Seniors need the affordable housing The recent...

Seniors need the affordable housing

The recent decision of the City Council to allow seniors at the

affordable housing project on Glenneyre Street demonstrated that our

leaders are listening to us.

As home values and rents continue to rise in Laguna, it has long

been the concern of many seniors that we will be displaced. Many of

us are long-time residents of Laguna and want to spend our remaining

years in the city we have called home for years.

While we understand that the replacement affordable housing

project was required when Treasure Island affordable housing

(trailers) was removed, we hope you will remember that a number of

those who were living in that affordable housing at the trailer park

were seniors.

Council members Steve Dicterow and Elizabeth Pearson have long

listened to our concerns and their vote to give seniors the

opportunity to live at the affordable housing project tells me that

they continue to listen to, and be concerned for, Laguna’s seniors.

LOUISE BUCKLEY

Laguna Beach

Parents need to learn English

Did anyone else have a problem with the lead article, “Spanish

Links”? (Coastline Pilot, Sept. 26)

Am I the only one who was troubled by the notion that Laguna Beach

should have a full time interpreter/liaison for the 100 or so Spanish

speaking parents in our community? Let me first say that I would feel

exactly the same if the parents spoke French or Russian or any other

language, and I would feel the same if it were 150 or 200 or 500

parents.

Why in the world should we offer interpreters to parents? This is

America and English is the language. And why can’t their own

children, who presumably speak English, interpret for them? We are

not doing anyone a favor by not requiring them to become proficient

in English as soon as possible. The key to pursuing the opportunities

that America offers is English. We should be supporting assimilation

not balkanization.

Nor was I relieved to read that the funds for this position were

coming from the federal government as opposed to the local district’s

funds. Let us not forget that federal funds came out of our pockets,

too. I have to believe that our money could be better spent.

JOYCE HOFFMAN

Laguna Beach

Driftwood project still misses the mark

Three years of work by city staff, applicants and neighbors on the

Driftwood development came to a rather disheartening end at a special

council meeting on Sept. 24.

The approved project has the same footprint as the original; the

18 proposed lots have been reduced to 11 by making each one larger. A

general plan amendment removing a natural watercourse from the city’s

map has been approved to accommodate the construction of a new

street. The required fuel modification for the project is expected to

extend into areas of sensitive habitat.

The revised configuration will require the export of 26,600 cubic

yards of earth (about 1,600 truckloads), and the extension of

Driftwood with parking on both sides of the street is viewed

critically by the Fire Department.

The maximum 6,300-square-foot footprint established throughout the

tract will permit 12,500-square-foot houses on the largest of the

lots -- and this in a neighborhood where the average two-story home

is 2,170 square feet (and two-thirds of the homes are one-story) and

in the context of repeated assurances by council members that

neighborhood compatibility was their goal.

The dedication of open space is of course very welcome, but, given

that the subdivision process is discretionary for the city, the

council could have required an appropriate level of development as

well. City staff originally recommended a seven-lot subdivision with

no general plan amendment, and the neighborhood has sketched a

five-lot subdivision that it considers sustainable from its point of

view. It’s disappointing that the council chose not to insist on one

of these alternatives.

The project must still gain Coastal Commission approval and given

the strong environmental arguments against it, we can perhaps hope

that an appropriate project will eventually emerge.

BARBARA METZGER

Laguna Beach

Rasner, not Young, is best for festival

We have been supporters of the festival for many years and have

considerably upped our monetary support due to the work of Bruce

Rasner and his fellow board members.

Only in Laguna Beach do you see the slanderous letters in our

local papers such as the recent one written by Jeff Gates. Again I am

appalled at the dirty politics played in such a delightful small

town.

This past weekend I received a phone call from David Young’s

office asking for my support for Young and his associates. I advised

the caller that I felt it was time for Young to retire and that

Rasner had done and would continue to do an admirable job on behalf

of the Festival of Arts. In addition to that I requested that the

caller tell me where she got my name and phone number because to my

understanding even the board is not allowed to have access to the

list of members. How did Young get a list of members?

Young in his campaign literature has stated that he is against any

“big construction” on the grounds of the festival, however he is on

record for having voted for the approximate $2-million workshop

reconstruction.

It is time for everyone in Laguna Beach to sit down and thank

Bruce Rasner for his many efforts, time and labor on behalf of the

festival and in addition to that make sure he is re-elected to the

board.

