Glenn Frank writes, "I was riding the Aliso Creek Bike Trail today and passed the historical marker sign for the Juan Avila Adobe which is along the trail at the top of the hill just south of the 5 freeway. I thought that someone in the city should be made aware of the horrible condition this sign marker is in... plexiglass marker cover is nearly impossible to see through, it is shattered and broken and has words scratched into it... and someone of course had marked up the photo of Juan Avila on the sign... It would be fitting if the city or the city's historical society or both spent some time and money to fix it up again.".
These days, historical markers seems to be constantly vandalized and stolen. The County Historical Commission went to great lengths to select the most vandalism-proof materials possible for a recent interpretive panel at Wieder Regional Park -- and even that was damaged within a year.
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Sadly, law enforcement still seems unwilling to shoot vandals on sight. So I guess we're left with the (much less satisfying) option of replacing and repairing these things regularly.
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As for the city's historical society, I don't know that Laguna Hills actually has such a group yet. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
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Tonight, the Santa Ana City Council was scheduled to discuss ways to cut or restructure the City's Historic Resources Commission. Perhaps someone out there can post a comment and let us know what happened. Santa Ana's historic preservation movement has really picked steam in recent years and greatly improved numerous neighborhoods. If the city can make their involvement more efficient, that's great. But care should be taken not to ruin a good thing.
4 comments:
I did hear back from two people at the City of Laguna Hills and they said they would look into the fixing of the sign, and that their maintenance department does try to keep up on removal of graffiti on public areas like this.
They thanked me for bringing the condition of the sign to their attention. I am sure this one in particular is not one that is noticed much. you have to be on the Aliso Creek bike/jogging trail to see it at all. You might be able to spot it from the 5 freeway, but you would have to know what you were looking for.
if I see it fixed up when I ride past there again I will let you know.
Thanks, Glenn. I certainly didn't mean to single out Laguna Hills by posting this. I just think it's a good example of vandalism problems we see all over Orange County. And it also draws attention to a historic site that doesn't get much press.
Oh, I know Chris... just wanted to share the news that I did hear from the City and they were positive in their response to getting it fixed up again.
I have not been down to the actual foundation location of the Adobe (which is not right off the Bike trail, but down the hill a bit). Not sure if there is anything visible there anymore or if it is just the location.
Came across a terrific article on Orange County baseball history here that might be of interest.
cwcfamily.org/wj/cc0.htm
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