Editor,
We’ve made some excellent progress lately. The city has passed the plastic bag ban, which is very good news, even if it will take a year to enact. I would suggest that the next things to be considered for a city ban would be helium balloons, which I find littering the beaches and countryside everywhere I go, and children’s plastic beach toys, which are inevitably left on the beach. I can fill a trash bag daily with these things. All the plastic ends up in the Pacific and other gyres, where it decimates the bird and marine life. I would also like to dream of the day when no plastic beverage bottles with detachable caps are sold in Laguna, but I doubt I’ll live that long!
Transition Laguna is going from strength-to-strength. Our Vision 2012 gathering last week was attended by over 60 enthusiastic and engaged people, many of whom attended the planning breakfast held at La Sirena restaurant Sunday morning. A whole lot of bright ideas came out of this. We were graced by the attendance of the mayor, Jane Egly, who told us of the city’s support of San Clemente in opposing the extension of the operating permit for the San Onofre nuclear power plant.
The meeting was held at the Neighborhood Congregational Church, which has graciously allowed Transition Laguna to use Bridge Hall, since our meetings were becoming too large for private homes. This is a very welcome venue. NCC is very forward thinking under the leadership of pastor B.J. Beau, and is planning to install solar panels on the roof, and to remove the turf in front of the church and replace it with an edible garden. Transition Laguna will be participating in this worthwhile project.
Transition Laguna has installed over 60 edible gardens all over town and now has over 1,600 members. Subgroups are starting to form. There is an active group at Top of the World, which is promoting a fruit-tree gleaning project this Saturday, Feb. 18. The Oak Street Village subgroup is a looking for more recruits, and a new subgroup is planned for Canyon Acres.
Anybody who would like to get involved with making Laguna a more sustainable and resilient community is welcome to contact the membership secretary Taciana de Aguiar at [email protected].
Charles Alban,
Laguna Beach