W.W. AND ANN W. MCDONALD

Laguna Beach

Young wants to set record straight

I feel compelled to set the record straight with regard to Bob

Dietrich’s blatantly misleading letter in last week’s papers(“One

side of the festival election” Coastline Pilot, Sept. 26), as well as

other misinformation being circulated with respect to the upcoming

Festival of Arts board election.

It is true I am again running for the Festival board, but not, as

implied, in tandem with the other folks Dietrich has endorsed.

I am proud to be running as part of a slate with Anita Mangels and

Carolyn Reynolds.

Let me repeat that so there is no misunderstanding. I

wholeheartedly support Anita Mangels and Carolyn Reynolds as the

candidates best qualified to help me and the membership preserve and

protect our festival and pageant. I am supporting no other

candidates, despite misleading statements others may have made.

I am extremely disappointed by the unscrupulous tactics apparently

being employed by Dietrich, and the incumbent board president and

majority, to hold onto control of the festival at any cost.

Dietrich’s letter, obviously intended to confuse festival members as

to who is supporting whom in this race, is only one example. The

incumbent board president, who resides in Laguna Niguel, used the

Laguna Beach return address of one of his handpicked, appointed board

colleagues for his campaign mailer so Laguna residents would actually

think he lives here too.

And virtually every day I hear about outrageous statements this

group has made (never in print, and never where I, Mangels or

Reynolds can respond to them) about what terrible things we would

allegedly do if elected. After 50 years of service to the festival,

including five terms as president, I think most members know better,

but it saddens me to see and hear of these disgraceful and clearly

desperate attempts to mislead voting members and the public.

If we can’t even trust these people to be honest about where their

candidate lives or who is supporting him, how can we trust them with

our precious festival and pageant? That’s why it’s so important to

make a change in board leadership and majority and that’s why I’m

running for yet another term.

I’m asking members to vote for me, and to also vote for Mangels

and Reynolds. Unlike some others, there’s no mistaking where we

stand, and you don’t need a lawyer or a dictionary to figure it out.

We oppose licensing of the pageant in any form, and will work hard to

facilitate fiscal responsibility and accountability, and to promote

more open communication between the board, members, artists and

volunteers.

DAVID YOUNG

Laguna Beach

Young, Mangels, Reynolds are answer

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.

David’s long-time involvement on the board, Anita’s nonprofit and

financial expertise, and Carolyn’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

Incumbent Festival of Arts president Bruce Rasner wants members to

elect him to another term on the festival board. I can think of

nothing worse for the festival and pageant.

Rasner has proven time and again he has no respect for festival

members, volunteers or artists, or the thousands of people who come

here every year because they love the exhibit and pageant just as

they are: unique to Laguna Beach.

He refuses to listen to their concerns about licensing, excessive

spending, the overpaid and arrogant soon-to-be-former executive

director, and penchant for secret meetings and deal-making. Rasner

insults them in private and in print, then hides behind the wives of

his fellow board members, who feel compelled to defend him in letters

to the editor.

While Rasner deserves our thanks for what he did to save the

festival, he doesn’t deserve our votes this time around. We don’t

need to spend millions of dollars on unnecessary projects like

covering the Irvine Bowl, building a new museum or subsidizing

expensive restaurants on the grounds and we don’t need to facilitate

competing productions of the pageant in order to pay for it.

There are several candidates running for the board. In my opinion,

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

help reverse the damage Rasner has done and get back to the business

of truly keeping the festival and pageant here in Laguna. I encourage

members to vote for Young Reynolds and Mangels.

DAVID E. KELLY

Laguna Beach

Dietrich rebuttal was off base

A treasurer needs to be very accurate and have attention to

detail. However, Festival of Arts Treasurer Bob Dietrich wrote a

letter to the editor which was published in the Coastline Pilot on

Sept. 26 and was full of inaccuracies.

I object to Dietrich writing: “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. While Felder and his associates have

called for stopping the improvements (even to include law suits) ...

” None of this is true, all inaccurate and without attention to

detail. And I am not entertained.

I spoke to Dietrich and he says he believes my views were

expressed in an ad that I placed in another paper a few weeks ago. He

does not have a copy, and the editor of the paper can find no such

view expressed by me in an ad or a letter to the editor.

