Letter: Fried’s Depiction of Longi Project Not Appreciated

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Billy’s whining characterizations about the Longi project aren’t appreciated. Longi’s property has flooded several times, because he bought a small affordable property at the bottom of a flood plain.

Across the country, it is well known that artist work/live projects are the new foray into oversized/overpriced development. And then there is Dornin. Simply: Dornin = development = money. That’s what he does for a living. This is not some heartfelt longing for a better Laguna. There is no bleeding heart here to preserve Laguna. It’s about making money.

The project threatens the health and safety of the tenants. The project is not in keeping with the character of the community. And, the project would decimate a portion of the beautiful creek in the canyon and the habitat within it. Mr. Fried is correct about one thing. Residents have constantly had to overcome the subversive corruption on the part of city officials and the Coastal Commission for which they have had to take them to court, and well, they won. Does anyone realize the diligence it takes to uncover this type of behavior and what it takes to bring them to justice?

Louis Longi may have a “dogged conviction that he is doing something good” but he is just an artist who is the front guy for a major national development firm (Dornin Enterprises) out of Las Vegas. It’s as simple as that.

And yes, “nothing worth having is ever easy.” That is why residents have judiciously spent the last several years, along with their own time and money, trying to preserve the character of our little canyon and prevent it from impacts and heinous crimes against people and nature to overcome the whims of multimillion-dollar development firms, in an attempt to modify this project and keeping our officials above board.

It is a darn shame. Developers could build a housing project over the water off of Main Beach, too. But should they?

Walk again my fellow residents! Walk again!

Debbie Hertz, Laguna Beach

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