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Wind & Sea Celebrates 50th Anniversary

BY BREEANA GREENBERG

After graduating from Stanford University, on his way to becoming a lawyer, Bob Mardian fell in love with the restaurant business and opened the Wind & Sea. Half a century later, fellow Dana Point Harbor business owners, current and former employees and dignitaries gathered on Monday, Aug. 22, to celebrate the restaurant’s 50th anniversary.

Mardian opened Wind & Sea in the Dana Point Harbor on Aug. 22, 1972 and has run the restaurant to this day. Along the way, he’s also opened several other restaurants in Dana Point and Hawaii.

At the anniversary celebration on Monday, Mardian reminisced on the last half-century in the restaurant business, holding the Wind & Sea’s original lease that he had signed when he was 24 years old.

“What a great break he gave to a 24-year-old kid,” Mardian said of John Fleming, one of the three businessmen to launch the Dana Point Harbor Association. “He said, ‘Let’s not waste money on lawyers; why don’t you write the lease the way you’d like. I’ll review it, put what I would like in it, and then we’ll get one lawyer to put it in legalese.’ ”

Fifty-one years ago, Fleming and Mardian wrote the lease for the Wind & Sea that was signed on June 15, 1971.

Mayor Joe Muller, Orange County Board Supervisor Lisa Bartlett and representatives from the offices of State Sen. Patricia Bates, Assemblymember Laurie Davies and Congressman Mike Levin honored Mardian and the Wind & Sea

Bob Mardian, owner of the Wind & Sea, gathers with fellow Dana Point Harbor business owners, current and former employees and dignitaries at the restaurant on Monday, Aug. 22, to celebrate the local business’ 50th anniversary. Photo: Breeana Greenberg

with framed resolutions.

Continuing the celebrations, from Oct. 31 to Nov. 3, the restaurant will offer special anniversary prices as a way of saying thanks to its loyal patrons.

“Our guests make every day special, and our employees are the backbone of COMMUNITY MEETINGS

SATURDAY, AUGUST 27 Challenging Cancer 10-11:30 a.m. The Challenging Cancer group is conducting weekly meetings through Zoom video conferences. The meetings are open to caregivers, people who have a compromised immune system, and people dealing with cancer. To join, email donnavigil2@gmail.com or linda_crdv@yahoo.com. heritagesc.org.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 30 Because I Love You (BILY) 6:30-8:30 p.m. The organization Because I Love You (BILY), which helps parents navigate through whatever parenting challenges they may be facing (e.g., failure to launch, drug abuse, disrespect), will continue conducting its weekly meetings on Tuesdays via Zoom video conference. For detailed instructions on how to participate, email bilysanclemente@gmail.com.

our operation,” Mardian said. “My mission has been to treat every one of our employees like a member of my family. This business has always been very personal to me, and I appreciate our employees and our guests more than I can say. Thank you for an amazing 50 years.”

Dana Point Sister Cities Promotes Cultural Events

BY BREEANA GREENBERG

Aiming to promote cultural exchanges and international communication, the Dana Point Sisters Cities will be partnering with local nonprofits to launch a variety of events centered around marine life, surf, American music, opera and art.

With the formation of the new nonprofit this past May, Dana Point joins the nearly 500 communities that make up Sister Cities International—a collection of cities with formal partnerships and agreements to have ongoing cultural events.

“We want to contribute to our cultural heritage, so we’ll build the foundation on things that are very noteworthy and what Dana Point is known for,” Dana Point Sister Cities Association President Bob Zasa said.

The Dana Point Sister Cities is partnering with the City of Dana Point, the Dana Point Historical Society, the Dana Point Symphony, Pet Project Foundation and Music Preserves Foundation.

In late June, the Dana Point Historical Society partnered with Dana Point Sister Cities for the nonprofit’s first fundraiser event. The kickoff event promoted the Sister City program with a “salute to the ambience of Italy” and a performance by the Lyric Opera of Orange County.

