Mailbag: Surveillance at Carolyn Wood Knoll is working

This morning, I was very pleased to see that the surveillance camera is now in place on the Carolyn Wood Knoll. The camera, plus the Laguna Beach police cruiser parked at the end of Alta Laguna, appear to have had an impact on after-hour visitation to the Knoll. This morning there were far fewer cigarette butts on and about the area.

While it is way too soon to declare the war on careless smokers over, it is encouraging to see that after-hour visitors were apparently turned away from the restricted areas by these visible deterrents.

This is not to say that there is no longer a need for regular patrols by police, fire and park personnel on and around the Knoll. Far from it.

We are facing another month of high fire danger, probably longer if the drought continues. This must be an all-out and relentless campaign to reverse years of irresponsible visitor behavior.

The time, money and effort required to maintain this level of vigilance will be well worth it when compared to what would happen if just one carelessly discarded butt ignites a wildfire. You do not have to think too hard about the consequences of taking the focus off what is a very real threat.

Please continue to do what’s necessary to keep us safe.

Jerry King

Laguna Beach

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Get creative with street sweeping

My wife and I have lived in Laguna Beach for the past 16 years and wish to express our frustration over the amount of trash that accumulates on Coast Highway within the city.

Visitors and residents deposit a large variety of refuse and a relatively small number of individuals ever seem to pick any of it up. Every week our city sends out street sweepers, but the curb area of the roadway is most often so crowded with parked cars that these sweepers can’t gain access to the mess, and it is left behind.

After a normal, busy weekend, when the crowds depart, a walk along PCH will reveal such things as dirty diapers, used syringes, empty beer and soda cans, liquor bottles, as well as other associated trash that is left in our gutters.

This material along with the normal accumulation of leaves, sand and dirt is then left until normal street sweeping can either get to it or until it rains and the material is washed into the storm drains and on out to our beautiful ocean.

We believe that the city should initiate a parking program to allow access for the street sweepers, which we are already paying for, to do their job. The program could be as simple as setting aside one day per week for sweeping and making the west side of PCH a no parking zone from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. and the east side one from 6 a.m. until 8 a.m.

Such a program would allow access for sweeping and provide some additional benefits as well. One such additional benefit would be to force the movement of cars that are currently left on the street, in some cases, for extended periods of time. Another benefit would be the clearing of both sides of the downtown to allow sidewalk cleaning.

The exact details of such a parking program would need to be worked out such that the disruption for businesses could be mitigated as much as possible. Parking space is also an issue that needs to be considered, but some kind of space clearing method will be required for this to succeed and we need it.

Dan Sugg

Laguna Beach

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It’s right and logical to help homeless

I wonder where opponents of permanent supportive housing in the canyon would propose to put it. Every community in America must deal with the question of what to do about their most vulnerable.

State law requires all cities to identify at least one zoning district where a homeless shelter would be allowed.

The Friendship Shelter in Laguna is not for the chronically homeless. One must be employable and actively applying for work to be a resident at the Friendship Shelter.

Nor is the present Alternative Sleeping Location in the canyon a supportive service center for the homeless. It is merely a facility where people are allowed to sleep on mats on the floor. It is locked during the day, forcing the chronically homeless into the downtown area and on to the beaches.

It is heartless and fallacious to believe that caring for our disabled and disenfranchised might attract more of them. All evidence points to the contrary. When we have the courage to face our own moral responsibility we inspire and lead other communities to do the same.

An interesting study was done by Philip Mangano, the executive director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. Before he left the Obama administration to start a new nonprofit, the American Roundtable to Abolish Homelessness, he found that the total cost of municipal services used annually by a homeless person — E.R. visits, hospital stays, jail time, and shelter expenses — was about $35,000 to $150,000 per person, compared to $13,000 to $25,000 to provide each homeless person with an apartment and a social worker.

Providing permanent supportive housing for the homeless is the right thing to do, morally and financially. I urge local citizens to join me in voting for officials that are willing to do something about it.

Jessica deStefano

Laguna Beach