Editor,
My wife and I have lived in Laguna Beach for the 16 years and wish to express our frustration over the amount of trash that accumulates on Coast Highway within the city. Visitors/residents deposit a large variety of refuse and a relatively small number of individuals ever seem to pick any of it up. Our city sends out street sweepers, but the curb area of the roadway is most often so crowded with parked cars that these sweepers can’t gain access to the mess and it is left behind. This happens every week,
After a normal busy weekend when the crowds depart, a walk along Coast Highway will reveal trash from dirty diapers to syringes, soda cans to fast food wrappers. This along with the normal accumulation of leaves, sand, and dirt is then left until normal street sweeping can either get to it or until it rains and the material is washed into the storm drains and out to our beautiful ocean!
The city should set aside one day per week for street sweepers, which we are already paying for, to allow them to do their job. The program could be as simple as and making the west side of Coast Highway a no parking zone from 4 to 6 a.m. and the east side one from 6 to 8 a.m. Such a plan would allow the access for sweeping and force the repositioning of cars that are currently left on the street, in some cases, for extended periods of time. Another benefit would be the clearing of both sides of the downtown to allow sidewalk cleaning.
Dan Sugg, Laguna Beach
The Sugg’s suggestion is spot-on and applies to residential neighborhoods as well PCH. Anyone witnessing a 9 ton (empty) truck dancing the jig between parked cars would agree there is a safer more efficient way to allow a street-sweeper crew to do their job. Scheduling a “Sweep Day” by the City is long overdue, folks with on-street parking can easily accommodate the street crew for a 4-hour period say twice per month. This small inconvenience pays-back the community with cleaner streets and prevents trash from entering our yards. Maybe then Chip McDermott and Zero-Trash Laguna could take a Saturday off.