An eye-catching story

Several items in a story reported in the Pilot on Tuesday were

eye-catching.

The first and most obvious was that a recovery treatment center

has managed to maintain its prime location at 1810 W. Oceanfront despite rising property prices.

Neighbors of the 32-bed Narcanon facility aren’t terribly pleased

that it’s still there, of course, and are agitating for help from

City Hall to deal with problems that, they say, include noisy

delivery and service trucks, tossed-aside cigarette butts, smoke

smell and vomiting noises. Or, as neighbor Linda Orozco put it, “Our

major issues are the density of that property and all the problems

that it involves -- noise, traffic.”

The other eye-popping piece of information is one that maybe some

folks knew and maybe was new to other folks. Narcanon was founded by

a former prison inmate who based the program on principles taught by

Church of Scientology founder and “Dianetics” author L. Ron Hubbard.

Whoa! Maybe a Hollywood star or two might turn up soon.