By

By Craig Lockwood, Special to the Independent During a gala event, Friday, Feb. 1, at Laguna’s College of Art and Design, college president Jonathan Burke recalled Laguna Beach artist and ceramist, Jane Callender, a valued contributor to the young college’s early origi...

Bored Review Design When we came to Laguna, the neighborhood welcome wagon put sticks and flags on our house. I asked, “What are those things for?” The Wagon’s self-appointed spokesman said, “It’s a local custom. Like bringing a pie over in other places.” “Oh, I like pie. Would...

Hypocrisy is what upsets me the most. I don’t care if you are a liberal or a conservative, the hypocrisy must stop. I’m proud of the Covington boys, the parents and their Catholic school. In his recent letter, Mark Dressler doesn’t correctly describe the events that lead the...

  No one wants to talk about traffic, because few really understand the problem. Traffic seems so complicated, that our hope remains that the city or another party will fix it somehow. I don’t know traffic, but I do know people. This winter, I have seen the impact of traffic...

At a Jan. 8 City Council meeting, during the consideration of an appeal from a Design Review Board decision, Councilmember Peter Blake, made the following comment: “I think the person who is building has every right to build whatever they want to build within the envelope. So, I...

It’s stunning that, while downtown retailers are looking to activate their streets and are using the word experience, City Council voted last Saturday to put Park Plaza on the back burner—the one no-brainer experience our community wants and needs. Back in March of last...

Dee Perry taught two of my children and ran for the school board to promote educational excellence for all Laguna Beach students while bringing an openness to the deliberations of the board. She single-handedly pushed to have board meetings videoed and streamed, giving the...

Sen. Klobuchar the One to Watch in 2020   Having left the comfort of Orange County to help produce a televised presidential debate from Des Moines in 1984, I know first-hand the significance of the Iowa caucus. This is why I say Sen. Amy Klobuchar, from neighboring...

Read the Personals READY FOR THE BIG ONE? I am a well-known survivalist who will help you learn the secrets of surviving the big one. I’ll supply you with all you need to live through disasters. My foods will last for years. Contact me. #SafeSecrets   ARE YOU INTOLERANT? Or, do...

Slip Sliding Away Whoosh goes kids down the slide. Whoosh goes $47,000 more taxpayer money down the slide with them. Recently, City Council voted unanimously to fix the Bluebird Park slide.  City Council members know that happy young bums are happy future voter bums sooner than...

Where is Village Laguna when our eucalyptus trees fall? Just this past week, Laguna was littered with eucalyptus branches and trees costing you, the citizens, who knows how much money in clean-up and damage. Several cars were crushed, houses damaged, and another bullet dodged...

If people are interested in more facts about early Laguna, here are some: When the first settlers arrived in the area we now call Laguna Beach, they were told in order to stake a claim, each claimant had to plant 40 trees—hence the somewhat good guess as to how many trees were...

Ann Christoph is an amazingly thoughtful and effective writer about issues important to Laguna Beach. In her most recent column, she so gracefully connected the fate of the small Wisconsin town and her grandparents’ farm of her childhood to the current situation in Laguna Beach....

  I am appalled at the way the School Board is treating Dee Perry. Two of my sons had Dee as their second-grade teacher and her entire focus has always been what was best for the children.  Nothing has changed in her attitude in the 25 years I have known her. Her reason for...

Give Abe His Day Back On Tuesday, Feb. 12, Laguna Beach’s four public schools will be in session. They should not be. That is the birthday of arguably our greatest president, Abraham Lincoln. I am old enough to remember attending the schools in the Tustin School District in the...