If you say you’re cultured, it’s a bit like saying you’re classy. No one does it in polite company.
For Laguna Beach residents, there is no quest for culture. It just is.
It’s in the trails, reefs, surf, art, plays, festivals, music, secret parking spots, sidewalk greetings and the infinite other gems that define everyday life.
City policies, however, are probably not high on that list but believe it or not, there is a plan — of course — for Laguna’s culture.
In 2016, the Laguna Beach City Council approved the Cultural Arts Plan, a 42-page consultant’s report that basically said the city could improve its culture and explained how. Since the plan has milestones, I thought it would be a good time to evaluate how the city is doing with its cultural timeline.
Sadly, the main benchmark can be boiled down to a question: Are we properly capitalizing on our cultural mojo? The short answer is no.
The long answer is unknown because the plan said it would take at least 10 years for the goals to become reality. Things like:
Most of the report, which you can download here, is spent recapping what makes Laguna Laguna. It also has specific actions but so far few have really worked out. By year two, we should have been well on our way to hiring more cultured staff, doing more cultured studies and “build(ing) community and connection among artists.”
Aside from the foundational work, there are some interesting assumptions that are required to make this plan work in the long run. For example, the city cannot continue to lose artists, which means it has to confront affordable housing.
In order for artists to have “thriving careers” in Laguna, the city must “support development of affordable artists’ work/live and work spaces.”
In other words, in the absence of affordability, culture loses. To give an example, rents in Laguna are always increasing — both retail and housing — and we see the result: A different demographic moves in but they’re not carrying boxes of art supplies.
Even if the City Council could miraculously loosen the downtown height limit in some areas to allow for artists’ live/work spaces, it’s doubtful the rents would pencil out. With spaces going for $5 a square foot (or more), a 1,000-square-foot loft would cost $5,000 a month.
The other challenge is there simply isn’t enough inventory or land. The best-case scenario is that the city allows developers to fight it out in the canyon. Let the best plan win, keep the fees down, avoid frivolous lawsuits and pray the California Coastal Commission doesn’t get involved.
A first step should be to work with the Laguna College of Art and Design (LCAD). Its leaders seem to know how to buy properties under the radar and fill them with students.
To its credit, the first goal of the Cultural Arts Plan recognizes that in order to have culture, we need artists.
Make this the No. 1 issue in every City Council meeting and election race. This issue alone touches on the fabric of everything that’s differentiated in Laguna: art, tourism, affordability, authenticity, beauty, character.
Every other issue is secondary to the heart of what makes Laguna great: its people.
The best part of this plan is not its fancy bureaucratic framework or lofty goals but the admission that Laguna’s art culture can die.
The most cynical among us say that’s already happened.
But then what is death without renewal.
