They say the first gazebos date back to 2500 BC. That may be true of the Laguna Beach gazebo, a well-worn, bespeckled structure that more often than not suffers from litter and the fresh smell of urine.
Yes, welcome to Laguna, where you have to hold your breath during your wedding photos.
It’s tough, with the millions of tourists and our stalwart homeless, to expect anything else. But isn’t the gazebo one of THE city’s landmarks? People come from all over the world and want that irresistible money shot from the Heisler Park Gazebo.
It has the best view of Main Beach all the way down to the Dana Point Headlands. Then north, it’s as far as the eye can see.
It’s just too bad that those same visitors have to ruin it. People carve nonsense into the wood; they drop crap overboard – perhaps inadvertently, but still.
We won’t blame them for the urine. That’s on us.
In fact, technically, a lot of this is on us. The City of Laguna cleans the area regularly, but they don’t do a deep clean (at least not very often), and they don’t dare clean down the gently sloping areas of the cliff for fear of upsetting the California Coastal Commission. But it wouldn’t take a permit-less rock climber to do this.
The gazebo really is an example of Laguna’s laissez-faire attitude in general. We claim world-class status but then fall short on the easy stuff. Hate to say it, but in a lot of areas like this, Laguna underachieves.
Just spend a few minutes at the gazebo, breath the ocean air, take it all in, and tell us we’re wrong.
