Cityscape Roundup:

Los Angeles' first openly gay city councilman, Bill Rosendahl, has joined the effort to preserve the Boom Boom Room and Coast Inn in Laguna Beach, Save the Boom founder Fred Karger said.

The Save the Boom effort has obtained more than 4,000 signatures on petitions, Karger said. The goal is 5,000 signatures.

Rosendahl joins former Laguna City councilman and three-time mayor Robert F. Gentry as co-chair.

"I am hopeful that we can help create a public private partnership with the city, the property owner and the gay community to preserve not only this building but gay life in Laguna Beach," Gentry said.

"I have been going to Laguna Beach since 1981," Rosendahl said. "I want to continue to come back to the Laguna I know and love just as I have been doing for the past 25 years. This club and hotel are an integral part of the community, and they should be there for future generations.

"The Boom Boom Room is steeped in history. It is the oldest continuously operating gay bar in the western United States and is viewed as a landmark by the gay community. It must be preserved. I hope that Laguna Beach City leaders will help us in our campaign to Save the Boom," Rosendahl said.

Gentry, who served on the Laguna city council from 1982 to 1994, was one of the first openly gay mayors in the United States.

The Save the Boom campaign was launched June 1. For more information, visit www.savetheboom.com.

High bacteria count at West Street beach

A student effort to measure bacteria levels at Laguna beaches on a weekly basis has detected an extraordinarily high level of bacteria at West Street beach.

The beach water bacteria count was 1,119 on July 31 — 10 times higher than is required for beach warnings to swimmers. Other beaches in Laguna on that day were measured with levels between zero and 31. The county posts warning signs to swimmers when the bacteria count is 104 or above.

Marshall Thomas, a Laguna Beach High School student who coordinates the testing with the local chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, says he will report the West Street bacteria count to the county.

Thomas says he doesn't know why West Street beach tested so high on that date, and that it could be an anomaly. The beach tested "clean" three out of the last five testings, but measured 202 during one of those recent testings, Thomas said.

The Surfrider bacteria counts are not considered official and do not result in posting of beach warnings.