Corona del Mar Today: Yarn bandits decorate Sherman Gardens

A group of so-called Yard Bombing Bandits have targeted Sherman Library and Gardens, 2647 East Coast Highway, leaving trees covered in rainbows of yarn as part of a guerrilla art movement that began a decade ago.

“Corona del Mar’s local knit graffiti gang known as the Yarn Bombing Bandits have been lurking around Sherman Gardens all week,” a Sherman Library & Gardens news release said. “They were picked up on surveillance video … The Gardens increased our patrols and added extra security, but to no avail!

“Staff arrived at the Garden on Friday morning to find the Yarn Bombing Bandits had evaded security and completed their colorful guerrilla ‘knit graffiti’ assault on the Garden.”

Online sources say the international Yarn Bombing movement began in 2005, when a Houston woman covered a door knob with a homemade cozy. The movement grew, in part as a way to use remnants and in part to create street art without causing permanent damage.

The Yarn Bombing exhibit will be on display through Nov. 22. Sherman Library & Gardens is open from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.

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Free Coast Highway parking could end

Allowing street parking in Corona del Mar could add as much as $500,000 a year to the city’s budget if pay stations were installed to collect fees, the city’s finance director told members of the Corona del Mar Business Improvement District.

“It’s a good ongoing revenue stream to support commercial projects in the area,” Dan Matusiewicz told the group at its monthly board meeting at the Civic Center. “The B.I.D. could say, ‘We’re making our good faith effort to support projects as well’” as asking for city funds.

The B.I.D. board did not spend more than a few minutes discussing the suggestion.

Chairman Bernie Svalstad said that the group was working on several parking reports, and it would be better to wait for the October meeting to discuss pay stations.

Svalstad did ask if staff had considered “bleedover” onto residential streets off Coast Highway, if motorists avoided pay spots in favor of side streets.

Matusiewicz said staff had developed a plan that would convert 390 spaces on East Coast Highway between Avocado and Poppy avenues to paid spaces.

Instead of meters, he said, there would be pay stations placed on city sidewalks. Ultimately, he said, technology would allow visitors to pay for parking using mobile phones.

City staff wanted to gauge B.I.D. members’ reaction to the suggestion before approaching the Corona del Mar Residents Assn., he said.

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Library Board postpones library recommendations

The Newport Beach Board of Library Trustees decided to wait another month before recommending interior and exterior designs for a new Corona del Mar branch during a meeting Monday afternoon.

City staff had requested approval of a layout plan that had an open interior, and staff also is asking that the trustees select two proposed exterior renderings to send to the City Council.

But the Friends of the CdM Library group suggested an alternate interior design that was more “cozy” and had more separation between children and adult areas.

Library Services Director Tim Hetherton told the board he thought the Friends’ plan was “a little claustrophobic,” but board members wanted more information on layout details, including restroom placement and window options.

The board also decided to wait until the group’s October meeting before approving an exterior design, although there was general consensus about the top choice, which the architect described as “prairie.”

For years, city staff has been considering a plan to demolish the existing fire station and library on Marigold Avenue, then rebuild them as one building. This March, the City Council approved a contract with an architect, but residents opposed early plans that reduced the new library to 2,500 feet compared to its current 3,750 feet.

Corona del Mar Today appears Sundays in the Daily Pilot. Read daily updates at coronadelmartoday.com.