Letter to Editor: Vote Yes on Measure CC

Dear Editor:

As you’re deciding how to vote on Measure CC, you may want to think about how you will look back on your vote 20 years from now.  And what side of history you want to be on.

Back in 1968, when the City issued bonds to purchase the land that would become Main Beach Park, a certain group in town opposed City ownership, and wanted the property to be developed with motels, a parking structure and a convention center.  In 1990, a year after thousands walked to save Laguna Canyon, and voted overwhelmingly to issue bonds for the purchase, a small group that claims to represent taxpayers (they don’t represent me or most of the people I know, and we’re all taxpayers) argued against creation of a wilderness park on these lands.  And today, we have the same small group arguing against Measure CC, the ballot measure to help preserve the remaining 400 acres of developable open space around town.

What side of history do you want to be on?  The one that created the spectacular window-to- the- sea at Main Beach that generations of Lagunans have enjoyed, or the one that wanted to clutter Main Beach with massive commercial development?   The one that created Laguna Canyon Wilderness Park, or the one that preferred development of another cookie-cutter Irvine Company “community” in Laguna Canyon?  The one that supported Measure CC and preserved Laguna’s remaining open space, or the one that saw those lands developed parcel-by-parcel over 20 years and lost forever?

Laguna Beach has a proud history of people coming together, regardless of political stripe, and making the right decision at critical moments.  This is one such moment.  Please join the majority of Lagunans and vote Yes on Measure CC.  We need 2/3 to pass it, and every vote counts.

-- John Monahan