View preservation and public safety received top billing at Laguna Beach’s City Council, which heard testimony Tuesday on progress by a committee drafting a new view ordinance and from staff investigating the addition of video surveillance cameras downtown and at the city’s exit points. Larry Nokes, chair of the view equity committee established in January, [...]
By Justin Swanson | LB Indy The Laguna Beach Film Society’s invites the public to attend a special screening of the Oscar-winning movie “The Best Years of Our Lives,” on Thursday, May 23, in recognition of Memorial Day, which falls the following Monday. Actor Michael Hall, who played the son of one of the [...]
Editor, This year’s Earth Day & Kelp Fest event was another successful Laguna happening thanks to all of the teamwork among the community in Laguna and beyond. Transition Laguna skillfully organized music, food and helpful demonstrations of sustainable living while Kelp Fest participants at Main Beach decorated a giant kelp forest surrounded by displays from [...]
Since its establishment in 1974 by master optician Udo Stoeckmann, European Optical, at 1276 S. Coast Highway, has served generations of Lagunans and over its 38 years helped support the charitable efforts of many local groups. Now, daughter Astrid Chitamun, the company’s chief executive, wants to involve the entire community in a year-long initiative, “See [...]
Editor, When politicians dismantle a grassroots citizen advisory committee and substitute their insider, the result is amateur proposals and misguided leadership demonstrated by these proposals. Here are some comments with a historical context for Complete Streets advocacy in Laguna Beach. Interventions for complete street infrastructure should be placed: where traffic data indicate they would [...]
Last Saturday about 60 people from the community as well as some Planning Commission officials surveyed Laguna Beach’s downtown area on foot, trying to form a common vision of potential revisions to a 23-year-old policy known as the Downtown Specific Plan. “You have to have everybody looking at the same thing,” said Planning Commissioner Norm [...]
By Justin Swanson | LB Indy Soldiering on is the way of the Friends of the Laguna Beach Library, who intend to run business as usual while awaiting a redraft of the licensing agreement from the Orange County Public Library that they initially rejected. In a spat fit for a romance novel and a [...]
By Bette Anderson It’s the end of the year, the traditional time to reflect on the past, good and bad, and plan for the future, to rest your feet on the coffee table and sip a glass of wine, red for Christmas, white for snow. So I ask myself, why did I originally come here [...]
The Sawdust Art Festival is opening its ceramic center in advance of the annual Winter Fantasy show, hosting two groups of local high school and middle school students. The kids intend to create 30 ceramic mugs to sell as gifts for charitable donations. The mugs will be glazed and fired, and then filled with coffee [...]
Laguna Bluebelt ocean activist Michael Beanan received Orange County’s first Cox Conserves Hero Award, earning the Laguna Bluebelt Coalition a $5,000 contribution towards its efforts protecting marine life and restoring coastal habitat. The award came from the Trust for Public Land and Cox Communications. While serving as vice president of the South Laguna Civic Association, [...]
Editor, I have long advocated preserving open space in Laguna Beach, and worked hard as did many Lagunans to “Save the Canyon.” But Measure CC on the November ballot is unworthy of similar support. Critical differences exist between the current measure and the historic canyon purchase. Measure CC will tax Laguna property owners for what [...]
Editor, Certain power groups in Laguna are scheming to gain control over privately owned vacant lots around town that they call open space. They are using Measure CC to try and get control of all the land and money they can, but at your expense by raising your taxes. Don’t be scammed. The empty lots they [...]
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission holds a public meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 9 to discuss the status of its oversight of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station and respond to questions about current plant issues. The meeting will be held between 6 and 9:30 p.m. at the St. Regis Monarch Beach Hotel, in Dana Point. There [...]
Editor: Candidates Bob Whalen and Jane Egly remain unendorsed by any of the very partisan groups in town: Village Laguna, the Democratic Club, the Republicans or Taxpayers. Good for them! This places candidates Whalen and Egly right where most of the citizens in Laguna Beach want their council members to be: independent and balanced in [...]
By Judy Pettigrew, Special to the Independent Sixty years is a long time to feed people. Ask any Methodist and one of the many things they will tell you about their denomination is that, if you want to feed people spiritually, you also should bring a casserole. That, among other things, is what the [...]
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 [...]
