Village supports pedestrians Village Laguna is pleased...

Village supports pedestrians

Village Laguna is pleased that the city has hired a consultant and

is moving ahead with the analysis of transportation and parking

issues in the Downtown area.

As everyone knows, the Downtown was an important focus of the

Vision Laguna process, and the idea of making the Downtown more

pedestrian-friendly was an objective shared by most, if not all, of

the working groups. In particular, the group on Resident and Visitor

Mobility was very strongly supportive of a pedestrian-oriented

Downtown and put forward several specific recommendations to achieve

that end. That group also believed that any useful analysis of the

Downtown area must be based on quantitative data rather than on

anecdote and opinion.

Therefore, we appreciate that the current analysis has begun with

the collection of data. These quantitative data must, of course, be

directed toward achieving the qualitative objectives of the citizens.

Therefore, we want to encourage you to see that the consultants are

asked to focus on the pedestrian environment as the key to retaining

and improving the character, attractiveness and long-term viability

of the Downtown.

Village Laguna has been supportive of providing peripheral parking

to ease traffic and parking problems in the Downtown area, especially

in the summer time. Currently, the Act V parking lot with free tram

service to the Downtown is serving that purpose. Free tram service

along Coast Highway also helps to reduce traffic and the need for

parking in the Downtown during the summer.

We are concerned about the current proposal to change the design

for the Village Entrance that won the design competition to a

different plan that would result in fewer overall parking spaces and

would shift more parking and traffic to the Downtown Village Entrance

area. We think that it is very important to analyze parking needs and

traffic problems separately for the summer and winter periods as

there is the perception that parking is not a significant problem in

the winter. The current traffic study could test the reality of that

perception. It may well be appropriate to propose solutions that

would address separately the parking and traffic concerns of these

seasons.

We understand that the consultants are going to be interviewing

representatives of key organizations and stake-holders in town. We

would very much like to be included in that group.

GINGER OSBORNE

President, Village Laguna

Film society already causing a stir

Now there is an exciting event the second Thursday of each month.

Kudos to all involved with the Laguna Beach Film Society. Building

upon the fine work of the Exchange Club, the Laguna Beach Film

Society is a new organization sponsored by Laguna Art Museum, which

began its inaugural season with the film “09’11”01.” There were no

empty seats at the Laguna South Coast Cinema.

Primarily dealing with Sept. 11, 2001, it was great. However,

there was a pure propaganda segment on the military coup overthrowing

Salvador Allende of Chile Sept. 11, 1973. It was an Allende

good/Pinochet bad puff piece.

In fact, the Chilean revolution was less bloody than any other

major 20th Century revolution and it produced the best outcomes,

including the last 13 years of democratic rule by center-left

governments. Although by a minority of the vote, Allende was

democratically elected in 1970. However, in 1972, his Socialist Party

proclaimed that the bourgeois state is not suited for the

construction of socialism; that its destruction is necessary ... “we

must conquer all power.”

Former presidents and the Chilean judiciary and legislature tried

to thwart Allende’s power grab. James Whelan writes, “Faced with

illegal seizures of farms and factories, of defiance of judicial

orders, unchecked street violence and death threats against the

judges themselves, the Supreme Court warned on May 26, 1973, in a

unanimous and unprecedented message, that Chile faced ‘a peremptory

or imminent breakdown of legality.’ Three months later, on Aug. 22,

the Chamber of Deputies -- which had come within two votes of

impeaching Allende -- voted a resolution which said ‘it is a fact

that this government has been, from the very beginning, bent on the

conquest of total power ... so as to implant a totalitarian system.’

It was in that setting that Gen. Pinochet and the heads of the other

armed forces acted.”

The Film Society’s membership includes admission to all our

monthly screenings, detailed updates via e-mail of the upcoming films

and programs and invitations to members-only receptions and programs.

Membership with museum discount is single $125 or dual $200.

See https://www.lagunaart museum.org/programs.htm or call (949)

494-8971, ext. 200 for more information.

GENE FELDER

Laguna Beach

One side of the festival election

I have read with interest and some entertainment, Gene Felder’s

battle to stop improvements for the Pageant of the Masters and

Festival of Arts facilities. In his recent ad in the Laguna Beach

Independent, he called for a stop to “big construction” at the

festival. At the same time, he is backing a slate of candidates for

the Festival Board that includes David Young, a staunch supporter of

the pageant and supporter of the pageant improvements.

While Felder and his associates have called for stopping the

improvements (even to include law suits), their own candidate, Young,

voted with a unanimous board to proceed with the final phase of a

$3-million project to improve the safety and working environment for

our pageant guests, staff and volunteers. Young even offered to build

the project. Why is Felder promoting a candidate that is not in step

with his personal agenda?

