Editor,
Knowing that the most immediate way to reduce climate change is to reduce automobile exhaust emissions, here are a few ideas for the city to consider in meeting its current or new Climate Action Plan goals:
- Don’t build a 300 plus space parking structure at the entrance to the city. Build it in Irvine at the 133 and 405 interchange.
- Sue the Irvine Company for building five-story “beehive” apartment complexes at the 133 and 405.
- Close Forest Avenue to auto traffic.
- Raise the metered parking rate to $10 per hour.
- Mandate that owners of private parking lots charge a minimum of $50, regardless of time used.
- Make off-street parking “by permit only” and issue permits to residents only.
If we make it prohibitively expensive for all of the day-trippers to raise greenhouse emissions in our city, they will go elsewhere to pollute.
“Solutions” mandating that all of us who live in Laguna have to cut back on our in-city driving (which is minimal), or buy expensive solar electric systems (resulting in So Cal Edison getting huge rate increases to offset their “losses”), are “sound good” and “feel good” solutions, especially since there is no electrical generating plant located in Laguna Beach.
The only real solution is to eliminate the exhaust fumes generated by 2 million visitors each year.
Jim Christensen, Laguna Beach
(Editor’s Note: the actual figure was pegged at 6.3 million.)
7. Close the Sawdust Festival permanently.
8. Close the Pageant of the Masters permanently.
9. Close the Art Festival permanently.
10. Close the beaches permanently.
Are you *environmentalists* getting the picture yet?
Your hypocrisy is self-contradictory. You want all the benefits of tourism and driving, while proclaiming yourselves to be so sanctimonious and pure. You’ll even drive hundreds of thousands of collective miles to protest environmental degradation. HELLO!