At first glance, who could be against “new ideas?’’ Unfortunately, a lot of those so-called new ideas are not new at all. They are just the product of shallow thinking.
When someone running for City Council says, “That’s easy! We just need to do X!” it usually means that person hasn’t really thought about how “X” conflicts with “Y” and probably has unintended consequences for “Z.”
The issues before the council are complex. The people with experience on the council know this. They have heard all sides of the issues, they have thought hard about them, thought about how solutions acceptable to most can be found and how unintended consequences can be mitigated.
Unfortunately, sometimes the “new ideas” are dangerous and have a more sinister origin. For example, the candidates running with the support of the secretive and well-funded Liberate Laguna PAC seem to have inherited their so-called “new ideas” from rapacious outside developers.
Lee Otterholt, Laguna Beach
