is a great children’s book. It is that, but more. He wrote to all levels, all ages, all peoples. His values of courage and fierce tolerance made him a relevant force and make him even more relevant today.

He and I were colleagues more than friends. Years ago, I served on the writing scholarship jury for the Festival of Arts. After I stepped down, I was replaced by Ted Taylor. It was like a giant replacing a pigmy. As the years passed, we would meet where old geezers meet — at the pharmacy counter of Sav-on, now CVS, to swap stories of our various ailments.

He was a writer who made time for readers. My granddaughter Chelsea told me she was writing a book report on a novel, “The Cay,” by somebody named Theodore Taylor. I asked her if she would like me to hand the report to Ted after she received it back from her teacher. Chelsea was stunned to find out I knew somebody as great as the author of “The Cay.”

After I gave Ted her report, he responded, and he and Chelsea kept up a pen-pal relationship until the end. He was a generous soul.

Now I think we have to make time for him. An event, a reading, something involving kids.

Meanwhile, we have his books as the best memorial.

ARNOLD HANO

Laguna Beach

City can’t be trusted with coastal plan

Re: Question of the week, “Should the Coastal Commission have the final say on development of properties with watercourses?”

I am loathe to cede the final say on local matters to any state entity. But, unfortunately, the city of Laguna Beach cannot be counted upon to enforce the local coastal plan. Until it can, we will have to depend on the vigilance of our community and the Coastal Commission.

PAMELA MIDDLEBROOK

Laguna Beach

Hopes to live to enjoy senior center

I’ve been a resident of Laguna Beach since 1968. Never did I dream that I’d be pleading with the planning commission 38 years after my arrival to speed up the building of the senior center.

I remember talking with a well-known city father in 2002. His question to me was, “Where is the senior center?”

For those who don’t know, our meeting place is the Legion Hall, built way back when. It has limited space and no conveniences. The American Legion owns the building and shares it with us and other community activities.

It’s time for all of us — the City Council, the city manager and seniors — to work together to get the Susi Q Senior Center built.

We have the location, the property and the architectural plans. Let’s get on with the job!

I’m almost 94. The stairs get steeper every time I climb them. With my major donation, I was hoping to see this center built. It surely will be a joy to play in the new card room. Will I make it?

KAY WHITAKER

Laguna Beach

City ignores concerns about mansions

Isn’t it ironic that our city officials, after having so cavalierly shrugged off residents’ concerns about the suitability of building a 21,000-square-foot residential warehouse in a sensitive coastal habitat area, are now protesting the reviewability of such permits by the Coastal Commission?

It is because of the unique Laguna Beach topography that this review is so critical. Multiply “thousands of projects” by 21,000 square feet.

The hyperbole notwithstanding, there is a lesson here; although local land-use plans may be given the authority to issue coastal development permits, they do not have the right to abuse that authority at will.

The California Coastal Act was enacted by the legislature for the people of California for a reason. That was to provide “long-term protection of our coastal environment for the benefit of current and future generations.”

Local land-use plans supposedly comport with that ethic. It is difficult to comprehend why the community development department and city manager fail to understand this rather simple principle.

Perhaps it is because they prefer to authorize the unrestricted destruction of sensitive coastal areas through the application of defective permit processing procedures, which favor the developer of the property at issue, rather than the community interest which they also, allegedly, represent.

It is a settled question as to what parameters define a stream. On that point the law is clear. The question raised is why the city never felt compelled to give that point even minimal consideration when issuing permits for development that contributed to this destruction as well as that of other protected coastal habitats.

If anyone is to be held accountable for the number of development projects now subject to appeal, it is the city and those who are paid to conduct its business — no matter how inadequately.

CINDALEE PENNEY HALL

Laguna Beach

Senior/community center revisited

The debate over the construction of a senior/community center on Third Street continues. There is a basic need for a senior/community center in Laguna, and the rational does not need to be repeated here. Those who have tirelessly worked for the development of the senior/community center need to be praised.

However, the many negatives voiced by Laguna residents about the current site and architecture of the proposed center do need to be repeated:

The one potential negative that I sadly see lacking is any mention of the loss of 14 cottages of diverse architectural styles and the loss of the 20 mature trees and vegetation that are on the site of the proposed center. It is surprising that at a time when the state is being praised for preserving the Crystal Cove cottages built in the late 1920s and early 1930s that the city of Laguna Beach would move to demolish 14 cottages of comparable age and architectural heritage.

Is Laguna to become a “village” in which only one of its downtown beach cottages is preserved on Ocean Avenue?

Laguna might want to look to La Jolla for inspiration for what to do with this site: Many of La Jolla’s historic houses are small and unassuming beach cottages built when La Jolla was a quiet artist community. However, rather than destroying all of these cottages, preservationists have created a “compound” of cottages a few blocks from the beach to preserve the architectural heritage of the town.

Walk Third Street, wander among the cottages and look at the street elevation of the proposed center. Examine how the mass of the proposed center opposite the imposing Hagan Center (an excellent re-use of an unfortunate industrial intrusion into the village center) will alter the scale of Third Street.

Rather than having diverse setbacks and rooflines of the existing cottages, the proposed center will create a nearly uniform facade within 15 feet of the sidewalk.

With the destruction of the cottages, the village will also lose 20 mature trees and vegetation that will be replaced by limited streetside landscaping. Isn’t the destruction of these 14 cottages to facilitate the construction of a 19,000-square-foot building comparable to the “mansionization” being fought in the residential neighborhoods of Laguna?

It is important to note that none of these criticisms say that the senior/community center should not be built. However, we as a community must examine the impact of the site selection and design of the facility will have upon our historic village.

Once the center is constructed, the village and its residents will have to live with the structure for many decades. If the site limits design characteristics and facility size, there is still time to step back and revisit the discussion of where the center should be located.

We should not let the momentum of having an April 2007 groundbreaking result in the destruction of a historic neighborhood and the construction of a senior/community center that many may not find appealing for activities.

CRAIG BENEDETTI

Laguna Beach

Lawbreaking leads to lawlessness

The first thing to remember about David Peck and the cross-cultural council is that they propose, defend and create lawbreaking. We should not be surprised, therefore, when lawbreaking follows them wherever they go. They have provoked lawbreaking acts since they first showed up to promote the Laguna day worker center.

The center is located on property illegally taken from Cal Trans. The so called “day laborers” are predominately illegal aliens who lack authorization to work in the United States. They have been illegally enticed to illegally enter our country for a chance to obtain illegal employment.

Peck and his employees are violating federal law at every turn. Federal law makes it illegal to hire, recruit or refer an alien without verifying their eligibility for employment. Federal law also forbids providing government-funded services to illegal aliens. This, too, is being done in the form of English-language instruction. They are flagrantly in violation of Federal law, which forbids harboring or aiding and abetting illegal aliens. The list of laws being broken there goes on and on.

Peck is incapable of defending the charges leveled against the Laguna day worker center because what is going on there is irrefutably in violation of federal law. So he instead attacks his attackers. He hysterically rants against the Minutemen as being violent and hateful. He distorts facts and twists truths. He has become desperate.

Laguna Beach must shut down the day worker center immediately. Stop the lawbreaking now!

LARRY CULBERTSON

San Juan Capistrano