Hotel Laguna was pretty when it was pink

I hope Mo Honaker reads this letter to the editor. He has leased the Hotel Laguna for 99 years.

 Decades ago the Hotel Laguna was painted pink. On the police cars and fire trucks you can see it on the city seal, which now depicts it as red or pink. I think the hotel should be a pastel coral, green, blue, yellow, or pink again. This would symbolize, to me, in our downtown that we believe in the arts.

We have more than fifty art galleries, a wonderful art museum, college of art and design, sixty plus public art pieces, colorful street banners, three art and crafts people festivals, and a long history of local artists.

Mo Honarkar’s HIVE brings new life with color, giant graphics, and hundreds of overhead lights at night. His Terra restaurant on the Festival of Arts grounds is without question one of the most unusual cement creations around. The new front and entrance to the Art-A-Fair is brightly colored, to say the least. Some think it’s to gaudy, but really – it does catch your eye and make you wonder what’s going on inside.

Whether his proposed monster hotels north of the art museum and across from Ralphs should be part of Laguna remains to be seen, but for me, a pastel Hotel Laguna next to the Pacific ocean is the perfect combination.

Roger Carter

Laguna Bach

Remembering 9/11

My grandfather was 19 when the Civil War began. He never forgot it. My oldest brother was six when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He never has forgotten it. I was 15 when JFK was shot in Dallas. I never will forget that. Earlier this week, we honored those who were killed on 9/11. America never will forget this date.

Denny Freidenrich
Laguna Beach