Volunteers should be appreciated, however, members have a right to

elect new board members. I agree with Dietrich that we should all

vote for Festival of Arts board member David Young. To support David

Young, if you are eligible to vote in the upcoming Festival of Arts

board election, we should also vote for David Young’s slate: Vote for

David Young, Anita Mangels and Carolyn Reynolds.

GENE FELDER

Laguna Beach

Letter misses the horror of Pinochet

In a mailbag section posted on Sept 26 (“Film society already

causing a stir”) Gene Felder responds to a film segment dealing with

what he calls the “Allende good/Pinochet bad affair,” and considered

it a bad piece of “pure propaganda.”

He goes on to describe the historical context that justified

military intervention and noted that, all things considered, this

event was “less bloody than any other major 20th Century revolution”

and resulted in the “best outcome” given the political and economic

stability that Chile is presently enjoying.

Felder, perhaps you are right to assume that this film (which I

have not seen) offers a very polarized view of the events. Your

statements however are just as narrow minded. In addition, they are

incredibly ignorant and insensitive of the tragedy that befell many

Chilean families, who are struggling to find some closure in the

search of their still unaccounted for loved ones.

A three year fact-finding international investigation resulted in

the eventual arrest of Pinochet for committed atrocities against

humanity. In a sorry twist of fate, Pinochet, now of advanced age,

has been diagnosed with dementia and therefore cannot stand trial. So

there may never be a resolution that will satisfy the victims and

Pinochet’s mind will spare him the torture of the memory of the

crimes committed. The official death toll in this coup stands as

3,197, almost identical to the number of people killed on the Sept.

11 terrorist attack. Most of the casualties (the majority of them

civilians) were reported as having been shot in the street or

machine-gunned in the Santiago soccer stadium.

Reportedly more than 60,000 Chileans were tortured under the

dictatorship and 1 million left the country to escape political

repression. This was a violent overthrow of a democratically elected

president. That he was selected by a minority vote doesn’t make the

process less valid. Our current U.S. president was not a product of a

popular vote but the culmination of a democratic / republican

process, and those who are not happy with this outcome will be able

to exercise their opinion with their vote in the next presidential

elections, without a need for military intervention.

Allende was not able to turn around an economy that had already

been going sour when he took over. His economic reforms were ill

advised and too radical and his stubborn attitude and refusal to

change cost him a significant loss in popularity and eventually, his

life. The Chilean political system provided electoral avenues to

express dissent, yet a long planned and heavily U.S.-supported

military coup truncated any attempts of democratic resolution.

Up to the time of the military overthrow, Chile had been the

country with the longest history of democratic government in Latin

America. That they have bounced back from 17 years of military

dictatorship and a tragic history of repression and human rights

atrocities is largely due to their great cultural preparedness and

their allegiance to a democratic ideal that they hoped to recapture

one day.

You also fail to mention that Pinochet’s takeover, and the

military rule that followed, was executed and maintained with the

blessings of the United States government. Alarmed by the rise of a

leftist leadership, and with the goal of protecting its investments,

Washington and the CIA provided economic support to military and

radical right-wing groups adverse to Allende’s party line. The U.S.

also provided lists of “subversives” and assassinations of high

ranking exiled political leaders were carried out by Pinochet with

the full knowledge of the top U.S. foreign advisor at the time, Henry

Kissinger.

Assuming an incredibly arrogant attitude, Kissinger summarized the

U.S. intervention and support of the military dictatorship with the

following statement: “I don’t see why we need to stand by and watch a

country go Communist because of the irresponsibility of its own

people.”

But, as they say, you don’t have to take my word for it. Please

visit the National Security archives of George Washington University,

which display a few of the declassified documents on the subject:

https://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/

news/20001113/.

Another visit to the Human Rights Watch Web site may help you

understand that behind your “could have been worse” estimation there

are victims, dead and alive, that will be forever marred by this

tragedy and may never achieve the dream of realizing the justice that

they so much want and deserve.

ILEANA FROMETA GRILLO

Laguna Beach

Too bad Gene Felder hasn’t heard of the recently declassified

documents on Sept. 11, 1973. He would have learned what the rest of

the world has known for 30 years: that the CIA-sponsored Pinochet

coup did overturn a democratically elected government which resulted

in thousands being killed, tortured and disappeared.

The lucky ones went into exile, the rest suffered 18 years of

terror and misery. History has a way to reveal the truth. Again, too

bad some cling to their propaganda.

THERESE BALLET LYNN

Laguna Beach

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.