New Arts Venue Emerges on Park Plaza
Tonight is the night of nights in Laguna, when we see so many of our friends and neighbors and say, “I haven’t seen you in years.” That’s what happens when you live in a car culture. It seems our entire town descends on downtown for Hospitality Night, despite the crowds and lack of parking. And for one glorious night we replace cars on Forest Avenue with people.
This will also be a year to venture over to our only pedestrian space, the adjacent Park Plaza, as it heads into its final 30 days of the test street closure. After that we’ll say, “Well that was lovely. Carry on. Back to cars.” Unless we have the political will to make it permanent.
Sure, people naturally congregated there. It was cleaner and quieter without cars screaming by. Kids ran free. Pets were welcome. Those magnificent ficus trees provided needed shade during our searing heat spells. And at the end of the day, it was just a place to sit your bum down and take a load off.
But more than that, if these last 40 days proved anything, it was how public space activates community. Every time I ventured down I ran into people I knew, including John Gardiner, who I am grateful I saw and spoke with a day before his untimely death. Urban planners call it “return on collision,” those serendipitous encounters that lead to something unexpected and rewarding. Others call it community place making.
So for the next five Saturdays, we are going to program the space with community-based entertainment to demonstrate how public, pedestrian space can activate a city’s cultural life. We have so many talented individuals from so many artistic channels who have volunteered to entertain us during this holiday season. Third Street Writers and Laguna Poets will conduct morning readings from 10 a.m. to noon, followed by children-friendly performances and workshops at noon, like hula hoop classes and theater performances. From 2 to 6 p.m. we will feature singer-songwriters curated by KX 93.5’s morning jock, Jason Feddy. At 6 p.m. we will screen classic surf and environmental films courtesy of our local heroes, MacGillivray Freeman films. Bring your beach chairs, blankets, and picnic dinners. And then from 8 to 10 p.m. we will have consecutive Saturday night salsa, tango, swing and country western dancing.
All of this has been made possible because of the tremendous artistic heritage of our town. And now we have a place to bring it all together in one open community space. We hope you’ll come by and support it. And then perhaps you will see that this temporary plaza, with its limited budget for décor, should be renewed next summer so it can continue to be enjoyed, and we can gauge the benefits for merchants and community throughout the seasons.
For a complete schedule of events at Park Plaza, visit Friends of Park Plaza on Facebook. We hope to see you tomorrow, and every Saturday during this joyous holiday month.
Billy Fried hosts “Laguna Talks” on Thursday at 8 p.m. on KX 93.5, and can be reached at [email protected].
