Letter: The Yin and Yang of Summer 2018

Editor,

I love the Sawdust Festival. This is the second year I have had a season pass for $20. The  wonderful cool breezes, water wheel, water falls, outstanding artists and craftspeople, plus the great music on three stages, tasty food and grog make every visit sensational. The lowkey, careful management is reflected all over the grounds.

I left the Sawdust this past Saturday night at 8:05 p.m. Riding the trolleys, I didn’t get home in South Laguna until 10:08 p.m. The Canyon-Festival trolley that picked me up went to parking lot 16, where a large group of people had been waiting 45 minutes to take a trolley into town. A lady was asking the trolley steward why the wait was so long. The steward finally told her to call the city manager regarding the long wait.

When our trolley got to the bus depot, another group had been waiting for the “long” route trolley to go south for almost an hour. In the meantime, three empty trolleys showed up from the Arch Beach Heights, Bluebird Canyon and TOW routes. Very few people ride these routes, and I am wondering what it costs per rider to continue these largely unused routes, especially at night.

A trolley driver reassured the group a trolley was coming in 20 minutes, but the group decided not to wait and began walking to the new trolley and OCTA bus stop at Main Beach. When we got there, a group of over 25 had been waiting for 45 minutes to go south and when a trolley finally showed up, someone said something to the driver about the long wait and he responded, “You’re lucky you didn’t have to wait two hours.”

Needless to say, this summer’s trolley operation was the worst in the history of Laguna Beach. I was planning to go to the Sawdust on its last day, Sept. 2, but riding the trolleys has been such a disaster this summer, that I changed my plans.

Roger Carter, Laguna Beach