Opinion: Our Season of Discontent

By Billy Fried

If you’re like me, your friends from around the globe are stunned at the negative publicity surrounding our little, swollen beach hamlet. As Andy Warhol would say, it’s our 15 minutes of “infamy.”

I have been among the first to condemn the traffic and the constant trash left by the Philistines we call visitors. It’s always been bad. But we certainly have more eyes (and lenses) on it than ever before. And yes, we need more enforcement, more trash cans, more regular trash removal, and more education to “Leave No Trace.” But it all costs money.

Yet this call to defund the visitors bureau is misdirected. I know it feels good, but you can turn all their marketing efforts off tomorrow, and it wouldn’t make a bit of difference. The cat is out of the bag. It’s broiling inland, the planet is overpopulated, there are way more housing starts in south Orange County, and the volume of social media fawning over Laguna is unprecedented. It’s exponentially more than Visit Laguna. It’s a bevy of influencers – benignly known as content creators. Like you and me.

It began 20 years ago with the MTV series “Laguna Beach, The Real OC.” I remember meeting families who chose Laguna to vacation so they could see the stunning film locations. That opening pane of our magical coastline was enough for people to say, “To the hell with the Riviera. It’s right there in Laguna. And they speak English!”

And then there was that wretched 2012 Oliver Stone film “Savages,” with Salma Hayak playing a ruthless cartoon cartel head, but with great cleavage. Maybe the worst casting choice ever. But the film also featured that same hero pan of our coastline and some shirtless hunks frolicking on Main Beach that undoubtedly spiked our visitor count.

So please understand that our rancor towards Visit Laguna is misdirected. First, it’s not our money. It belongs to the hotels, and they benevolently donate half of it ($1.8 million) to our arts programs. The other half goes to the visitors bureau in order to attract back overnight visitors to the hotel. The ones who shop, dine and make up a minuscule percentage of our daily visitors. It’s a shared marketing effort by our lodging establishments. But yes, Visit Laguna should immediately cease all social media that reaches a mass audience unless the message is squarely focused on conservation and “Leave No Trace.” Instead of showing pretty pictures, show the disgusting and unfathomable trash. And tailor your overnight visitor campaigns to a strictly targeted approach. Use old-school tools like email, CRM, and direct mail to reach those prospects.

We are not alone in this plight. In this week’s New York Times, there was an article titled “Unstoppable: Can Barcelona Survive Mass Tourism?” Yet, the city thrives on tourism and will soon be hosting the America’s Cup, just as they once hosted the Olympics and the World Cup. However, they are implementing a strategy to reduce the negative impacts. Just as we must. And, of course, it starts with our number one issue, traffic. We have to get serious about taking control of our two major arteries from CalTrans. This had long been considered throughout Ken Frank’s 31 years as city manager (1979-2010), but he never had the will to implement it because of the dreaded word “liability.” Remember, a city manager’s job security is based on fiscal balance. They’re not paid to be visionaries. Just to enact the vision of three council people who understand they were voted in to improve our quality of life. And I never understood why we couldn’t just buy insurance, like other cities that control their own streets.

At least our city is giving it lip service again. At last Saturday’s Farmers Market, Public Works had a display in concert with yet another outside consultant, Fehr and Peers (déjà vu all over again). They solicited input from the community on the many tactics for creating safer streets under the three headings, “Better Walking Experience,” “Safer Driving Conditions,” and “Better Biking Experience.” All great stuff. But when I asked how we could get any of this done without taking control of our streets, I was met with a shrug. “Not our department.”

The clear path to traffic salvation is to incentivize visitors to ditch their cars before entering the city. Look at how many cities have successfully thinned their downtown core of cars, noise and pollution (London, Oslo, Milan, Singapore) by providing incentives to use other kinds of transport. And financial penalties for ignoring them. We must take control of our streets from Caltrans (with their help and subsidy), so we can add roundabouts, bike lanes, curb extensions, speed bump crossings, more trolleys, eBike rental kiosks, shuttles from around the county, and investigate parking garages on our peripheries. And also a congestion tax for driving into our downtown core (if you don’t work or live here). And making the toll road free. And perhaps even a light rail system to Irvine. It’s not the costs. It’s the willfulness. We can find the money without increasing our burden (even though we can and should afford it). There are county, state, and federal grants, bonds and loans.

We are desperate to fix this festering problem that will only worsen. A city this smart, rich, and special- threatened by its own fabulousness – can undoubtedly find a way out of this mess. LFG!

Billy is the Executive Director of KXFM 104.7, Laguna’s Community Radio. And Chief Experience Officer at adventure sports company La Vida Laguna. He can be reached at billy@kxfmradio.org.