Visit Laguna Beach? Actually, Please Don't! Part 2 Of A 2 Part Series

Visit Laguna Beach? Actually, Please Don't!

Is "Visit Laguna Beach" Pimping Laguna And Wrongly Profiting?

The VLB is basically a "mutated" model of a hybrid travel agency run amok, unfortunately NOT a private enterprise, forced to rely upon their competitive guile. The 1% cut they get from our coffers is their commission plus pays the salaries of staff.

It wouldn't be surprising to learn that one of their underwritten expenditures are for entertaining, wining and dining, here or afar.

It's really a closed loop because the BID/TOT funds are deposited into City coffers, the City turns around and redistributes back in various, biased forms (including funding for the Chamber of Commerce).

Their % split did fluctuate, probably went down a skosh during the peak of Covid. The economy has recovered, but the goal of advising wealthier travelers to make this their "Year Round Destination Resort" has been a constant, consistent message.

However, as the more outsiders who come and stay overnight increases, the VLB crowd get mo' moolah to divvy up. VLB was once upon a time the Laguna Beach Visitor's Bureau---their primary "folk us" has gone from primarily welcome wagon, hospitality and regional itinerary orientated to pimping Laguna.

And like pimps, the more often, the more successfully they sell our flesh, our town to outsiders, the mo' money they make. So "Folk us"=="F locals."

The suggested sights when these upscale insurgents get here is also a mirror, mimes travel agency offerings. Figuring how much VLB $$$ is going where and invoiced by whom would take an IRS investigation, so that'd be a nebulous journey.

One has to wonder, was Laguna ever a secret from the anyone anywhere in the world, in need of promotion and slick advertising? Has LBVB/VLB been a decades long scam or con job from inception, "qui bono?" (who profited)?

Like travel agents, staff accrue benefits, perks, their own travel, and without that deeper IRS dive, I'm pretty sure that a lot of meals and lodging here and elsewhere are thrown in too.

These people live high off of the hog (Laguna), so they live the lifestyle of the population they court and rub elbows with: The wealthy. One would have to be 100% naive, or plainly stupid, to not realize that "non-profit" doesn't mean that nobody profits. [1]

Here's how they themselves see their #1 Goal:

"Visit Laguna’s number one goal is to attract overnight visits, we do not want to market to day-trippers. We use SEO to make sure our website can be found through organic search and trends when people google search for things such as: Where to stay in Laguna Beach. I use SEM to target specific visitors outside of the area based on our existing audience data and target audience data. Our GEO location targets are currently set at: Domestic: Phoenix/Scottsdale, Pacific Northwest, Northen California, Las Vegas, New York.

International: Canada, UK, Australia. In addition to SEO and SEM we are engaging with specific media outlets and travel advisors internationally to retain longer-term stays and bring awareness to our International market." Rachel O'Neill Cusey, President & CEO of Visit Laguna Beach

Personally, I object to not only the funding aspect but the blatant rejection of the rights of the general population. To me, it's a form of environmental justice: Isn't VLB a type of 1%-er organization, meant to benefit only a small, pre-selected, pre-determined elite %?

Are the day-trippers, those that former LB City Council Elizabeth Pearson bluntly called the "909ers," Laguna's only nemesis, the migrational beasts that are gobbling up our parking spaces and clogging our streets?

If they are, where's the City's traffic and parking mitigation for that 99%, those who exercise THEIR right of travel and by law, coastal access?

Native son and engineer emeritus Les Miklosy’s advocacy, his embracing and promulgating of “Complete Streets Policy” stands out as a holistic approach to solving that problematic conundrum.

He's proposed viable vehicular, pedestrian and bicycle circulation, and for want of a better catchall phrase “historically successful mobility strategies or analogs.”

Billy ("Cough Cough, It must Be 4:20 Somewhere") Fried and Chris Prelitz found a super-dumb, like-minded opportunistic thief, City Council member Jane (The Snob) Egly, who together outright stole the movement over 12 years ago from Les.

They voted him off of the movement's island, yet Les has been noble, not a whiner like his successors and considering the circumstances, magnanimous, gentlemanly and not vengeful.

He's "moved" on, and has been a stellar resource for critiquing multiple City examples that exhibit incompetence through watered-down programs that fail the simplest of engineering and planning litmus tests, e.g., fiscal prudence and/or project's pitiful follow-through, outcomes.

THAT he does not have patience for, he's one of my few Laguna heroes and a force of nature himself, he seems willing to drop back in if he can reboot, kick start an updated version of Complete Streets.

An extremely trustworthy and passionate advocate, I doubt that he'd abuse funds directed his way. A stand alone non-profit, receiving a yearly City-donated stipend of 6 figures, with Les at the helm, is doable and worth the investment.

