I cannot believe anyone would want to change our Forest Avenue. People who visit us from out of town think the same. It is like the perfect old town with lots of character. All the beautiful old trees on Forest Avenue make it shady all year which makes it perfect for shopping in the stores. I would think that the stores downtown would have lost customers due to the lack of parking in front of their stores with this new design.
I understood that restaurants needed the parklets during Covid. However, that is no longer a problem. Today we walked up Forest at 1 p.m. and Moulin was the only restaurant with customers sitting in a parklet. Only one other person was sitting in a parklet nearby. I was looking forward to removing all the parklets in town. They are not attractive. Why would the city prefer parklets instead of the revenue they would receive from parking in that space. It is also dangerous when a truck blocks the traffic on Ocean Avenue while it makes a delivery in front of the parklet. How much revenue does the city lose from parking because of parklets?
Now with global warming, removing the old large trees is the very worst thing we could do. Why would we want to lose the shade? I so hope the city reconsiders the removal of these beautiful old trees.
Ginger Fitzpatrick, Laguna Beach
You said, “Now with global warming, removing the old large trees is the very worst thing we could do.” I agree. We should keep as many of the old trees as we can, safely, whatever we do with the promenade.
But you also seem to want the street to revert to parking. Surely cars idling and spewing exhaust while waiting for a space to open up is bad for the environment. That’s how I remember Forest Avenue in the summer and on weekends when the weather is nice. The promenade is nicer and better for the environment than that.