Mailbag: Consultants miss Laguna’s greatest qualities

On Dec. 3, the city conducted a Joint City Council and Planning Commission study session to provide, after months of work, an overview of the consultants’ research, analysis and preliminary recommendations, and to ask for feedback and direction.

We live in one of the most beautiful natural settings on earth.

And one people can get to without flying to the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

And we have one of the best climates on earth.

And a vast greenbelt surrounding the city for hiking and seeing nature.

And among the best beaches anywhere.

And a magnificent ocean where you can swim, snorkel, paddle, surf or just float around.

All great sources of life, vibrancy, vitality and entertainment.

And our Downtown Specific Plan consultants tell us that their idea for making Laguna Beach a better place is to come up with ways to allow businesses to sell booze without serving food?

John Thomas

Laguna Beach

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Fight against mass shootings dependent on majority rule

I’m trying to make sense of all the shootings on American soil since the Sandy Hook massacre three years ago this month. That’s when a deranged young man walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and killed 20 children, six adults and himself.

President Barack Obama is reported to have said the senseless killings that day were the low point of his presidency. He vowed to change our culture of guns but, since that fateful day, there have been at least 1,042 mass shootings, with gunmen killing at least 1,312 people and wounding 3,764 more.

If ISIS had inflicted the same number of casualties here at home, there would be calls for war from one end of Pennsylvania Avenue to the other in

Washington. So why not a domestic war on mass shootings?

It’s called democracy, and it isn’t always pretty. The Dec. 2 shootings in San Bernardino should remind us all how cruel majority rule can be sometimes.

As we enter this year’s holiday season, my hope is we never forget those who have been lost to crazed gunmen coast to coast. If we ever do, you can start counting the days until our American way of life is lost forever.

Denny Freidenrich

Laguna Beach