I think when it comes to spending hundreds of millions on multi-level parking structures, master planning proposals like his should be taken more seriously. Maybe “we don’t need no stinking gargantuan parking structures” either.

Les’ concepts include traffic calming plus both enhanced pedestrian and bicycle safety as critical elements. In fact, the California Complete Streets Act was passed in 2008, so why are we still stuck like a fly in amber after all of these years later?

Why is governance in Laguna, whose demographic and image proclaim us progressive, at the forefront of many enviro-efforts still lagging, rife with slackers? [2]

Complete Streets, as envisioned and tailored for Laguna’s unique conditions by Les, might be great mitigation for the tourist numbers (imported or local), what the congestion, chaos and confusion doctor ordered: An Rx for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely (S.M.A.R.T) mobility behavioral modes.

Ingress, stay over and egress horde volumes are only going to grow in numbers, so let’s at long last finally consider a more holistic, “adaptive management gestalt” approach regarding them.

How many vehicular trips are being imposed upon us by the increased resort stay-overs, plus the snooty restaurant/cocktail "90210" hordes from inland? The ones that get hammered and then drive inebriated on our arterial roads late at night?

Add the ancillary, support vendors for these activities, and what exactly is mitigating those adverse impacts? Who is taking responsibility and being held accountable? I'm listening, I don't hear anything but crickets from either City Hall or the VLB/CofC's fashionable and exclusive in crowd.

You know, who go where the "in crowd" goes, believing themselves superior, blissfully unaware that they're homogenized, boojie robotic trendoids.

Go to Les’ blog, he explains the macrocosm and microcosm picture much better than I could. His embracing and promulgating shouldn't be in vain. He's our professor emeritus. He should be given the courtesy of fiscal support by constellating a non-profit, name him as CEO and/or President of the BOD.

The concepts he envisions integrating could in fact alleviate a lot of the malaise inflicted upon us by the day-trippers, perhaps those 90210 influencers too. Think of Complete Streets as "pain management." [3]

IMO helping artists survive and thrive can't be accomplished by building more unaffordable, black hole fiascos like "Louis Longi's Folly," aka Dornin Investment Group's (DIG) Art Lofts, way out in a rural Laguna Canyon neighborhood.

An avaricious artist who had no development experience met and bonded with a greedy, home grown development corporation. One that under-estimated the blowback, poorly anticipated cost overruns and eventual (quite predictable) prolonged enviro-oversight that would send expenses soaring before they even broke ground.

Now they can't even sell the white elephant at $22.5 million. If nothing else, this project revealed that Own/Build/Operate (OBO) has inherent hurdles to overcome. Beware, this won't be the last that involves land ownership.

It's also a warning regarding questionable marketing and promotion: Millionaires might not be the best choice to create and manage affordable housing, getting credits and hall passes from regulatory agencies along the way, only to fail.

It's no secret that there are powerful forces laden with $$$ here that are at this moment trying to grab their fistful of cash and manipulate our future by pretending their motive is philanthropic, altruistic support of the arts. Think Mo' Money Mo Honarkar.

Lesson #2 from Longi's Folly is that there should no forcible jamming of multiple artist-intended units into dominantly residential, rural neighborhoods like his did. Then it's a formula for failure for everybody.

The truth? Nobody won out there, and the mutual resentment persists and will linger for quite some time.

Which that lesson having been learned, I've been wondering if (for discussion purposes only a $12-1500/monthly stipend could keep local artists both working and living here?

Some type of non-profit that financially assists local artists seems intuited, the re-directed City funds from the VLB/CofC et al cabal?

CAVEAT: Beware, be suspicious of organizations using the words "Trust" or "Foundation" in their title. That can be code for potential mischief and manipulation by the aforementioned speculators, the cloaked, wealthy forces. A rose by any other name, sorry Shakespeare, is NOT necessarily a rose. [1]

Some type of formally funded, organized structure mechanism is needed. Independent, autonomous, not City appointed. Accept funds for all artistic media, including performance artists.....but with no strings attached, and definitely no City oversight power.

Coalesced, constellated and dedicated, its singular focus and mission statement committed to keeping our home-grown artists here, literally at home!

They can stay where they already live, and if they need separate, off-site studio space it might attenuate the pocketbook drainage factor? We do have a lot of empty commercial spaces, maybe artists could pool their subsidies, create loosely formed co-opts, as these can be expensive leases?

A modest yet savvy panel of overseers, the gatekeepers so to speak. They'd convene as necessary to judge the applicant's requisite paperwork (proof of residency and $$$ need), for either renewals or newbies rotating into the system.

