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Sometimes the Answer is ‘No’ Last week, the Planning Commission made “No” very clear to the Coast Inn applicants who sought a roof deck and other large additions in the context of a historic restoration to the 1930s hotel. This project sells itself as a historical restoration of...

Take Your Photos Now The pepper tree in front of City Hall will be cut down to a 12-foot height next week, city public works director, Shohreh Dupuis announced at Tuesday’s council meeting. Don’t say no one told you this was going to happen. Now is the time to get one last look...

  We want to hang onto old friends as long as we can, but inevitably they go beyond our grasp or we go beyond theirs. This weekend there was a little gathering for an old friend who had moved on, finding another path in life, and finally dying after a long illness. Those who...

Preservation Paralysis After months of hearings on a revised historic preservation ordinance, the heritage committee and the design review board agreed on an approach that would allow more flexibility in historic property review and integrate California Environmental Quality Act...

The Best Cat Ever My friend Jane who lives in Pasadena has a cat named Lola. When they picked her out at the shelter, Lola rubbed up against the cage, purred and generally gave the impression of a really lovable cat who would sit on your lap and act like she likes you. It was all...

Heeding the Call “My grandfather fought in Turkey to regain Armenian lands. He was lucky to get out of that battle alive and get back to America. Telling the story years later he handed me his gun and sword and declared, ‘You will get the call to defend Armenia.’ ” Laguna Beach...

Dilemma Lingers On How do we solve our downtown dilemma: finding a way to foster our traditional small downtown within the changing economics of retail? Thanks for the thoughtful responses to this question I posed in my last column. Respondents have opened the door to more...

Seeking a Traditional-Contemporary Downtown Blend My Aunt Margaret begged before Christmas, “Don’t get me anything!” To her the important part of the holiday was getting together with the family for a nice meal. As a child I just couldn’t understand not wanting gifts for...

Not Like Every Other Place “It seems to me that being quirky and non-conforming is essential to what we like about Laguna. It’s not like every other place, and we love it because of that, ” mused a Laguna Canyon resident who has been attending the city’s neighborhood planning...

We Have Everything We Need Neighbor and fellow landscape architect Sally Dunne had stage four cancer for years. Surgeries, chemotherapy, bone marrow transplants bought her time. Always cheerful and beautiful—even though bald—she’d walk past our house with her large black poodle...

Not Even Noticing   The ultimate in not being racist is to not even notice. My neighbor and office assistant Ann Henry told me about a video of a kindergartner who asked his mom for a new, very short haircut. He wanted his hair to match his friend’s exactly. “That way our...

So Much Fun Ahead On Monday we all gathered for a mini potluck, saying farewell to one of our most dedicated and endearing gardeners. She and her husband are soon moving to Australia. She’ll be close to her family where job opportunities have opened up and housing costs are...

Who is Behind those Doors? When we walk our neighborhoods we see house after interesting house. Laguna Beach is unique in southern California. You could walk our streets all day and never see two houses the same.   They make our walks and drives through town all the more...

Time to Repurpose a Landmark In the summer of 2009 my brothers and I, spouses and kids went back to our Wisconsin hometown for our mother’s graveside service. It was a trip of memories, not only of her, but of our childhoods with her and my dad, growing up on the family farm just...

Holding Hands This is my 301st Village Matters column. I started these in 2004 at the request of former Indy editor Stu Saffer when Arnold Hano decided to stop writing “The Village Character” column. At first I was reluctant. Hano is a professional and famous writer, I am just a...