Art That’s Small at City Hall Laguna Beach’s Mayor Kelly Boyd announced the winners of the annual Art That’s Small at City Hall competition last week. Out of 91 entries from throughout the county, first place went to Ben Desoto; second to Anthony Salvo, third to James Nordstrom; City Hall choice to Maggie Spencer; and [...]
By a 4-1 vote, Laguna Beach’s City Council endorsed a plan disproving the Joni Mitchell song about paving paradise to put up a parking lot. Their plan for a long-sought village entrance will un-pave a parking lot, summoning paradise in the form of an urban park where asphalt now sprawls beside City Hall, along with [...]
The village entrance project to beautify the area between Forest Avenue and the festivals and put in a parking structure has been on and off the table for so long that many have given up on it. “We have been romanced and courted for too long,” said George Nelson, owner of the downtown gift store [...]
As part of an effort to discuss potential changes or improvements to the city’s downtown specific plan, the public is invited to join the town’s Planning Commission on a walking tour in surveying the downtown and discussing ideas on Saturday, Jan. 12 from 10 a.m. to noon. The group will meet in front of City [...]
Laguna Beach residents Karen and Jon Jaffe extraordinary commitment of time, talent and treasure to end the cycle of domestic violence earned recognition recently by Human Options, which assists abused women, their children and families rebuild their lives. The couple received the spirit of philanthropy award entitled “Healing Hearts – A child’s journey from fear [...]
I took a stroll through Laguna this past Saturday, merely for the sake of enjoying the balmy day, and the pleasure of watching families together doing the same. A stroll is by definition without purpose and I had no mission, only window shopping, which is always fun in town. I’ve never done the black Friday [...]
This is a message to the many people in Laguna Beach who knew and cared about Danita Crivello and who mourn her passing. In the general culture of grief, only the immediate family – parents, children and grandchildren, spouses and siblings – are sanctioned as mourners. The second tier of friends and colleagues stand behind [...]
Laguna is known for the arts. Fine arts. We also have a lot of good music, compliments of Laguna Beach Live, and fabulous dance, via Laguna Dance Festival. But I’m a wordsmith and I find myself often in search of literary arts that are harder to find. Yes, there are hundreds of book groups. Yes, [...]
I ran into Michael Beanan the other day. Michael is one of the founders of the Laguna Bluebelt Coalition, a force behind the marine life protected area along Laguna’s shoreline, and one of the most animated, compassionate, committed environmentalist I’ve ever met. He reminded me that water represents 70% of our natural world. I checked. [...]
I was away a couple of weeks and returned just after Labor Day to discover that the season had changed even before the autumn equinox. Ah yes, I remember: off-season. Pageant and festival doors are closed and the throngs are gone. Back to school. Back to work. Back to wherever they came from. And the [...]
I attended the “Pageant of the Masters” the other night. The best of the six I’ve seen. And the silence of the vast crowd in the midst of these stunning larger-than-life facsimiles and the soundtrack of a pitch-perfect orchestra once again struck me. Silent they were, but not still. Despite pre-show announcements and staff [...]
Editor, A city staff report shows 32 locations for installation of bike racks in the downtown area and park locations. It is noteworthy that bike racks were not assigned to locations of high traffic areas like banks, the Post Office, schools, coffee cafes or City Hall. Instead four prime locations were flagged as “not recommended” due [...]
A new exhibition titled “Dedicated to Painting the Landscape” presented by the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association, was installed this week at City Hall and will be on display through Aug. 17.
Editor, Go Mike Rybah! His letter (“A Critic of Profligate Spending at City Hall,” Letters, June 22) regarding our city using pension workers is accurate. Everyone in the city should ask for the budget covering things like picking up trash….It’s great to watch all of our city guys talking and slowly taking out the trash. [...]
Editor, I am writing regarding the proposed increase to sewer services charges. A 10 percent increase over three years is unacceptable and irresponsible. I have been reading about the frailty of the infrastructure for years. This money should have been set aside long ago. If Laguna Beach were a private corporation, whoever failed to budget [...]
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 [...]