We now have a board that is working in unison with the City

Council of Laguna Beach to finally repair decades of neglect to the

festival and pageant. Two current board members, Bruce Rasner and

Young, have voted consistently to see that our heritage is protected.

Both are current candidates for the board. Rasner has continuously

asked the tough economic questions and Young has made sure that

tradition has been honored. When all is said and done, they have come

together as a team to make sure that the festival and pageant, along

with volunteers, patrons and staff, are properly protected.

I would strongly urge the citizens of Laguna Beach to vote for

Rasner and Young. Rasner is the only current exhibiting festival

artist running for the board, and Young will always seek to protect

the pageant. We need to see both the festival and pageant represented

in the composition of the board.

Pageant volunteer and board candidate Richard Hawthorne has been

working back stage and understands the needs of the pageant more than

those who claim support the Pageant, but pay no attention to the

needs of the pageant staff and volunteers. Hawthorne’s decades of

business experience will be a needed addition to the festival board.

We need to make sure that the promises made by the festival to the

city are kept to insure the basic safety of the people using and

enjoying the festival facilities. Please support the pageant and

festival staff, volunteers and guests. Vote for Rasner, Young and

Hawthorne for the festival board.

BOB DIETRICH

Laguna Beach

Another side of festival election

As a voting member of the Festival of Arts, I have done my best to

learn about the candidates for board of directors and about the

issues facing the festival and pageant. My conclusion is that Anita

Mangels, Carolyn Reynolds and David Young are the best qualified to

fill the three vacant seats coming up for election.

Mangels, Young and Reynolds are committed to truly keeping the

festival and pageant in Laguna -- something the incumbent president

and board majority give lip service to but undermine by their

continued support of mass producing the pageant for money in other

locations.

Mangels, Young and Reynolds will take a common-sense (what we

need), long-term approach to spending the Festival’s hard-earned

dollars (not like others), prioritizing expenditures by necessity and

fiscal reality, in sharp contrast to the free-wheeling and whimsical

blank-check approach of the incumbent president and his majority.

Perhaps most importantly, Mangels, Young and Reynolds have a clear

understanding have and commitment to, the mission of the festival: to

promote art and art appreciation in Laguna Beach. They will take

seriously their fiduciary, ethical and moral responsibilities as

stewards of a 70-year legacy. They will put the interests of the

festival before those of Hollywood promoters or others who see an

opportunity to make a quick buck at the long-term expense of the

festival and pageant, or of opportunists who see the festival as a

launching pad for their own ambitions.

I’ve taken a good hard look at the direction the festival is

going, and at the president and board majority that’s taking us

there. I don’t like what I see. It’s time for a change, and we could

do no better than Mangels, Reynolds and Young to help us re-focus on

what’s important.

I urge my fellow members to join me in voting for Mangels,

Reynolds and Young for festival board.

ROSS FALLAH

Laguna Beach

It’s not surprising that embattled Festival of Arts president

Bruce Rasner has enlisted a few of his friends, colleagues and even

the wives of fellow board members to write supportive letters to the

local papers about him.

But no amount of praise about Rasner’s contributions during the

initial battle to save the festival can disguise the fact that he has

gone from being an asset to a serious liability on the festival

board.

During his term as president, Rasner has presided over a deeply

divided board whose majority has espoused licensing our pageant to

other cities -- although when asked he dances around the subject by

saying no deals have actually been made, or parses the definition of

the concept with a skill worthy of Bill Clinton. Most of us are smart

enough to figure out that if he’s not willing to state in plain

language that he won’t pursue or support helping other cities produce

their own versions of our pageant, it means he has every intention of

doing just that.

The members who’ve weighed in on licensing are overwhelmingly

opposed, as are the artists, volunteers and patrons who’ve also

spoken up on the subject. Rasner seems to have forgotten that as an

elected director of a nonprofit organization, he is answerable to the

membership. We can’t afford to keep him on just because he did the

right thing a few years ago.

Benedict Arnold was a hero of the American Revolution until he

sold West Point to the British. Luckily, he was stopped before the

deal went through. Rasner is running for re-election to the festival

board. Hopefully, the members will vote him out before he sells our

pageant to the highest bidder.

LIZA INTERLANDI STEWART

Laguna Beach

The Festival of Arts can save itself additional wasted funds if

the members vote now to dump Board President Bruce Rasner. Otherwise,

the festival is facing the cost of a recall to oust him.

Rasner has seized on the festival as his cushy retirement package,

hoping it will offer him the opportunity to hawk his photos.

