Our kids grow up and one day leave Laguna. Laguna, however, seldom leaves them. They go off to college armed with their wits, often our credit card (yikes!), and whatever stuck from their upbringing. Many are equipped with something else as well, an attachment to their coastal hometown and the sea. Such a person is [...]
Preserving the California coast and its historic cottages is a big job. Often it requires the partnering of citizen activists and their groups, the California Coastal Commission, and generous donors. Such has been the case locally at Crystal Cove, nestled along the shoreline between Corona del Mar and Laguna Beach. Laura Davick, founder of the [...]
Governing as if Environmental Factors Matter Do we replace our aging roof, or refurbish the entrance gate to our home? We’re not always able to do both simultaneously. Naturally, we’ll prioritize and eventually finish both tasks. Our city government, similarly, has to make a host of decisions (infinitely more complex and numerous than those in [...]
I’m a booklover. I love the feel, the look, the smell of books. I’m drawn to others who share this passion—librarians, collectors, and independent booksellers (particularly sellers of used volumes). A trip to Portland always entails many hours at Powell’s Books, and similarly in the Bay Area I’m drawn like metal to a magnet to [...]
If you’re like I am, when you travel abroad, on returning home you may see Laguna Beach through a slightly different set of eyes. Comparisons, contrasts, and spatial connections–all involving Laguna and the wider world–that I had not seen before embarking on trips to foreign lands seem to jump out at me on returning to [...]
Finishing a Legacy Begun by Others The open space initiative on this year’s ballot has raised questions and inspired debate. People naturally want to know how it would work, while some argue that it’s not necessary. For those with questions, I encourage you to visit the campaign website, lagunaopenspace.com. You’ll find that Measure CC would [...]
Thumbs Up for New Sustainability Committee I recently attended the reorganized and renamed Environmental Sustainability Committee (ESC). The seven-person group meets at the Susi Q Senior Center on the fourth Monday of each month at 6 p.m., and the meetings are open to the public. As a former member of that body when it was [...]
Hello readers! I’m back and so is “Green Light.” My column has not appeared for the past several months. Luckily, the Indy has seen fit to grant me a hiatus this past spring in order that I could travel to Japan with my family and then on returning finish my textbook, “Pacific Eldorado: A History [...]
Is Nuclear Safety an Oxymoron? I was pleased by last week’s 4-1 City Council vote supporting San Clemente’s plea to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to require that the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) remove spent fuel from its site in order to be relicensed. It brought before our community a critical issue that I [...]
Three cheers for Mayor Pro Tem Verna Rollinger and our City Council! Enthusiastic attendees, like me, were not always able to conceal our jubilation when the Council voted overwhelmingly on Jan. 24 to adopt Ms. Rollinger’s thoughtful, practical agenda bill calling for four specific actions aimed at implementing the city’s 2009 Climate Protection Action Plan. [...]
Climate Protection Earns B+ Marks Because of the difficulty of the subject matter, a B+ in climate protection is respectable. In this town of high achievers I doubt that we’ll let up in our mission of implementing the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement and our city’s mechanism for implementing it, the Climate Protection Action [...]
Of John Steinbeck, Tide Pools, and Stars There’s so much to do at this time of year. Holiday cards are coming in to our house but none have gone out. I’m in the final stages of doing revisions of my California history textbook, which has kept me very busy. Thus I had not intended to [...]
A Robust Recovery As Lagunans await implementation of the Marine Life Protection Act along our coast, an exciting announcement went out two months ago from one of the world’s premier science centers, Scripps Institution of Oceanography. This past August, the Scripps website (http://scrippsnews.ucsd.edu/Releases/?releaseID=1180) reported: “Results of a 10-year analysis of Cabo Pulmo National Park (CPNP), [...]
A Robust Recovery As Lagunans await implementation of the Marine Life Protection Act along our coast, an exciting announcement went out two months ago from one of the world’s premier science centers, Scripps Institution of Oceanography. This past August, the Scripps website (http://scrippsnews.ucsd.edu/Releases/?releaseID=1180) reported: “Results of a 10-year analysis of Cabo Pulmo National Park (CPNP), [...]
Is the Environmental Committee Sustainable? At Tuesday’s City Council meeting the fate of the city’s Environmental Committee hung in the balance. Most of the committee’s seven members would not be returning for the next term, which is scheduled to begin in November. Even worse, no candidates stepped forward to take their place. City Manager John [...]
Police Use Taser to Subdue Assault Suspect
An assault involving three men escalated into a struggle with Laguna Beach police, who ultimately deployed a taser twice to subdue the younger combative suspect in the 300 block of Cozumel around 1:15 a.m. Friday, May 10, police said. Police ultimately arrested Laguna Beach resident Sergio Gabriel Borgognone, 51, for allegedly resisting arrest and his [...]
