Editor,
I was thinking about the village entrance parking garage that is creeping towards implementation. What if things didn’t work out as planned and the garage utilization is worse than expected. We should have some back-up plans to assure that the structure is some kind of a success, even if parking and congestion relief didn’t come to pass as expected. Heaven forbid that would happen.
The city employees would have a posh parking garage that’s for sure, but that won’t use all the parking levels.
Skateboarders might finally get a skate park right in the middle of town! At least two stories of skating might open the door for a major tourist attraction featuring skateboarders from all over the world.
I’m sure the homeless will flock to the parking garage in the “off season” seeking shelter. There is more than one way of attracting new people to our town!
Or, if the occupancy is low for a considerable time, several of the floors could be dedicated to serve as a bus station. There would be enough space open to use as a day worker center and would be closer to downtown, so their spending would help the merchants.
Maybe the city could offer the cavernous space to the high speed rail authority and get train service in Laguna Beach. Talk about a tourism bonanza!
Then there is the exciting thought that it would make a terrific covered, year-round Farmer’s Market for all of Orange County.
A cement cavern will have terrific acoustics. Perhaps there is planned use for rock concerts. Of course that brings up the problem of where would the attendees park? Maybe the Community Center?
Not forgetting the residents, maybe the parking garage could be converted to an indoor all weather dog park! Just think how great it would be for the dogs—they could chase tennis balls up and down the ramps!
Already Laguna Beach is a major attraction for weddings, but having such a huge covered area would make it a year round business.
I apologize to the City Council and their well-paid consultants. I am sure these contingencies have already been covered somewhere in the thousands of EIR pages.
I will keep the faith that their ideas are not hair brained like mine so that we have nothing to worry about other than paying the bill.
Dennis Myers, Laguna Beach
