Cleaning up?
By Ann Christoph
What does it mean to “clean up?”
South Lagunans are wondering right now about the Postal Service misunderstanding of requests to clean up our local post office in “downtown” South Laguna.
We were hoping for cleaning the floors, pulling weeds in the parking lot, and generally making the atmosphere look like the Postal Service cares about its customers.
Instead they decided to remove the one attractive feature at the parking lot. A hedge of the native shrub laurel sumac all along the south border has been chopped and dug out. Where there used to be shade and foliage now all that is left is a chain link fence. Try to contact the local postmaster? You get the 800 number with a maze of choices, none of which allows you to talk to a real person.
We saved that hedge once before, back in the days when you could call the Laguna Niguel Postal headquarters. The postmaster actually came out and agreed to get the hedge properly pruned and to improve the planter near the front door. That planter is completely under the roof, so it gets no rainfall. The plants need watering to survive. There was a hose nearby that sympathetic passers-by or post office staff could use to water them. Now the hose has been removed.
Across Virginia Way from the post office is the fire department parking lot, where several years ago the Department installed a generator and a dumpster. This was unsightly as viewed from the street, and since the unscreened dumpster was right next to the drive-up mailbox this situation was particularly unattractive.
South Lagunans objected, and finally, after two years of working with the fire department, a screening fence was installed, and a small planter was created on the street side. Fire department division chief Api Weinert helped install it! Bougainvillea and aloes bloomed.
Did that touch of beauty raise the spirits of the mail droppers, and walkers? I believe so. We took care of those plantings, and I worked with interested firefighters who learned how to prune properly. All was good. Then somehow, public works staff came by and shaved off all the flowers with the dreaded hedge pruners. Now, two months later, the bougainvillea, which should be in full bloom all summer long, only shows a few flowers amid masses of recovering foliage.
Near my house, a new neighbor decided to remove a tree that supplied buffering foliage. “I love trees, but I don’t want to clean up after it.” So out it went.
There’s another tree across the street, a statuesque, beautifully branching lemon-scented gum that I see from my kitchen window. This weekend I heard one neighbor calling to another, “You should take that tree out. Just chop it off, it will be cheaper than trying to remove the roots.” Yes, let’s save money while destroying another touch of beauty. What they don’t know is that the tree also has been subjected to previous removal attempts. Through persuasion and directives for proper pruning, we have been able to convince previous owners to keep it. As tall trees disappear one by one, those remaining become even more treasured. In the daytime for their graceful branches and fluttering leaves, and at night as we hear the owls calling to each other from their elevated perches.
Through the South Laguna Civic Association, we work hard to beautify our community—the planted medians in South Laguna, the street trees, the Village Green, and the Community Garden are the result of our efforts. But it’s hard not to lose heart when decisions beyond our control unfeelingly thwart our efforts in the name of “cleaning up.”
A thing of beauty may be a joy forever, but we’ve experienced that our appreciated touches of beauty can easily be gone forever.
P.S. Does this concern about planting details and preserving beauty seem petty in comparison to the much bigger challenges our neighborhoods are facing—the dense and massive proposed apartment complex at the Congregational Church, the possible takeover and redesign of Laguna Canyon Road by the City, state-imposed housing requirements that subvert our city codes and review processes? It’s all part of the same frustration. We who treasure our lovely Laguna and want to protect it, are constantly facing contrary forces that are focused on other agendas that end up destroying the qualities that are so precious. Even the smallest token improvements are vulnerable. We hope the big threats will unite us to defend our town. Leaders before us have left us a treasure. We are just the next generation to take on Laguna’s protection. We can never give up.
Ann Christoph is a landscape architect who has designed Laguna Beach parks, gardens and streetscapes and is one of the consultants who prepared the Landscape and Scenic Highways documents for the City of Laguna Beach. She is a former mayor and city council member and member of the boards of Village Laguna and South Laguna Civic Association.
