Mr. Gasparotti’s article entitled “Leisure Beach” begins with apparent nostalgia for the 1960s when young men raced muscle cars on public roads with impunity. Then, per Mr. Gasparotti, young men who could no longer bank on a lack of law enforcement presence on El Toro Road, following the development of Leisure World, turned to snickering at “blue haired ladies” driving golf carts, lacking the imagination to identify alternative entertainment. I found that sad and snarky enough. Then Mr. Gasparotti takes it up a notch, and paints Laguna Beach, the town he claims to love, as lifeless, citing its high percentage of people over 50, who develop headaches from “vibrancy,” prefer the dark to avoid having anyone see their wrinkles, and only go out to dinner for the “sunset special” at a “greatly reduced price.” He then disses the city’s chefs, and somehow reasons that since no restaurant has survived since 1952 (Note: the national average failure rate for any new restaurant is 80 percent within five years, per CNBC 3/15/2016), no city intervention to address the downtown can be good. I find Mr. Gasparotti’s writing consistently mean-spirited, uninformative, humorless, and, in this week’s case, gratuitously insulting. Dedicating this space each week to an article written by a resident chosen at random would be far better.
Gary Stewart, Laguna Beach
My wife and I moved to Laguna Beach 28 years ago, for the charm and beauty. Since that time the average age of a person in our town has increased by 10 years. We have hotels, restaurants and businesses shuttered in a wealthy resort town during an economic boom. The homeless population is growing exponentially along with the crime and filth it brings to our streets and beaches. This is not happening to the same extent to our neighbors to the North or South of Laguna. We are experiencing Bureaucratic Blight because of a lack of leadership at all levels of Laguna Beach. Everything from repairing our homes, running our businesses or educating our children is met with endless red-tape and compliance that either stops you or $$$breaks you; thus, leaving a wealthy elderly class of privileged citizens that pretend this is not happening
The problem needs to be acknowledged if it is to be fixed. This is NOT insulting nor mean-spirted if true.