MAILBAG - Sept. 29, 2006

School neighbors seek respite

The neighbors of Laguna Beach High School agree with board member El Hathaway to keep the high school an educational facility. Please, give the kids, the campus and we, the neighbors, a break over the winter holiday and deny filming on campus.

Our once quiet neighborhood in the summer months now is flooded with followers of the “Laguna Beach” MTV show: picture-taking and driving up and down our once quiet streets in July and August. Please allow us a few weeks of peace over the winter holiday.

TRACI PEDERSEN

Laguna Beach

MTV has cheapened Laguna Beach

Thank you for your report on this summer’s increased volume of visitor traffic, oddly coupled with reduced patronage for our traditional tourism and art festival related businesses. The Coastline Pilot and the Laguna Beach Police Department correctly identified a significant increase in teenage visitors attracted by the MTV program as a part of the change we are seeing in our town.

Stores that sell disposable cameras, T-shirts and chewing gum may benefit because we have become a pop culture mecca, but we all know the sidewalks downtown feel a little more like Knott’s Berry Farm than the more casual and eclectic Laguna Beach summer crowd of years gone by.

People who buy into Laguna but don’t earn a living here may think the MTV buzz makes life here more glamorous, but those who make a living in town and who have raised kids here know the latest hype does not improve the quality of life for our kids or our town.

More than a year ago, I wrote a commentary noting, “We always had a robust tourist season because people saw value in what we do, who we are, and where we live. Now we have a lot of people coming to see and be seen where the MTV show is staged. We have been cheapened, and in the long run it will not really sustain us to prosper or thrive, it just degrades and diminishes what those before us took such care to cultivate.”

In that 2005 editorial, I also noted that school board members Bob Whalen and El Hathaway were the strongest supporters of doing the MTV program at Laguna Beach High School. Even though Dr. K Turner called MTV “sleaze,” Hathaway agreed with former Principal [Nancy] Blade that an MTV production on campus would be a “positive opportunity” for students.

Even after the community said “no way,” and school board members Jan Vickers, Betsy Jenkins and Turner killed the secret MTV deal, Whalen encouraged involvement of Laguna Beach High School kids in the show, and stood by as MTV filmed graduation in Irvine Bowl, a school-controlled activity.

Laguna Beach High School and Laguna Beach will survive the “MTV effect,” but the lesson is we should not elect school board members or City Council members who do not understand how important our traditions and character are to sustaining the identity and local economy of our town over the long term.

HOWARD HILLS

Laguna Beach

Need protection from day laborers

Should there be security at the Laguna day labor site? The only ones who are in need of security are the residents of Laguna Beach.

Most homeowners in this area spend thousands of dollars to protect their homes with security systems and homeowners’ insurance. Good parents drive their kids to school and watch them enter safely through the gates. Every protection one can take to secure our homes and family is taken. Why then would anyone pick up one of these workers and bring them into their lives?

The transient workers who use the site most likely have broken our laws by sneaking into our country. They possibly are using fraudulent identification and fake names. There are no background checks done for criminal warrants or sexual offenders. If an incident were to happen it would be close to impossible to track them down.

Contractors who use these types of workers do so in order to circumvent paying taxes and other expenses required by law. Day labor sites encourage lawbreaking.

I say if there is security at the site their primary goal should be checking workers’ legal status and that employers are abiding by the laws of this country.

EILEEN GARCIA

Laguna Beach

Gender politics don’t get his vote

Thank you City Council candidates and former League of Woman Voters’ president Linda Brown for your letters in last week’s paper seeking a positive City Council campaign. We all look forward to a campaign that discusses the issues and the expertise and experience each candidate will bring to the office if elected.

I would also hope the reference to gender that has appeared in some election material will also be curtailed. To imply that just by being of a particular gender would make one a more eligible candidate is ridiculous and suggests that the electorate is so unsophisticated that they would vote gender over quality.

In the recent past, most candidates’ election material has been positive and the very negative and nasty stuff has come from independent groups. We all remember the last election when folks from Arbitech sent out those despicable mailers calling themselves “Citizens for Good, Honest Government and Civility in Local Politics, and Therefore Against Wayne Baglin.” And if my memory serves me right, the Montage Resort contributed $15,000 toward those most uncivil mailers.

Then there were the “Laguna Mobile Park” mailers. These usually show up at every election late in the campaign and are filled with half truths and nasty innuendoes. These mailers are purposely and very cleverly delivered late in the election cycle so that the targeted candidate does not have time before election day to refute them.

With the new declaration of civility that each candidate has taken, I for one am looking forward to a campaign where we can concentrate on what is relevant and true. Where we can ask questions of the candidates about previous public policy positions, votes and affiliations and where the answers will be their own and not made up by someone with an ax to grind and found in a hit piece.

