Just finished swimming across the backyard to grab my copy of the Laguna Beach Indy and saw the mayor’s plea to Laguna to conserve water so he can be recognized as “water-wise.”
Mayor, you are tone-deaf, and your timing is completely flat-footed. Your request is selfish and narrow-minded. Do you think Lagunans hold their heads high because we’re “water-wise?” On the contrary, we hang our heads because our city council serves the needs of their monied paramours instead of the citizens.
Millions go to irresponsible consultants for problems a third grader could solve and to ‘art’ that a third grader could make. (By the way, why does a city pay artists to display their art in its public space? They should be paying the city advertising costs.)
The city manager gets ticketed for talking on her cell phone while almost every city ordinance goes unenforced. I am regularly awoken by loud vehicles on Pacific Coast Highway. I haven’t seen parking enforced for years. I overheard a tourist saying he hadn’t paid for parking in five years.
Am I the only one in Laguna tired of the government telling us what to do? What happened to the independent spirit that once pervaded this town?
Has everyone forgotten that the mayor’s office kept our beaches closed longer than any other neighboring beach city for both the virus and the oil spill? Do you remember being ‘allowed’ to walk on the beach in one direction without stopping, sitting or chatting? That was subhuman. Weren’t you outraged at the control the government imposed on our lives? Are you completely blind to the consequences? Thankfully the beaches are open, so you can access sand into which you can bury your heads.
The same office closed off our access to open Orange County hiking trails. And then, when the warden opened the yard again, the inmates were thankful for the opening rather than outraged it was closed in the first place.
What happened to ‘use at your own risk’? If I want to swim or surf in potentially oil-contaminated water, I should, without question and without interference, be able to. If I want to surf within the completely arbitrary 72 hours after rain, I can, and I do, at my own risk. I mountain bike at my own risk. I cross the street at my own risk. I use my gas range at my own risk. I don’t need the government to tell me what is and what isn’t safe. I don’t need the government to tell me how to manage my food scraps or water use.
I don’t conserve water for a prize or the environment because it’s “earth month,” or especially because the mayor asked me to. I use less water because it saves money. And that may be the only reason Laguna is so “water-wise.”
Michael Rybah, Laguna Beach