The Dana Point Sister Cities is partnering with the Dana Point Art Alliance to present the inaugural Plein Air art event at the 38th annual Maritime Festival in Dana Point from Sept. 9-11.

Ten Plein Air painters will capture the city’s beauty throughout the festival, which will feature tall ships and other maritime-related activities, before holding an exhibition and art sale at Gallery Dana Bay on Sept. 23.

The exhibition will run through Oct. 9 and is sponsored by the Dana Point Sister Cities International, the City of Dana Point, Dana Point Arts Alliance, and Orange County Fifth District Board Supervisor Lisa Bartlett.

Members of the Dana Point Sister Cities will receive discounted travel opportunities and pricing for events throughout the year. Members will also participate in educational and cultural opportunities in art, music, surfing, opera and maritime heritage-focused events.

Following the Plein Air event, the Dana Point Sister Cities will take a group of 24 members to New York for a cultural art and theater excursion.

From Sept. 15-18, the small group will have the chance to enjoy a private tour of the Hispanic Society Museum in Washington Heights, guided by featured artist Timothy J. Clark. Members will also have the chance to eat at the historic members-only National Arts Club and participate in a guided tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

While Dana Point previously had a sister city relationship with Viterbo, Italy in 2014, the Dana Point Sister Cities is currently pursuing relationships with the cities of Sorrento, Italy and Thessaloniki, Greece.

In the future, the nonprofit hopes to hold cultural exchange events with the cities. It’s also interested solidifying a sister city or friendship city relationship. Unlike a sister city, a friendship city relationship is less formal, meaning that the two communities can join for a single event, rather than an ongoing relationship.

“The purpose of it is to do international exchanges and also to bring the cultures of those countries to Dana Point and then share these wonderful things that we have in Dana Point with our sister cities,” Zasa said.

Pending a friendship or sister city agreement, Zasa hopes to develop a youth program with local middle schools and high schools including an email pen pal program with students in Sorrento and Thessaloniki.

In the meantime, the Dana Point Sister Cities is planning events throughout the fall and into the new year, partnering with local nonprofits to raise awareness for Sister Cities’ programs.

Those interested in joining Dana Point Sister Cities as members for the Autumn in New York trip can email bzasa@dpsistercities.org. More information about membership can be found at the Dana Point Sister Cities website, danapointsistercities.org.

City Holds Special Meeting to Consider Appointing Council Candidates to Open Seats

PHOTOS & TEXT BY BREEANA GREENBERG, DANA POINT TIMES allows a City Council to hold a vote to appoint

With all three candidates running unopposed for this November’s City Council race, the current council was scheduled to hold a special meeting certified candidates for the open seats, which will save taxpayer money—in Dana Point’s case, the Orange County Registrar of Voters estimates the city would save between $30,516 and $37,339. on Thursday, Aug. 25, to consider appointing the candidates to the open seats and canceling the upcoming local election.

The seats for Dana Point’s Districts 1, 2 and 3 are open for the Nov. 8 election. However, each district only has one candidate seeking office—incumbent Councilmember Jamey Federico (D3); John Gabbard (D1), chairperson for the city’s Planning Commission; and Mathew Pagano (D2), the chief financial officer of Pan-Pacific Mechanical.

In the circumstances in which candidates are running unopposed, California Elections Code The special meeting occurred after Dana Point Times went to press. Check danapointtimes. com for our report on the outcome of Thursday night’s discussion. Speaking with DP Times this past week, both Gabbard and Pagano said they still intend to spend the months leading up to November participating in meet-and-greets and talking with their constituents about their concerns. While the city might not see a council race this fall, Federico noted that the new makeup of the dais will still comprise individuals with varying perspectives.

“Healthy discussion and seeing opposite sides of issues is always good for the city,” Federico said, adding: “It’s still healthy for Dana Point, even though we aren’t going to have a contested election.”

Asked for his thoughts on this year’s race having few candidates seeking elected office, Federico posited that people in Dana Point are just generally happy.

