From Canyon To Cove: Reliving scribbles throughout the year

“Fast away the old year passes.”

— Deck the Hall,

traditional Yuletide carol

This being my last column of 2009, it’s a good time to look back and see what I wrote about over the past year. This is the best type of column to write, because I have been able to pursue any topic that seems important or that tickles my fancy.

I started out the year by exploring the plight of businesses sued for thousands of dollars in damages under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for failing to have accommodations for the disabled. Some of my best columns are those that come from people in distress who are seeking relief. In this case, I don’t think relief was forthcoming; but exposing the need of small businesses to be proactive — to put up signs and accommodate wheelchairs, for instance — was a good public service.

After that first column, I had to change the column name from Lumberyard Logs because we closed up our office at the Lumberyard Mall. This was pretty unsettling at the time, and I followed that up with a column about my new home office and its ups and downs. Looking back, I have to report that I can’t complain; it’s pretty sweet working from home, even though I do miss the quaint Lumberyard. That has been somewhat remedied, however, since we hold most of our editorial staff meetings at the Coffee Pub.

In February, under the new name “From Canyon to Cove,” I took on the state budget impasse, from which we are still suffering the effects, with continuing deficits, employee furloughs and a general malaise so uncharacteristic of this state. An editorial board meeting with state Sen. Tom Harman prompted this, because Harman seemed completely unconcerned about the fact that he was one of a handful of Republicans holding up the budget — and for no good reason that I could see.

The next column was one of many I have written before and since about homeless issues. As a Santa Monica transplant, I feel that I deserve an honorary doctorate in homelessness, so it’s not hard to get me started on this subject.

The local economy was the topic in March, as the mayor and city officials were trying to figure out how to keep the city solvent and businesses afloat — especially with the state poised to grab funding to balance its own books.

A pinching incident on St. Patrick’s Day at the police department led to a column on the peculiarities of covering the crime beat in a small town like Laguna Beach, where one can be on a first-name basis (even a nickname basis) with the chief of police one day, and then be covering a grisly murder the next. (FYI, former Chief of Police Michael F. Sellers used to call me “dead-eye dick” because I aced the shooting range during citizen’s academy training.)

As spring rolled around, I began to gather steam on the interesting confluence between the demise of the Boom Boom Room and the collapse of the national economy. The link was gay activist Fred Karger, who has been trying to convince Boom property owner Steven Udvar-Hazy to return the iconic bar to its gay roots, while Udvar-Hazy’s firm AIG was being bailed out by the federal government. OK, in hindsight maybe this wasn’t a rock-solid link, but it made for an interesting column.

In May, I took the opportunity of an invite to “ground zero” in the above-mentioned national economic collapse — which coincidentally involved AIG (see, there is a link!) — in the form of a big meeting of the “meetings industry” at the soon-to-be-foreclosed-upon St. Regis Monarch Beach. I had no idea at the time that there was such a thing as a “meetings industry,” but I found out there is, and that its difficulties is one of the reasons the economy still sputters along vapidly. It all started when wet-behind-the-ears President Barack Obama chastised AIG for holding a lavish meeting and pampering employees at the St. Regis, and big corporations just stopped doing meetings, and Vegas collapsed. Or that was the story they were telling at the big “meetings industry” meeting that day.

Because I cannot resist a juicy story — and who can? — I then had to write a column about the battle over the control of Hush restaurant, one of the city’s hippest spots, whose owners were embroiled in a nasty custody fight with their new landlord. This landlord turned out to be none other than international financier Danny Pang, who committed suicide later in the year after being accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of financial shenanigans. I guess that stopped the lawsuits from flying over the fate of Hush, because the ownership is still intact. By the way, Pang never returned my calls.

In June, at the behest of my former editor, Brady Rhoades, I wrote in detail about my Connecticut wedding to my longtime lesbian partner. I’m still a bit mortified about having a front-page wedding announcement, but most folks in Laguna didn’t seem to mind, and the column was a hit on the Internet.

As summer wended its way in Laguna, I traipsed over to an open house at the Villa Rockledge, where I gasped and gaped and took a ton of photos of this beautiful and historic property. This must have made an impression on the high-end real estate industry because I started getting invitations to open houses at mansions in the area, which weren’t of any interest to me at all.

In July, I tackled the touchy topic of the changing of the Laguna Beach High School mascot name from the Artists to Breakers, a still-simmering dispute with no official resolution in sight.

As summer wore on, I got hot under the collar when some of our news racks were ordered removed from downtown Laguna by city officials. This column actually had some results: The news stand offered to put up a rack for all the freebie newspapers in town.

In August, I wrote about our efforts to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock Music Festival with a gathering of fellow Woodstock alumni. The gathering wasn’t as successful as I had hoped, but I did touch base with some Woodstockians who had great stories to tell and we videotaped them for the website. Since then a few Lagunans have approached me and admitted they were at Woodstock but didn’t really want anyone to know. Having heard the stories from the other Woodstock alumni, I understood their point of view.

In September, I wrote about my first snorkeling excursion in Laguna Beach.

This turned out to be extremely educational in light of the soon-to-explode controversy over the proposed marine reserve covering the city’s coastline from end to end.

After the snorkeling success, I dipped my hands in another Laguna-esque experience — a mandala class. I spent an afternoon at Laguna Canyon Artists Studios talking paint and brushes and Van Gogh with real artists.

By November, it was back to business with a column about the homeless shelter at the ACT V parking lot, which I previewed just before it opened. Spartan, to be sure, but I was impressed by the caring expertise of those running it.

Business itself was the topic of the next column, prompted by the city’s Long-term Business Assistance Committee’s efforts to make new businesses feel more welcome to open up shop in Laguna.

It’s a good thought, but as I learned, there are systemic problems that many business owners feel city officials are ignoring, such as permitting, parking and signage issues.

Same-sex marriage returned to my thoughts in December, with the launching of a local effort to repeal Proposition 8.

And, as they say, that’s all she wrote!

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and Happy New Year.

CINDY FRAZIER is city editor of the Coastline Pilot. She can be contacted at (949) 380-4321 or [email protected].