It’s been 35 years since Laguna Beach annexed unincorporated South Laguna, but it still seems like yesterday. SoLag retains its swag, its fight, its obstinance.
The truth is nothing much has changed in 35 years. South Laguna wears its chip proudly.
Remember that few in South Laguna wanted the annexation. It was only because Laguna Niguel saw an easy target, so the SoLag people chose the lesser of two evils.
Thomas E. Slattery, then a member of the South Laguna Civic Assn. board, told the L.A. Times in 1987 that the community had little choice.
“We’ve found ourselves between a rock and a hard place,” he said. “We’d kind of like to stay the way we are. We have an identity and excellent county services – and an excellent specific plan.”
But if they had to choose, then why not go with the devil you know.
“No one in South Laguna wants to become part of Laguna Niguel,” Slattery said. “We don’t identify with that inland city at all.”
Even still, Laguna Beach wasn’t enamored with the idea either, having been spurned by South Laguna during a failed 1982 annexation effort.
Former Laguna Beach Mayor Dan Kenney famously said at the time, “If you don’t want us, we don’t want you in Laguna.”
Nonetheless, the 1987 annexation finally passed, and the fiercely independent South Laguna could go back to tending its garden in relative peace – or not.
Ask anyone about South Laguna, and you will hear amusing answers.
Barbara McMurray, who is well-connected in Laguna’s political and social circles, says SoLag’s cultural defiance probably stems from its history.
“The surf and turf wars around SoLag are nothing new,” she said. “When I arrived in Laguna Beach, South Laguna was a different ZIP code: 92677. Had it been annexed in 1987 by Laguna Niguel rather than Laguna Beach, a hotly debated territorial issue at the time, it would be a very different community.
“We should all be very grateful at the way that contest turned out.”
Indeed, South Laguna really is an extension of Laguna Beach – similar beaches (if not better), similar home styles, and similar groms. The kids have always gone to the same schools, a link that can never be broken.
Of course, the similarities pretty much stop there.
It’s a bit like comparing the L.A. Rams and San Diego Chargers.
I say San Diego because the Chargers will always be San Diego – just as South Laguna will always be South Laguna.
Politically, it will always be a no-growth bastion of proud contrarians. Generous to their own, nostalgic to a fault, eager to defend their point of view.
There are more “Yes on Measure Q” signs in South Laguna than anywhere else, by far. Anything that says “anti-development,” they’re in, no questions asked.
They avoid Downtown Laguna like the plague. If they have to drive to Newport Beach or Costa Mesa, their instinct is to go Crown Valley.
And who can blame them? Traffic sucks in Laguna Beach, and it is probably faster to go around.
Yes, South Laguna is the sometimes neglected stepsister of Laguna Beach, but at least it’s not the black sheep of the family.
That would be the Canyon.
