Year in Review Omitted Success Stories

Editor:

I was saddened to read the negative front page article, “Grants, Gold Medals, and Lawsuits Top 2016’s News” on Dec. 30. This article focused on negative and some minor issues and completely overlooked the active community focus on music, arts, theatre, and philanthropy, all topics missing from the inadequate summary of the past year in Laguna Beach.

Some missing and important news stories include information on the Laguna Beach High School Scholarship Foundation, a leader in per-student financial support nationwide, that reflects the community’s generous contributions. Laguna Live! initiated a project years ago that has expanded the offering of live musical performances for the community into the schools.

Also missing are many outstanding philanthropic projects and their impact by the Assistance League, Woman’s Club, American Legion Auxiliary Unit, and the LB Community and Susi Q Center.

Also missing is the mention of any exciting work in our school district, such as by LBHS students on the irrigation project for Africa. Missing is any reference to the good works of the community churches. Topics of how Laguna has worked to reduce water consumption and the city’s work on putting the poles in the canyon underground were overlooked. These are just a few examples that come to mind. Instead, the Indy used a negative article and two accompanying pictures: Urth Caffe for a lawsuit reference and another picture of local people one night cheering in a national election. The truth is that lawsuits did not overshadow the good works found in Laguna Beach, and your article gave an incomplete summary of the 2016 news in our city.

Our community is very generous, and some of these success stories should have been included and celebrated. The token positive reference to the gold medals was located in the last short paragraph of the article.

I think the editor of the Laguna Independent should have commissioned a front page article by a writer who understood the heart of Laguna Beach to report better on the 2016 good news of Laguna Beach.

Karen Dennis, Laguna Beach