Editor,
Imagine you were visiting Laguna with your family and you opened the paper to read about “Our beloved pepper tree,” how the city is in a “current crisis…” according to the column “take your last photos now!” Due to pressures from a known minority political group, the City Council was entertaining options of putting the public safety at risk by doing nothing, cloning the tree for $15,000, replacing it for $30,000, or cutting it back and injecting it with “something expensive.”
They have spent countless amounts of taxpayer money on arborists, consultants and spent hours on debates. I guess we are so disconnected from real world issues and so flushed with money that we have forgotten what a “crisis” is and the value of the dollar. Imagine what $30,000 could do to improve this community. Homelessness, degraded sewer systems, natural disasters are all potential crises. Almost every day we hear of another real crisis, including the recent devastating wildfires throughout our state.
If we don’t focus on real problems in our city, one day this pompous fairytale bubble will pop and be replaced with worse tragedies than a tree that has reached maturity.
John Trevino, Laguna Beach
