Editor, May is National Bike Month, a perfect time for our community to recognize and celebrate all the benefits of bicycling. Bicycling keeps us healthy, carries us efficiently from point A to point B, saves us from high gas prices, and makes our air cleaner and our roads less congested. Bicycling is good for our [...]
Editor, Here is more out-of-the-box thinking to solve the parking and traffic problem in Laguna Beach. Call your wheels with your Smartphone app. Brought to you by those urban grunge kids in Seattle, car2go is a car-share program that allows anybody with a membership ($35 registration) to telephone their wheels and drive away. Cities benefit [...]
Editor, What is the quickest way for Laguna Beach to raise more revenue other than taxes and parking fines? That’s right, honey, put up a parking lot. In the interest of maintaining village appeal through zoning restrictions and height limitations, the city has constrained business development to the extent they gross more revenue from parking [...]
Editor, Laguna Beach City Council held a special meeting (Tuesday, March 26) to present two plans for the village entrance, giving a net gain of roughly 200 parking spaces at a cost of $33 to $55 Million. That is a lumped average cost of $220,000 per parking space. The plans include substantial park grounds and [...]
Editor, Thanks for publishing an article on LCAD and my favorite topic, safe alternative mobility in Laguna Beach (“Pushing for Safe Canyon Crossings,” March 8). Kudos for the cover shot too, it captures the essence of the LCAD traffic problem: pedestrians playing chicken in a painted crosswalk over a highway. Les Miklosy, Laguna Beach
Editor, This is a highway traffic yield sign identical to that found at the corner of Forest Avenue and Broadway in Laguna Beach. From the DMV handbook it says: “A three-sided red “Yield” sign indicates that you must slow down and be ready to stop, if necessary, to let any vehicle, bicyclist, or pedestrian pass [...]
Editor: Some cities are making the modern shift to a sustainable multi-modal mobility plan. On Wednesday night (Oct. 17) the San Clemente Planning Commission approved a new mobility plan into their city’s general plan. Some startling highlights from their comprehensive “Policy Framework – Draft Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan” follow: “We shall incorporate bicycle [...]
Editor, An OCTA grant for building bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure was awarded the city of San Clemente. Meanwhile Laguna Beach received no grant funding because city staff never bothered to apply. They still can’t find a pen. You can’t compete if you don’t participate. Follow story at Laguna Streets. Les Miklosy, Lagna Beach
Editor, In a 5-1 vote with one council member absent, the Newport Beach City Council recently approved the use of bicycle sharrows to be painted on Pacific Coast Highway in Corona del Mar. Sharrow symbols are traffic lane markers used to remind all road users the lane is designated multi-use for both cyclists and automobiles. [...]
Editor, Recently the city of Laguna Beach spent $10,000 for a polling firm in Washington DC to compile a citizen survey from a representative sample of residents about community quality of life, service delivery, civic participation and unique issues of local interest. Above-the-fold the executive summary notes 97% of respondents regarded Laguna as a [...]
Editor, Two objections heard most frequently from city leaders when adopting Complete Streets policy are municipal liability and lack of funding. Municipal liability is not an issue since cities are held immune from liability for use of a public street, and studies show (Pucher, Shoup, Gehl) the more pedestrians and cyclists using the street, the [...]
Editor, For those willing to read one more resolution for tree management in Bluebird Canyon, here is my suggestion; replace the Eucalyptus with fruit-bearing, fire-tolerant trees. Remove the Eucalyptus trees and reduce the tree to aromatic firewood, stack dry and distribute the wood among residents in the neighborhood. Doing so will eliminate the chip-and-haul [...]
Editor, For those who regard our new ‘sculpture’ in Heisler Park as patriotic art. Today is 9/11 and I heard the host of the OC Television Channel say, “Half of all Americans polled cannot tell you what year 9/11 occurred.” If the poll is accurate, it would appear the US Patriot [...]
Editor, On Aug. 26, a post on the city’s webste notified us the intersection at Laguna Canyon Road and El Toro is planned for road widening by Caltrans. Days later the post reads “repaving” not “widening” but still offers no mention if the project complies with legal mandates for highways under Complete Street Policy (DD-64 [...]
Police departments of five Orange County cities including Laguna Beach plan to step up enforcement beginning this weekend against bicycle riders and motorists who disregard traffic rules in an attempt to prevent collisions and injuries. The special bike safety operation Feb. 19-24 will be conducted with extra patrols of areas frequented by bicyclists and vehicles, [...]
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 [...]