TOM GIRVIN

Laguna Beach

Nature’s glory unfolding

It’s this time of year when a sudden and subtle shift in the weather comes to us all in Laguna. The giant sycamores at Big Bend have yet to turn their golden hue, but the deer are out and about, close to the road feeding on the falling acorns. I have had several sightings of osprey downtown and many at Crystal Cove, and there’s a barn owl hanging out at Top of the World.

There was a feeding frenzy in the water at Heisler [Park] the other early morning with pelicans, cormorants, gulls and terns dive-bombing the water and scooping up great mouthfuls of fish — sightings that sometimes elude us.

Maybe it’s the busy lives we lead, maybe it’s the busy town we live in during the summer, but if only we better understood what it all means.

I bet the Shoshone-speaking Indians who lived here before us, and who were so much more connected to the natural earth, watched and waited for these happenings; it signaled special meaning to them that we have lost. So, when stuck in traffic, please watch for the glorious turning of the syca- more leaves on the big trees at Big Bend and feel the gentle power and peace of nature.

CHARLOTTE MASARIK

Laguna Beach

Church a good neighbor

As neighbors of St. Catherine Catholic Church, I lived within two blocks of the church remodeling project. Yes, it is inconvenient when a neighbor does construction even when it’s desperately needed. But the church was a concerned neighbor that worked within set hours and tried to lessen the impact on neighbors. The end result has been a beautiful place of worship that kept the original scale of the church, improved parking and provided peaceful walking gardens for the neighborhoods to enjoy.

The St. Catherine Catholic School facility now must be modernized. The new facility will no doubt complement its surroundings as the new remodeled church has improved mine.

PENNY SMITH

Laguna Beach

School does not deserve criticism

As a parent and resident of Laguna Beach, I can’t understand why the renovation of St. Catherine Catholic School has become such an issue of contention, and why people who do not even know what the school is trying to accomplish feel the need to comment negatively.

The first and most important misconception which should be clarified is that the school is not trying to increase the student population. We are not asking to increase the number of students already allowed by the current conditional use permit.

We are only asking that our children be allowed the same high level of standards that the students of El Morro, Top of the World, Thurston and Laguna Beach High enjoy today. That of a safe and code-compliant school with an adequate gymnasium, outdoor playground and specialty labs.

It is a fact that all four Laguna Beach District schools have been updated and/or renovated in the past eight years. During the construction phase of those facilities, they too experienced traffic delays, as we will. Why should St. Catherine’s School be subject to unnecessary scrutiny? We have completed all the requested and required studies, and have already been approved by the Planning Commission for both the conditional use permit and design review.

We, the parents and local Catholic community, have raised the money needed to update our 50-year-old campus. This is absolutely necessary for the safety and success of our children. Why is that a bad thing? We just want the same that any parent wants for their child — a safe and comfortable environment that is conducive to learning.

I am certain the gnatcatcher will be taken care of, as well as any environmental issues. We all care very much about the well-being of the environment. The education that these kids receive at St. Catherine’s is a good one, and they are good kids that love their school and do not deserve to be punished for choosing a Catholic education. So please, realize that St. Catherine’s is an asset to the Laguna Beach community and in no way a deficit.

ANNE MACGRAW

Laguna Beach

Students appreciate the flag

Several weeks ago, our students were shown in a photo in the Coastline Pilot saying the Pledge of Allegiance and singing “America the Beautiful” at morning assembly. It seems that particular morning, our flag of the United States was unfolded by children in reverse.

Laguna Beach resident James Law, a retired U.S. Marine Corps veteran and an active member of the American Legion, came to our school to present us with a flag, an American Legion booklet on flag etiquette and to thank us for our commitment to a morning Pledge of Allegiance to our flag.

Love of god and also our country are core values taught at St. Catherine’s of Siena Catholic School. We appreciate the American Legion’s service to our community as well as our country.

PATRICIA PREROST

Principal, St. Catherine

of Siena Catholic School

Protect laborers from irate taxpayers

Here is my answer to the Coastline question, “Should security be provided at the Day Labor Center?”

Of course it should. No amount of tax payer money is too much to spend for us to provide protection for mostly illegal aliens sitting on illegal land using water and facilities (provided by taxpayers) to maybe get picked up by greedy contractors breaking federal laws by hiring illegals so that both the employer and illegal alien can break more laws by not paying taxes etc.

After all, these 10 to 50, (mostly young and strong) day laborers at the day labor site are in real danger in case one or two taxpaying citizens happens to get mad and attack them once every five years or so. Remember, nothing is too expensive or silly for politicians when they are spending other people’s money.

DAVE CONNELL

Laguna Beach