Endless Wave of Bad Luck : Misfortune Has Made Itself at Home in Once Carefree San Clemente

Before a recent storm trashed five expensive homes, there was an invasion of the mountain lions. There were hordes of house mice and roof rats. And so much more has happened that some residents have taken to calling this normally laid-back city “San Calamity.”

It all started with the coyote attack 10 months ago. Since then, this seaside town has also endured a budget crisis, chaos over its vaunted 65-year-old Police Department and a resulting recall campaign against four City Council members.

Then there’s the latest: One of the city’s oldest and most cherished buildings just burned.

“It’s been an unreal time,” said Mayor Truman Benedict. “I think we’re snake-bit. Things have to get better.”

Residents in this once carefree coastal community of 43,000 are wondering what will come next. A few folks wonder aloud if a biblical plague of locusts could be on the horizon.

“After all that we’ve been through this last year, nothing that can happen to San Clemente anytime soon will shock me,” resident Lynn Conlan, 44, said as she was getting her nails polished in a local salon. “Well, maybe locusts--but not much more.”

The list of misfortunes that have assaulted the city lately is enough to make residents shudder as they nervously point out that virtually no section of the city has been immune to the travail.

Last May and June, three coyotes were captured and killed after a coyote nipped a 5-year-old girl in broad daylight as she played on the lawn of her parents’ house in Forster Ranch at the north end of the city. There were at least six coyote sightings at the time, and numerous family pets were reported killed or missing.

After wreaking havoc on the residents’ nerves for weeks, the surviving coyotes departed, their tracks trailing off into the hills.

In July came smaller critters--house mice and roof rats. Dozens of them in some homes, hundreds scampering around in others.

Like the attack of the coyotes, the invasion of mice throughout San Clemente made national headlines.

“I have an exchange student from Denmark and before he came last year he asked if there were still mice running around. He saw the report of mice in our city on TV in Denmark!” Conlan said in amazement.

Conlan’s house in the Highland Light Village was “full of little white mice” during that period, she recalled, her face crinkling in distaste.

“We trapped a lot of them--especially in the garage--and we spent a fortune on glue traps,” she said. “I was so happy when we were finally rid of them; but then, before you knew it, I read about the mountain lions.”

That was in September, when homeowners of the Coast, an upscale community east of Interstate 5, reported spotting between 10 and 15 mountain lions roaming near their houses. A few pets were reported killed, but no one was injured during those sightings.

For city officials, getting rid of the wild animals was less stressful and easier to accomplish than tackling the municipal problems that followed.

“It simply cannot continue the way it is,” moaned City Manager Michael W. Parness, a 14-year government professional who called the succession of disasters “unprecedented in my experience.”

In recent months, the city was tossed into new turbulence when officials voted Feb. 17 to disband the Police Department and contract for services with the County Sheriff’s Department, a move predicted to save the cash-starved city $2 million annually.

Then, the city faced another crisis when a series of pounding winter storms caused major damage to aging streets, water lines and storm drains.

Downpours flooded streets and unleashed mudslides that destroyed five ocean-bluff homes above Pacific Coast Highway, damaged dozens of other homes and buildings, and shut down a vital link of railroad tracks. The track blockage mangled Amtrak commuter schedules and blocked freight shipments from reaching San Diego County.

While repair crews were furiously working last week to clean up the mudslide damage, the city’s second-oldest structure--the 67-year-old Bartlett Building--was gutted in a fire that officials suspected was caused by a tenant smoking in bed. The downtown commercial and apartment building once housed the city’s first newspaper, El Heraldo.

“In the 25 years I’ve lived in San Clemente, I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Jim Lusk, 63, a volunteer who helps the Police Department with parking citations and home vacation checks. “This is impossible to have this many things happening in a town this size.

“This city is going through turmoil, just like any other city around the world,” the retired former tool and manufacturing plant owner added. “But they don’t have everything happen at once.”

For Councilman Scott Diehl, a resident since 1977 and president of the county chapter of League of California Cities, this trying time is “a period of really being under the magnifying glass.”

His peers from other cities have been sympathetic, but clearly not envious, the councilman said.

“They just come up and shake my hand and say, ‘You don’t look so bad for what you’ve been through,’ ” he said.

How is he coping?

“Prayer is helpful,” replied Diehl.

As if problems caused by Mother Nature weren’t enough, Diehl and three other council members were served with official recall notices by residents angry with their vote to abolish San Clemente’s Police Department.

“The whole town is going through a phase of real bad luck. . . . It’s just been one bad piece of publicity after the next,” said Irv Weiner, owner of Coaches Corner bar.

Even with all of the recent headline-making problems, the people of this town are, if nothing else, resilient. They’ve been through a few demoralizing situations before, many said, noticeably in the 1980s when former President Richard Nixon decided to put the Nixon Library in his birth city of Yorba Linda instead of his adopted home of San Clemente.

If they could swallow that bitter pill and rebound, residents said, getting over the recent series of setbacks wouldn’t be impossible.

Sally Jeisy, president of the Chamber of Commerce and owner of a downtown gift shop, is optimistic that things will get better.

“We’ve all been talking about it, sometimes things happen in a pattern like this,” she said. “It can only get better.”

“San Clemente is a wonderful town; I really believe in the town,” said Bonnie Wells, 56, owner of a consignment shop close to the beach. “I don’t know what’s been happening, but whatever it is, I hope it’s over.”

‘San Calamity’

In 10 months, San Clemente has been hit by invasions of coyotes and mice, a mountain lion attack, a destructive landslide, a heartbreaking fire and damage to vital Amtrak train tracks. Soon, the streak of bad luck will claim its vaunted 65-year-old police force. Reeling from one disaster to another, some now call their laid-back seaside town “San Calamity.”

About San Clemente Founded: Dec. 6, 1925, by developer Ole Hanson Land rush: Hanson sold more than 415 lots at $300 each on opening day. Theme: Spanish village by the sea Design: White stucco building and red-tiled roofs were mandated in its early years. Incorporated: Feb. 21, 1928 Population: 41,100 Median household income: $46,374 Median age of residents: 34.6 years Median home value: $306,400 Source: 1990 Census; “A Hundred Years of Yesterdays,” published by Orange County Centennial Inc.

‘In the 25 years I’ve lived in San Clemente, I’ve never seen anything like this. . . . This is impossible to have this many things happening in a town this size.’

-- Jim Lusk, police volunteer, 63

* SYMBOL OF DISTRESS: In eight years Michael Sorg has lost three top jobs with the city. B13