Anyone who’s attended one of his “meetings” knows that his style

is dominating, obnoxious and replete with just the sort of

half-truths that earn lawyers a bad name. Painfully absent is the

collegiality and mutual respect required to be effective in a

community of artists. Rasner is grotesquely ill-suited to the job.

After playing a part in ousting the previous president, he hired

Steve Brezzo, who had been chased out of San Diego. Rasner hires him

for $175,000 per year (plus a bonus). .

Forced to call an artists meeting to answer growing concerns about

his out-of-control spending, Rasner holds court for 45 of the 60

minutes and then stomps his feet and threatens to resign (Hooray!)

when confronted with a direct question.

Now he’s lined up a cabal of sycophants who are singing his

praises in the press, doubtless hopeful Rasner will include them in

his hoped-for Traveling Road Show. Anyone who knows him knows he’s

the last person who should be representing the Laguna Beach arts

community anywhere. His financial judgment is flawed and his style

lacking any semblance of professionalism.

Rasner has endangered the festival -- both its finances and its

reputation. He’s also endangered the artists. The festival should be

spared the cost of a recall to remove him from the board. Dump him

now or dump him later.

JEFF GATES

Laguna Beach

Festival of Arts members will soon elect three new board members.

Their votes will determine whether the festival and pageant continue

to flourish in Laguna Beach, or whether fiscal mismanagement and

grandiose licensing schemes will reduce them to pale imitations of

the unique, excellent events they now are.

Incumbent president Bruce Rasner has alienated countless festival

members, pageant volunteers, artists and visitors with his arrogance,

secret meetings, free-wheeling spending and unapologetic support of

cloning the pageant in one way, shape or form in other cities. It’s

no accident that all six of his opponents in the upcoming board

election are running against the policies of Rasner and his current

board majority.

It’s been suggested that Rasner should be elected because of his

involvement in the Save the Festival movement a few years ago. On the

contrary, we now have to save the festival from one of the people who

saved the festival.

While any three of the six other candidates would be better for

the festival than Rasner, many of us are supporting David Young,

Anita Mangels and Carolyn Reynolds, who were also deeply involved in

keeping the festival in Laguna and who remain committed not only to

the letter but the spirit of that effort. Young’s long-time

involvement on the board, Mangels’ nonprofit and financial expertise,

and Reynold’s insight as the only artist running make them the best

qualified team to get the festival back on track.

Vote to save the festival again. Vote Young, Mangels and Reynolds

for festival board.

HELENA MERCURIO

Laguna Beach

As a former Festival of Arts Board member and a founder of the

Committee to Keep the Festival in Laguna Beach, I am strongly

supporting nominees David Young, Anita Mangels and Carolyn Reynolds

in the upcoming board election. I am doing this because I’m concerned

about the direction and future of the festival and pageant under

incumbent president Bruce Rasner and the current board majority.

We saved the festival a few years ago because the board, under

then-president Sherri Butterfield, insisted on pursuing its own

ambitions and agenda. It held festival members, volunteers and

artists in utter contempt and employed an insidious strategy of

closed session meetings, secret deals and putting out misinformation

to the public to advance its goal of moving the festival and pageant

to San Clemente.

Now many artists and volunteers are expressing these same serious

concerns, which I share, over the direction the festival is taking

under the Board President, Rasner. Rasner seems to have embraced the

Butterfield model of questionable, badly prioritized spending;

misleading, inadequate disclosure, and the encouragement of corporate

raiders he once condemned.

Unless we make some changes on the board, there is a real risk of

over-commercialization, including possible syndication of the

pageant, that would strip the festival and pageant of the very charm

and unique qualities that have made them so successful for the last

70 years. Keeping the Festival in Laguna won’t mean much if we allow

its very essence to be altered beyond recognition.

This isn’t an issue of not appreciating the work Rasner did in the

past to help save the festival. That can’t and shouldn’t be denied,

but there’s a tremendous disconnect between what he did then and what

he’s doing now. I strongly believe that currently, the greatest risk

to the festival’s future is Rasner’s re-election to the board.

We need to get back to basics, and Young, Mangels and Reynolds are

the best team to help us get there. To keep the Festival and Pageant

as we know and love them, I urge members to join me in voting for

Young, Mangels and Reynolds for festival board.

ROBIN HALL

Former Festival Board Member;

Co-founder, Committee to

Keep the Festival in Laguna

Beach; and Festival of Arts

Exhibiting Artist

The Coastline Pilot is eager to run your letters. If your letter

does not appear, it may be because of space restrictions, and the

letter will likely appear next week. If you would like to submit a

letter, write to us at P.O. Box 248, Laguna Beach, CA 92652; fax us

at (949) 494-8979; or send e-mail to [email protected].

Please give your name and include your hometown and phone number, for

verification purposes only.