“I like to think that people are happy in Dana Point and there aren’t people that feel that they have a lot of negative issues that they wanted to run on,” Federico said.

Leading up to Thursday’s special meeting, DP Times surveyed the candidates on their goals for the position and main issues facing Dana Point. DP

What are three issues that you would like to prioritize as a Dana Point City Councilmember? What will your goals be for your term as a councilmember?

JOHN GABBARD: Certainly, neighborhood security, making sure that we have clean beaches, making sure that we are fiscally conservative and that we’re watching taxpayers’ money closely and that we are doing responsible development.

We need to come to a conclusion on (short-term rentals) … and then after that, I’d like to see us finish up on the Town Center Plan and then get to work on Doheny Village. … Those are the top three; the other one is the desalination plant. South Coast Water District has the lead on it, but I think it’s important for all of us to keep an eye on it, make sure it happens.

Other things I want to work on are things like decreasing the amount of time it takes homeowners or property owners to get through the design review process and getting a building permit. It’s quite a lengthy process, and anything that we can do to make that streamlined, I think we’re going to be better off.

MATTHEW PAGANO: Just from my background, I want to make sure that the city is financially set up and being prudential with the taxpayers’ funds and making sure that the budgets run accordingly.

One thing that you see manifest in other cities, not so much in Dana Point, but I just want to make sure that we’re continuing to invest in law enforcement, making sure that law enforcement is getting what they need in order to keep everybody safe.

Controlled growth would be a big goal of mine as a local. While development is important, I think we need to ensure that it is done in a controlled and paced manner, such that there’s not unintended consequences like traffic issues, keeping the values that Dana Point has had for a long time.

JAMEY FEDERICO: On a philosophical level, to provide stable, dependable leadership, maintaining a great city staff, and working through that strategic plan. We approved an updated strategic plan in April of 2022, and my goal for the next four years is to work through it.

One of the highest priority issues is going to be the pedestrian connectivity and infrastructure improvement on Doheny Park Road and Coast Highway; I think that’s really important for the community. Another initiative is quality of service in City Hall and customer service-oriented attitude at City Hall, helping residents solve every myriad of issues that they might have.

What experience do you bring to the City Council? How does your background inform your approach to the position?

GABBARD: Seventeen years in the Marine Corps … plus another 26 years of homebuilding experience as an executive. … Certainly, having a business background and understanding how business finance works and what are the levers that they need to push in order to make their businesses be successful is a big help.

The other part of it is, my public service experience helps me understand what being in government and doing the work of the people means and how important it is.

PAGANO: I have a local perspective, but as a businessman, I have advanced degrees in finance and leadership.

I’ve (run) and consulted for very large, sophisticated companies across a multitude of industries: nonprofit, for-profit, education, hospitals, construction, landscape, banking. So, I ran the gamut from that perspective.

I think it lends a diverse perspective on and vantage point on solving business issues.

FEDERICO: Prior to becoming a councilmember, I was a Marine officer for 22 years, and I think that my experience in the Marines makes me approach issues from a very pragmatic, practical perspective.

I’m always more interested in finding the practical solution to issues and cutting out the emotion and getting to a solution that works for people.

My experience on the City Council has been invaluable. It’s a steep learning curve once you get on the City Council to become a good councilmember, to become effective.

(Cont. on page 8)

Planning Commission Chair John Gabbard is running unopposed in Dana Point’s District 1 for the City Council race this November. Ensuring the safety of neighborhoods and preserving beaches, as well as concluding Dana Point’s ongoing battle with short-term rental guidelines, are among Gabbard’s top priorities as an elected official.

What, if anything, do you believe the city should do to address lack of affordable housing?

GABBARD: It’s a problem. I’m all for public-private partnerships in order to help address it. If we can find some excess land and we can use that to create some workforce housing, I’m all for it.

If it’s vacant and it’s not earmarked for something and we can use it, do something like that, I would be a proponent.

