The attacks on Ruben Flores’ City Council candidacy seem to be nothing more than a small-town political smear. Liberate Laguna is trying to stir this sidewalk issue way out of proportion. We are in a town that has invested significantly in making our downtown sidewalks more usable for restaurants and retailers. The city has issued Temporary Use Permits all over town so merchants may use some of the sidewalks to augment their business. So the worst thing we can find on Ruben is that he has some flower and ceramic displays that border the sidewalk in front of his nursery?
Ruben’s landlord is a major contributor to Liberate Laguna, who is paying for ads to promote their Laguna redeveloper-friendly candidates. Ruben’s landlord has almost doubled Ruben’s rent and refuses to sign-off on the Temporary Use Permit to allow Ruben to do the same thing that restaurants and retailers all over the town are doing. The developers’ “Liberate Laguna” PAC raised over $153,000 during the last campaign to elect Peter Blake as their very outspoken pro-redevelopment spokesperson. During the last campaign, they attacked Toni Iseman. Now they are turning their attention on Ruben.
Ruben deserves our support for City Council, as well as an opportunity to run his nursery business without being singled out for being a City Council candidate. Thank you Ruben, for running for City Council.
David Raber, Laguna Beach
