New Center

The relocated Laguna Beach emergency homeless shelter, or Alternative Sleeping Location, began accepting lodgers Tuesday, according to city officials. The nightly shelter at 20652 Laguna Canyon Road replaces the temporary facility that has been in place since November at the ACT V parking lot at 1900 Laguna Canyon Road. The new facility is between the Dog Park and the Pacific Marine Mammal Center. Homeless people will be picked up at the city bus depot on Broadway beginning at 6 p.m. and transported by van to the new shelter, which is about a mile farther up the canyon from the former shelter site.

City Council got what it wanted this year -- statues with clothes -- but El Morro Village residents did not.1 Landslide: See "Top Story of 2005." 2 A landmark compromise on the development of a municipal facility at the Act V parking lot on Laguna Canyon Road hammered out in January paved the way for development of the Village Entrance project near City Hall. Key refinements -- approved by the Coastal Commission in June -- included 264 public parking spaces at Act V instead of 173; one two-story building instead of two one-story buildings, reducing the footprint by 33 percent; more trees and a bigger budget.

You are invited to an engaging illustrated art lecture, Eternity Then and Now on Sunday, January 18, at 10:00 AM, and to a second different talk on the same topic at 7:00 PM at Laguna Presbyterian Church. In this two part lecture series, Dr. Wayne Roosa will examine contemporary artworks next to traditional masterpieces to notice the ever-shifting expression and interpretation of eternal ideas. Dr. Roosa will interpret how artists from the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque eras "saw" faith in contrast to how artists of the late Twentieth and early Twenty-First Centuries "see" it. He will explore art from Fish symbols of the second century A.D. in the Catacombs to 21st century images such as Damien Hirst's diamond covered skull titled, "For the Love of God," to demonstrate how artists have given visual expression to the meanings of Christianity.

Barbara Diamond WHAT: Community / senior WHAT'S BEHIND IT: After years of trying to find property on which to build a new Senior Center to replace the ill-suited building on Legion Street, Laguna Beach Seniors Inc. accepted a site purchased by the city on Third Street. The seniors agreed to raise the money to build the senior center and the three City Council members who can vote on the project without a conflict of interest agreed to lease the land to the seniors for $1 a year for 50 years.

So, is that it? Our past is just that — past? Out with the old and in with the new? It certainly appears that way, when everywhere I look another building is being torn down and a new one being built. However, without our past what would be our history? Where would Laguna be today? The only small saving grace our town now has is our past — otherwise we would just be another Corona Del Mar. Laguna Beach years ago in its prime was nothing more than a product of the people and characters that lived here.

“Senior moments” in Laguna are celebrations. The 16th Annual Holiday Luncheon on Dec. 8 at Tivoli Terrace was a tune-up for the long-awaited grand opening of the Suzi Q Senior Center in January. “A big part of what we do is to live it up,” said Chris Quilter , Laguna Beach Seniors Inc. president. Activities at the new center include an expanded Bridge program, maybe duplicate; a Book Club and computer classes; and a lecture series that ranges from “Aging Beautifully” and “Sex and Murder — at the Opera” to the “Putin Effect” on global politics, to wine tastings.

The State Water Resources Control Board has approved an $800,000 grant for the Heisler Park Restoration Project, City Manager Ken Frank announced Jan. 26. The grant will be matched by an equal amount of city money, which has already been budgeted. "We will soon be competing in another round of grants, and we expect that the remaining portions of the Heisler Park project may be eligible in that competition, which might enable us to complete the entire project sooner than expected," Frank said.

Laguna Beach seniors got what they asked for Monday — firm support from all four City Council candidates for the proposed center on Third Street. Candidates Kelly Boyd, Toni Iseman, Elizabeth Pearson-Schneider and Verna Rollinger made the commitment at a forum held at the Veterans Memorial Building on Legion Street, which the seniors have lobbied to have replaced as their headquarters. Groundbreaking for the new center is scheduled for April 2007. "We have the opportunity for a huge grant from the county, which already has been delayed twice," incumbent candidate Pearson-Schneider said.

--Story by Young Chang, photo by [tk] When Robert House realized his high school students didn't have enough natural settings to visit on field trips, he decided to bring nature to them. In 1972, the Laguna Beach resident founded the Environmental Nature Center and grew it to depict 14 plant communities characteristic of California. The center also re-created such different settings as a small desert, a redwood forest, a recycling stream and chaparral.