PAGANO: Certainly, you can address that through new development with some type of housing that’s catered towards low-income. However, I think part of the allure of our town is that there’s value here and it brings a lot of different people.

The town has changed dramatically in the last 10 years as far as the citizens that occupy it, and we need to ensure that we’re giving everybody an opportunity to live here, regardless of what their income is.

I don’t know that we want to wholesale change the dynamic beauty of our community by putting up a bunch of new housing; I think we’d have to take a phased approach and look at what our options are before addressing that.

FEDERICO: I don’t know that there is a lot that the city should be doing. We can’t create more land in Dana Point, and it’s a free-market system and people want to live here.

I don’t think we’ll ever meet demand for Dana Point, but nonetheless, we will make sure that we’re in compliance with state directives on housing laws.

I think any future development will include various price points for housing to make sure that we’re in compliance with state laws, and we have to understand that different price points of housing are important and helpful for our economy.

The Orange County Grand Jury pointed to a need for an emergency homeless shelter in South Orange County. What are your thoughts on the grand jury’s findings? How do you feel about how the city has addressed homelessness?

Matthew Pagano, the chief financial officer of Pan-Pacific Mechanical, is running unopposed in District 2 for the City Council race this fall. As a local businessman, Pagano is looking to utilize his advance degrees in finance and leadership on the dais.

GABBARD : We in Dana Point have enough beds; in fact, our count went down. From that standpoint, I don’t know if we need to expand our capacity. Certainly, other towns around us need to expand, but from our standpoint, I think we’re fine.

If I was the supervisor, I would be looking for excess land where we could put a shelter up, but I think for what we need right now, I think we’re OK. I’m happy with what I’ve seen.

A couple years ago, you would drive up and down PCH and you’d see homeless people constantly out there, and I think that the task force did a great job of identifying and frequent contact, making sure that there’s a facility available for them and then getting them off the streets has been an effective strategy.

Unless there is a great influx of new population, I would continue with the same program that we have.

PAGANO: We need to be equitable to all citizens, regardless of their financial or economic status in the community.

How deep that goes and how much is incumbent upon us, I would have to really take into consideration what’s been presented, what’s been instituted, what’s been successful, what have been the challenges and roadblocks there before I give you a particular response.

FEDERICO: The county has the funds to provide homeless services and where they put those shelters; I’m not going to pretend to know where’s the best place. But the City of Dana Point has been very successful in utilizing the resources available and helping our homeless population get to sheltering.

I really think the long-term solution is permanent supportive housing, and that sheltering is not a solution. I serve on the Orange County Housing Finance trust, and we’ve helped fund projects for permanent supportive and low-income housing, and the shelters are not a solution.

I think the city has done a fantastic job with a very difficult issue. Our model works. We engage our homeless population, and we do everything we can to help them get to the services that are available to them.

Incumbent Councilmember Jamey Federico, who represents Dana Point’s District 3, will run unopposed in this year’s City Council race. One of the top priorities he’s looking to address during his next term in office will be improvements to the pedestrian connectivity and infrastructure on Doheny Park Road and Coast Highway.

What are your thoughts on shortterm rentals and how do you believe council should address them?

GABBARD: I believe that so long as we’re not forcing short-term rentals into HOAs and that in the areas outside of the HOAs that we are managing the party house syndrome and we are not turning neighborhoods into hotels, that there’s a certain amount of private property rights that every homeowner should have.

So, to the extent that we’re not over-saturating the market, and we’re not creating party houses, I think that it should be allowed.

Beyond the business code, I think that there needs to be a limitation on how much saturation you can have in the community. What that right number is, I’m open; in my personal opinions, I think it needs to be tied to housing stock.

PAGANO: Always, I think council should be taking into consideration the thoughts of the community. So, getting to know where the citizens stand on that, I’d have to dig into more of the details.

Getting to know what the current status is, is really important before going in trying to make any changes, but I trust the direction of the previous council, and I am a fan of the direction that council is going so far.

I think that the right people are there to be objective enough to listen to the citizens of the community and make the best decision going forward.

