Blazing a New Trail for AIDS Awareness
“I found some things that were shocking to me, and I’d like to share them with others,” said Laguna Beach High School freshman Nicholas Rieckhoff, explaining the motivation behind his HIV awareness brochure for teens, which he presented to the Laguna Beach City Council on Tuesday. As the student representative on the city’s HIV Advisory [...]
Hikers Find Body on Trail
A 20-year-old Laguna Beach man, discovered Thursday in Laguna Beach’s Bluebird Canyon, died from a self-inflicted gunshot, according to supervising Depty. Coroner Larry Esslinger. Laguna Beach police were called Thursday afternoon by a couple walking their dog in the 1100 block of Morningside Drive who discovered the body, Lt. Jason Kravetz said. A handgun was [...]
City Reverses Its Red Ink
In a two-hour workshop Tuesday devoted to the city’s proposed $47 million budget, the City Council added requests for $75,000 to hire a consultant to review historic homes, $5,000 for a citizens’ emergency response training program and an unspecified amount to ongoing bike and pedestrian path improvements. City Manager John Pietig reported that the upcoming [...]
Kenneth Wynn Wood
Nov. 19, 1939-March 25, 2012 Ken Wood, partner with Fred Lang in the Laguna Beach landscape architecture firm of Lang and Wood, died in Norway on March 25. It was Wood’s pencil that drew the curving lines of Laguna’s Main Beach boardwalk. He started working with Lang in 1967 and they formed their partnership in [...]
Musings on the Coast
The Next Generation’s Woodstock Two of my three kids attended the Coachella Music Festival this year, and the third would have too, but she was in college in London. In one earlier year, she got away with pretending to need to be in So Cal during the time of the festival, and then—oops—as long as [...]
An Unwanted Distinction
To help raise public awareness of crosswalk safety, Laguna Beach police tested the awareness of drivers along Coast Highway on Wednesday; motor officers wait while a third police officer in a high visibility safety vest crosses. Several motorists were cited for failing to stop. Laguna ranks fourth among 98 similar sized towns for its collision [...]
No-Go for Emerald Bay Traffic Signal
Even after a heart-rending plea from a mother whose son was killed when his motorcycle was hit by an exiting Emerald Bay resident, the City Council on Tuesday unanimously rejected a proposed traffic signal at the gated community’s main entry. Against a backdrop of emotional pleas, venomous emails and threats of a political backlash, the [...]
Laughing Through the Tears
Editor, So I made the mistake of reading the beautiful features on Andy in this week’s edition while having lunch at Lumberyard (“A Tribute from Andy Hedden’s Family,” “A Hometown Comic and Scribe Exits the Stage.” I couldn’t stop laughing thru tears over my soup. Your hard work is helping us heal. Thank you, [...]
Will the Real Cottage Killer Please Stand Up?
Editor: This letter responds to Richard Picheny’s personal attack on me in a recent newspaper article regarding the demolition of old structures. Mr. Picheny indicated that I do nothing as a councilmember to protect old cottages. His statement is simply untrue. Here is one example: several years ago, when I was involved with [...]
Compost Gift-Away, a Success
Editor, A round of applause is due Liz Avila with the Public Works Department for organizing a successful compost giveaway last Saturday, May 10, in the ACT V parking lot. Arriving at 8 a.m. with my gloves and shovel, I joined in with 20+ locals in scooping up rich, nutritious compost into my six sand [...]