San Clemente's Not the Same

re: SunPost, 9-23-10 cover headline:
Date with Destiny - fate of Playa
Del Norte (LAB at NB).

When I think "date with destiny,"
images of Lewis & Clark, Washington
crossing the Delaware, Founding
Fathers, Salk Vaccine, Freedom
Marches, Ending Slavery, Women's
Right to Vote all come to mind.
But shoehorning a supermarket
sized structure between 7-11 and
Ole's Swim Club at North Beach
is not destiny. Crunch the proposed
project's losing numbers, adds up
to one historically bad idea.
Doubters of this conclusion need
reread Ole Hanson's original 1925
Spanish Village by the Sea vision
statement: a city like a park. Where
everyone will have an ocean view.
San Clemente is unique, due entirely
to Ole's clear vision. No one since
has improved on it. No one ever will.
Lose it, and lose the San Clemente
Ole created for us. Walling off North
Beach's public ocean view is not
destiny, nor manifest.
Ole would not approve.
None of us should.

jerry collamer
231 La Paloma
San Clemente
Ca - 92672