FEDERICO: Short-term rentals have been in Dana Point since Dana Point has been a city. It’s an issue that we just need to solve. We will see what the Coastal Commission has to say about our draft policy in the coastal zone. And then we’ll go from there and we’ll solve this issue.

Ultimately, there needs to be a regulation passed outside the coastal zone, and our city’s zoning doesn’t match up or overlay with the coastal zone and what the coastal zone looks like. So, after we learn from the Coastal Commission, how they feel about what that ordinance looks like in the coastal zone, we do need to have an ordinance that works with that one to solve this issue citywide.

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Widening I-5 for HOV Lanes

Photo: Shawn Raymundo

Growing up in San Clemente was as idyllic as a Disney episode—a quaint Main Street, nice folks, great beaches, with an ambience of peace and tranquility.

Well, if our friends at Caltrans and OCTA get their way soon, you can certainly kiss off the “peace and tranquility” part.

What’s now afoot here is a political and economic boondoggle, stemming from Faustian bargain, struck by our local leaders with the Big Freeway Boys (Caltrans and OCTA), ostensibly to keep the Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA) from extending its tentacles into our backyard, with an alternative for “traffic relief.”

Regrettably, this deal will guarantee neither.

In fact, it’s what we call in southern politics—you can take it from me as a former White House strategist—as the old “okey-doke.”

Let me explain: our well-intentioned local leaders heard our plea to stop the toll road through our town. But the TCA has more arms than an octopus. So, a grand bargain was struck among our local pols, the shovel-ready OCTA, and the county Board of Supervisors.

Sadly, our elected guardians failed to get an actual “wet ink” sign-off from the TCA itself, so I’m left to wonder, as a former lecturer in the law, whether we even have a binding agreement. With a successful court challenge, a toll road scheme can rise from the dead like in a bad zombie movie. Meanwhile, the Big Freeway Boys have huge plans for us, from Avenida Pico all the way down to the county line. If you enjoy

THE BIG DIG NASCAR and The BY CRAIG KESHISHIAN Indy 500, don’t bother with TV, because the live version will be running through your living room, thanks to their plan to widen the I-5 by two extra lanes.

The Big Freeway Boys say they would like to finish out the HOV lanes to the county line. But here’s the weird part: the expansion stops right there. I’m no traffic engineer, but if you create two extra lanes, then choke them up a few miles down the road, aren’t you creating a natural bottleneck?

I remember that when we had a bottleneck like that in the past, frustrated motorists hopped off, flooding local surface streets like ants, just to escape. That’s going to happen again.

The previous project, the six-mile jog from San Juan Creek Road to Pico, was $230 million, so I’m wondering what the three-mile extension would be priced in 2022 dollars. Frankly, I think we’re better off just fixing the streets and bridges around the OC, then treating the whole town to a Mexican cruise with the savings.

Once the bridge-breaking starts, which will be nightly, dig out those earmuffs from last year’s ski trip.

I actually saved the best part for last: burrowed deep in Big Freeway Boys’ schematic is a “transportation demand management” option, which includes possible “tolled lanes,” priced for surging traffic, like you see in LA and North County San Diego.

If you want to dodge all this, please reach out to Supervisor Lisa Bartlett, State Sen. Patricia Bates and Mayor Gene James and tell them to stop the Big Dig before it starts. Our elected leaders and transportation officials breathed life into this deal, and they can, hopefully, still snuff it out.

Craig Keshishian was a White House staff member during the Reagan Administration, working on political strategy and speechwriting. The San Clemente resident, who graduated from San Clemente High in 1977, is now a political commentator on TV and radio. DP

PLEASE NOTE: In an effort to provide our readers with a wide variety of opinions from our community, the DP Times provides Guest Opinion opportunities in which selected columnists’ opinions are shared. The opinions expressed in these columns are entirely those of the columnist alone and do not reflect those of the DP Times or Picket Fence Media. If you would like to respond to this column, please email us at editorial@danapointtimes.com.