Editor,
I, and presumably everyone, could not agree more wholeheartedly, especially in view of the doomsday scenarios set forth that the utilities must be under grounded on the “evacuation” routes. No fires; no catastrophes; no Armageddon. No reasonable person wants your house, my house or any others harmed or destroyed.
But, please what exactly (show us a proposed map) do you want under grounded at our joint, unrestricted expense without bidding, cost controls, negotiations? Where?
The lack of definition is astounding or intentional, especially without advance planning. If just the canyon road, those providing the cost estimates to bury some lines must be smoking something just legalized.
All this financial reporting and forecasting, monies to be committed and paid; exactly where and what are the desired routes defined to be mutually saved at our joint, expansive expense? Is it just Laguna Canyon Road? Isn’t the Coast Highway also another sole means of ingress/egress, except the ocean. But Coast Highway is always jammed, as if the Canyon Road isn’t, whether evacuation or normal, interfering with escape? Why not place giant row boats on all the beaches, ladies and children first? All of the town objectively seems a fire trap in presence of big Santa Ana winds and drought and the over grown trees and bushes and random dense compact structures and poorly planned, narrow, laid out streets.
The canyon road is a state highway and the utilities are installed and owned by and for the financial benefit of the utility shareholders, although necessary for all of us and our mutual benefits, for which we all pay handsomely. So, why should the benefited state and utilities not be jointly contributing?
Why are the owners of the over-grown, unkempt, sky-scraping, encroaching trees and bushes not forced to reduce those fire-accelerating hazards?
What are the rules of contribution, since we, the state and the utilities are to be mutually, maybe not equally, benefited?
What is the unified plan? Banish fires, outlaw all combustible materials, prevent Santa Ana winds, create regular significant rains, fire hydrants at every door, firemen on every street?
Random disorganized undefined Band-aids will stop the diffuse bleeding when confronting mass random dismemberment.
Let’s do it! Let us hire more exorbitant hourly consultants to further describe the obviously apparent problems, benefits and detriments and then report back in 10 months or longer, more or less.
Byron Nelson, Laguna Beach
Thank you Byron for pointing out so well the lack of factual details and analysis provided to residents by the city on undergrouding power poles in Laguna Beach. Before residents vote to approve any ballot measure this coming November, either to tax themselves or in the form of an increase In sales tax, the city must provide voters with actual FACTS on undergrounding and not use bogus biased surveys crafted by slick consultants using our tax dollars to elicit the response the city wants as verifying resident support. As local resident Mike Morris pointed out to the Council at the February 27 CC meeting, the city staff report clearly shows bias, distortions and incorrect data. This is not acceptable to us and it should not be acceptable to our city officials who are in the position to support or not support important issues in our city. It starts with our city manager who is responsible to ensure that all public staff reports provided are accurate and factual. Our city is under fire for its lack of accountability and transparency and the sloppy and fear-based approach they have taken to rush and push this undergrounding initiative just supports the concerns. A grass roots group recently formed called S.T.O.P (stop taxing our properties) to provide facts. Its u and running and well worth reading. In addition, lagunabeachchat.com will have facts on this issue and others facing our community.
Awesome info! I’m in. Plus didn’t the city just a few years ago tell us all that some of the HUGE electrical poles could never come down? Wouldn’t that affect the egress during an evacuation/mudslide/fire/tsunami….????? Also I already paid for my Noria Street under grounding years ago, but I use Ensenada, Summit, Blue Bird canyon, Temple terrace, Thalia, Went Terrace and on and on to get outta town. These are MY evacuation routes. Whom determines what qualifies for ALL of Laguna Beach tax payers to have to chip in now that others don’t or won’t bear their burden???? So. Many. Questions. Got answers, city of Laguna?