A small "pied-a-terre" office would provide a physical HQ. A queue archive, i.e., if an artist no longer qualifies or moves, the next one in the waiting line is contacted.

One more of the panel's duties would be the selection and yearly performance review of the one paid board officer (employee), an Executive Director. I think that a $700-750,000/year budget total is reasonable.

I doubt there'd be a shortage of volunteers who'd supplement or augment, provide community-wide assistance when called upon.

So 2 non-profits that should get a piece of the TOT & BID pie can be done. They'll need help getting launched, which is where the funding shifts should take place.

The present downward spiral of artists either giving up, or the slow, drip feed "diaspora" (leaving) have put Laguna on an entropic, spiraling downward path. Many might return if the $$$ incentives were in place.

Like a biological niche, if the artists (indigenous species) go, coupled with the diminished, degraded mobility (a type of habitat foraging, nesting and feeding) previously experienced, why would anyone stay?

Art and the coastline are, in an intrinsic sense, integral to our psycho-spiritual stability, our inner-scape environs, how both we and outsiders see ourselves. We’re growing, and what worked, what fit, IMO, we’ve outgrown.

Tossed into the conversation pot should be a review of our General Plan, plus a closer look into what turned out to be a dead end, the ill-fated “Vision 2030” effort.

Several sections of our General Plan are dinosaurs, were drafted years ago. There are 9 Elements, 4 of them are 18 years or more old. So yesterday, so not today. [4]

Vision 2030 was launched in 2000, it was supposed to not only determine where we were, but where we wished to be 30 years later. In progress, it seemed to capture that essence I mentioned, the basic tenets of our common voices.

Hundreds of locals stepped up, volunteered their time, attended open, advertised subcommittees, then jammed City Council Chambers for the final reading….which we didn’t know at the time, was more like “funereal reading,” as it became “D.O.A.”

4 of the co-founding board members of my NGO, Clean Water Now, religiously attended the Environmental Sustainability Subcommittee of Vision 2030 over the course of many months. Unfortunately, what it has become is another example of political patronage and nepotism. Rewards to "good doggies" that don't rock the political boats of the LBCC members that anointed them.

The Vision was shelved, left to draw virtual dust somewhere in City Hall archive sherlves, ignored. Thousands of hours of staff, Council and volunteer time, thousands of dollars expended, and for what?

In retrospect, after re-reading the 2001 report to LBCC for about the 50th time recently, I doubt that anything we consensually, collectively and collaboratively agreed upon ever became a reality, beyond lip service. Not one major elemental “ask” accomplished.

And yes, we might not be in this situation if the City had begin implementing what the people wanted, even if only gradually, what enviro-analysts call programmatically, in phases.

Personally, I've often wondered if the LBCC's real motive was to keep us busy, mistaking activity for achievement. I guess they accomplished that goal.

By slow rolling, letting all of those burning ideas/zeal and plans wither, zero inertia, we all went away and kept Council Chambers practically empty for a few years.

Try and find anybody besides Les and I who even remember or still reference Vision 2030: You can't, it never comes up, few if any even remember it happened, took up most of our lives from 2000 into 2001.

A clear memory can be a painful source, what suckers we were: "Promises promises promises....keep the hoi-polloi busy" their real thought process.

As for the VLB $$$-draining cabal, them and their sycophantic travel agents, their fellow travelers like the Chamber? Let them "eat cake," let them cinch up their income and expenditure belts from now on instead of living off of our fat.

A few less "all expenses paid junkets to those exotic Sister Cities" might be a good start.

Maybe the Arts and Cultural Arts Commission needs less funding, or at least streamlining and reorganization. Why 7 commissioners, why not 5? Why did they at one time have a bloated 9 members?

It's become stagnant, ossified like other City ventures. Same people, same over-paid managers (why 2, why not one?), resulting in decisions that are incestuous. Antiquated really. Another reason why a non-beholding, parallel, self-determining non-profit universe needs to be created.

Let's be real: Art by a City committee (or commission) isn’t necessarily the best way to make decisions regarding our artist's future either. Think platypus, a City duck formed by committee, subject to political influence or will in addition to City sycophants.

Our coastline and art community once upon a time were our dominant core value focus. Only a supremely naive or probably stupid person wouldn't know that.

Laguna's on the precipice of a type of "ecological collapse," where the bio-markers, the healthy habitat indicator critters (indigenous artists and residents), our "keystone species," are instead on the verge of extinction.

All too soon Laguna will become a foreign place where they're not wanted, can't afford to live or work, and where only $$$ has a voice.

[1] https://www.ocregister.com/202...

[2] https://ccag.ca.gov/programs/t...
[3] https://lagunastreets.blogspot...

[4] https://www.lagunabeachcity.ne...