Longtime Laguna Beach resident Ralph Wilson Vanderhoof Jr., passed away on New Year’s Eve. Known to his friends and family as Bill or Dutch, he moved to Laguna Beach in the early ‘80s after living for many years in Arcadia. Born on Oct. 5, 1921, in Newark, N.J., Vanderhoof’s life was a full one highlighted […]
Higher Altitudes The stock market is flirting with new highs on the S&P 500-stock index. As I wrote two weeks, ago momentum seemed destined to take the market to new highs. The Dow Jones Industrials need about a 300-point rise. That might seem like a lot but it is really less than two percent. What […]
Five-Sport Sweep is a School First Laguna experienced a first in their sports history as all five winter squads qualified for post-season play, hosted their initial post-season contests and won their initial events. Four of the teams went on to host second round contests. Girls Water Polo (29-1, 4-0) Laguna Meets Newport in D-I CIF […]
Much has been and will continue to be written and said about the 2014 Laguna Beach High School girls’ water polo team. And after all the tournament victories, historic wins, record scoring and just plain old-fashioned dominance, they have more than lived up to the considerable hype. But through it all, this once-in-a-generation collection of […]
Laguna Beach’s 10 under co-ed water polo team won silver at the KAP7 International tournament on Feb. 15–16. The Laguna Beach kids played valiantly against Foothill Club Water Polo, but lost the final game to Foothill 8 – 14. Coaches Albie Beeler and Rob Carver were proud of their team, and feel that the hard […]
A homeless man who was critically injured in an early morning hit and run collision in Laguna Canyon this past Monday, Feb. 24, remains in critical condition in Mission Hospital and investigators are seeking the public’s help in tracking down the fleeing driver, police said Thursday. Sgt. Louis Callus identified the victim as Shahram Mokarami-Tehrani, […]
Five-Sport Sweep is a School First Laguna experienced a first in their sports history as all five winter squads qualified for post-season play, hosted their initial post-season contests and won their initial events. Four of the teams went on to host second round contests. Boys Basketball (23-5, 10-0) Laguna takes Two in Playoffs For the […]
Coordination of Laguna Beach’s many initiatives and paying for pension costs surfaced as priorities at the City Council’s recent planning retreat. At a time when many of the hot-button projects begun in the last year have yet to be finalized, it comes as no surprise that Council members largely opted to stay the course and […]
It’s not a headstone or even a permanent marker, but a sentimental sendoff written in a storefront window last week that publicly signaled the death of a longtime homeless Laguna Beach street musician. Clifford Harrison Mabra Jr. spent the last several years playing tenor saxophone almost daily in a downtown alley, just feet away from […]
At least 40 visible sea stars were alive and well in the Treasure Island tide pools in South Laguna at noon this past Saturday. But by 3 p.m., eight had disintegrated like wet bread. An epidemic, which has destroyed sea stars along the West Coast beginning last June, has reached the shores of Laguna Beach. […]
A common refrain amongst environmental psychologists is “a city without trees isn’t fit for a dog.” We appreciate the innate needs of our animal friends yet sometimes fail to recognize even the (most) basic needs of humans. Architects and planners are often ignorant of fundamental human needs, naïvely placing form over function without regard to […]
Laguna Beach is a unique place. The flip-flopped, casually dressed person next to you in line at the grocery store may be a famous business owner, musician, athlete or philanthropist. Most people don’t put on airs in this town. People are real. Fascinating folks are among us. Among a new generation of business owners in […]
Editor, With regard to the proposed village entrance project, I wonder if the city might want to consider an entrance feature similar to the one currently over the Coast Highway in Dana Point where visitors are welcomed to that city by the structure, which is a combination welcome sign and pedestrian overcrossing. Our version wouldn’t […]
“There is a central quality which is the root criterion of life and spirit in a person, a town, a building, or a wilderness. This quality is objective and precise, but it cannot be named,” writes Christopher Alexander, architect and author, in his work, “The Timeless Way of Building.” Laguna Beach has this central quality; […]
Editor, Re: live work project “In a flood plain, careful planning assures use of the flood plain lands for greenbelt parks and other uses beneficial to all the people. Restrictions and controls should be based on full knowledge of the flood plain and flood hazards,” according to a recent open space study. “Future flood damage can […]
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