Trouble in Paradise

Editor,

If I may, I’d like to briefly respond to last week’s concerned neighbor regarding the undocumented aliens in our midst, those dreaded eucalyptus trees, and the arborists and the view ordinance and the city council. Whew! Haven’t we already had this conversation?

For those of you that think our fair city will replace a tree for a tree, ask anyone up in Bluebird Canyon how that promise was kept. I’ll give you a hint; one 6-foot thin trunk with leaves in place of 100 years of history. And it’s yet to be seen that even this “trade off” was on a one to one basis. But as sometimes happens at our city council meetings, the loudest participants will wait outside for their agenda item, then hastily put their cigarettes down, storm in and demand to be heard. By morning they’ve left town for their other house, while the others are renters who never intended to stay in the first place. Those of us that will continue to live and love and relish the sanctity found in these coastal hills are left with the results of their selfishness.

Since when is a view of your garden, or the foliage outside your kitchen window not a view in and of itself? And who is so insensitive as to believe that they can build a house in the hills of Laguna and then summarily demand that everyone and everything between them and the ocean must bow down?

We’ve gone mad. We demand that garage doors be kept closed, that no unacceptable colors cover our homes, that nobody puts out their trash cans too early.

Take a moment to think about the last beautiful city where you vacationed. I’ll bet it looks like Laguna once did.

Mace Morse, Laguna Beach