By

From One World to Another Last Saturday we pulled into Shady Lane RV Camp just north of Barstow looking for the road to Fort Irwin. This was just one of the moments on this trip when I wondered why we had left the blue skies and cool ocean breezes of Laguna to take on a desert...

Some Gave All The mayor is usually asked to give a speech at the Monument Point Memorial Day ceremony in Heisler Park.  In 1994 I was mayor so that request came to me. “What to say?” I wondered. “Here I am in this wonderful city, safe, with the worst attacks being verbal ones....

Bully Beef “Southerly gales, squalls, lee rail under water, wet bunks, hard tack, bully beef, wish you were here, instead of me.” This was writer and adventurer Richard Halliburton’s last message as his Chinese junk, The Sea Dragon, battled a typhoon somewhere near Midway...

Standing Up for the Trail Ever wonder how people traveled along the coast before Coast Highway was built in 1926?  There was the old Coast Road.  William Wendt painted his well-known painting of it near Rockledge in 1916. The dirt wagon road wound its way along the coast...

Gone Fishin’ We missed him when he was gone for just a few days on one of his fishing or camping trips.  Now we’ll have to make do without him forever. Morrie Granger died suddenly on Monday, April 9.  We are left wondering how we will cope without his daily visits with Rocky,...

Craving for Community: Park Plaza Taking action to improve our town is key to our heritage and essential to the character of Laguna. The “Laguna character” in this case is not outward appearance of quaint buildings we associate with our town. Here I am referring to our internal...

Garden by the Sea Arbor Day was an occasion to celebrate and ponder what trees and landscaping contribute to our lives–and to inspire us to do much more. Laguna Beach can be a “Garden by the Sea.” We are well on our way, but we need to do more to make our town a garden....

Loving it More by Doing Less The downtown has been getting a lot of attention for years now. This beloved heart of our city is considered by many to be the “gold standard” in exemplifying what a small city’s center should be. Yet we are agonizing about how and what to protect in...

A Town for the Ageless Just when I was so disillusioned—thinking that our younger and older generations were never going to connect, I was inspired. I was listening to our local radio station KX 93.5 driving back home from downtown. I love to hear the conversation on th...

Moderating an Overreach The day after the Coast Inn hearing last week at the City Council here was this surprise email from one of the testifiers who had urged approval of the project the night before, “I actually wish I could take back my statement about building the Coast Inn...

The Importance of Horseradish Did you get one of those fancy cars with the bow on top for Christmas? Or some of that kiss-worthy jewelry? Or a just-what-I-wanted video game adventure? To no one’s surprise none of these appeared either in my driveway or under my tree. Instead...

Ever have a dream of being a struggling passenger cast overboard in a stormy sea, frantically trying to grasp the edges of a lifeboat—only to have someone already aboard push your hands back over the edge? That’s the position Laguna seems to be in as we strive to preserve the...

Puncturing a Community Dream Destruction and death can happen in an instant, while growth and improvement can take years of effort and investment. In the midst of the Great Depression, Elmer Crawford, William Crockett Watkins, and Dan Rowlands of the South Coast Improvement...

It’s Just the Perception The truth of the matter is something else again. How do urban legends/false perceptions live on? Do people really believe false statements if they are said often enough? The past elections proved that they do, but somehow I thought Laguna would be...

  Something Missing Here? My neighbor mentioned that the utility company was concerned about her palm tree growing up closer and closer to the wires that run along Second Avenue. I suggested that soon the utilities might be undergrounded and then the Canary Island da...