Surfing Heritage and Culture Center’s new Laguna Beach location is now ready

• September 19, 2026

Walking through the doors of the newly opened Surfing Heritage and Culture Center is like entering a time capsule into surfing’s past.

Large, heavy wooden boards line up tell the story of the sport’s evolution. Old cameras used by early era storytellers are on display, while swimsuits of yesteryear show styles worn generations ago.

There are displays on every aspect of surfing, also telling the story of how surfing has had influence on everything from culture, fashion, film, music and beyond.

The “Smithsonian of Surf,” as it is often called, reopens to the public this weekend in its new location, a long-awaited moment that puts the world’s largest collection of surf history and memorabilia just steps from the ocean in Laguna Beach.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony and traditional Hawaiian blessing were held Friday afternoon at the new home of Surfing Heritage and Culture Center, welcoming dignitaries, volunteers, surf history enthusiasts and others who marked the moment 30 years in the making.

“The people are stoked, the city has been great,” SHACC Executive Director Jeff Alter said. “It’s been a good ride so far, and it’s only going to get better.”

What once was an abandoned building in downtown Laguna Beach now boasts historic and modern-day surfboards, offering more space for their display than SHACC’s previous location in the hills of San Clemente.

Under each board, descriptions talk about their history and the era’s significance to the sport.

Randy Hild, a member of SHACC’s Board of Directors, pointed at four wooden boards on either side of a 10-foot wide, 16-foot-tall flat screen that will be used to show movies or sporting events, like the Lexus Trestles Pro that was streaming on opening day, the competition reaching the final heats just down the way south of San Clemente.

For Hild, those boards made by the godfather of modern-day surfing, Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku, are the most special among the hundreds on display, he said. Two of them were shaped right down the road in Corona del Mar, when the Olympic swimmer visited to share the aloha lifestyle with Southern California.

Hild also pointed out an upstairs area to be used as a conference room and library, available to the public, where every issue of Surfer and Surfing magazines are carefully organized. He pulled out the first-ever magazine article about surfing, published in the May 1935 National Geographic, authored by early-era surfer Tom Blake, a good friend of Kahanamoku.

The downtown building is just steps from where founder Dick Metz’s own story began at Main Beach, the 97-year-old beaming on opening day as congratulations flowed in throughout the afternoon.

Metz said SHACC’s new home is bigger and better than he ever imagined.

“It’s the whole thing, to have this building with this big roof and it’s so open, and having it so close to the Main Beach where I grew up, and to have a parking lot in downtown Laguna, is beyond,” Metz said.

His hope, looking ahead at the LA28 Olympics, is that SHACC can be a meeting place for organizers and teams from various countries.

The space is a “historic hangout,” and can easily transform to meet the needs of events such as weddings and corporate meetings, he said. Exhibits in the center space are portable so they can be tucked away and up to 400 people can fit. A bar and restaurant are available for entertaining.

“This is not a subdued museum,” Metz said.

The building had to be completely gutted, the flooring and walls replaced, the design work throughout the center done by Alter’s wife, Laurie, who owns the upscale furnishing company Tuvalu.

Laguna Beach is where the center got its start, Metz first renting a small office in the 1990s on top of the Royal Hawaiian just next to Main Beach to keep his collection, which he has been acquiring since the ’60s.

For nearly three decades, the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center was located in the hills of an industrial area of San Clemente, about 2.5 miles from the coast.

That building — SHACC co-founder and avid surfboard collector Spencer Croul helped with the purchase — gave the budding museum a chance to grow as both Croul and Metz combined their personal collections, said Alter.

The deal to move to Laguna Beach closed escrow less than a year ago in December, and SHACC volunteers and staff quickly got to work sprucing up the 12,000-square-foot space at Broadway Street and Ocean Avenue, in the 1940s home of the Sprouse Reitz Co., and later a drug store.

Alter, son of surfing and sailing icon Hobie Alter, said to be in such a public area is “pretty exciting.”

“We’re pretty excited to hit the finishing line,” he said. “It’s been a big project, and we had a lot of great people helping us.

“It feels really neat to be downtown a block from the ocean,” Alter added. “This just feels like where it should be.”

Croul said his favorite part of the building is that it is ready for the public.

“It’s arrived. My favorite part is that it’s done,” he said, noting that since they bought the original building, the goal was to sell it and get closer to the beach. The sale of the San Clemente property helped, in part, fund the Laguna Beach building.

Croul said his hope is that a 10-year-old kid will walk through the building and ask questions about decades-old boards, helping to preserve the history and culture. The museum allows for storytelling and “to have a home where you can tell stories about surfing history,” Croul said.

Board member Mark Christy, who helped facilitate the building deal, said the “planets aligned” for it all to come together: from finding an empty building big enough to hold the extensive collection, to the timing, to the location 100 yards from where Metz’ parents owned a burger shop in the epicenter of the Southern California surf scene.

“I literally just tingle when I walk in here,” Christy said. “It’s a dream.”

Filmmaker Greg MacGillivray, a Laguna Beach resident and SHACC board member, showed off an interactive exhibit highlighting 20 waves around the world, from Nazaré in Portugal to down the road at Lower Trestles.

The Stoke Machine has everything from a live cam, to a geography lesson, to an explainer on “why is the wave so sick?”

“It’s beyond what everyone expected, it’s beyond what the board members expected, what I expected,” MacGillivray said, crediting an energized Alter who has been working around the clock to make it a reality.

MacGillivray pointed out an animation done by surf artist Phil Roberts playing on the wall called “The Ocean People,” highlighting the origin of surfing and Hawaiian culture.

An entire exhibit is dedicated to filmmaking, including several relics from work MacGillivray did early in his career.

“It’s going to be fun for me to get my grandkids here,” he said, talking about how surf filmmaking, like many facets of surf culture, started in Orange County.

“I love the fact that surfing is the only sport that has our own music, our own movies, our own fashion,” he said, pointing to an exhibit that shows wool bathing suits and the evolution of boardshorts. “It’s not just the sport itself, it has a culture around it.”

SHACC will be open to the public from 12:30 to 7 p.m. on Saturday for an open house and grand opening festivities, but closed on Sunday for a grand opening fundraising gala.

In the near future, the surf center will be open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesdays through Sundays at 239 Broadway St., Laguna Beach.

More information: shacc.org.

​ Orange County Register 

These bulbs have evolved to avoid being eaten. You can take advantage of that

• September 19, 2026

By JESSICA DAMIANO | The Associated Press

There’s little worse in a gardener’s mind than watching their careful planning and hard work go up in a cloud of teeth, thanks to every four-legged freeloader within chewing distance.

So if you’re planting bulbs this fall, select the right ones to avoid planting dinner.

Although no plant is 100% animal-proof, some spring-blooming bulbs have toxic or unpalatable self-defenses that deer, rabbits and rodents tend to avoid.

Pet owners and parents, however, should exercise caution when deciding to grow these within reach of children or furry family members.

Let’s start with the most offensive bulbs

Crown imperials aren’t referred to as “stink lilies” for nothing. One whiff of the malodorous, tufted, downward-facing, bell-shaped flowers will transport you to a skunk sanctuary — or a sweaty locker room. No self-respecting living thing would deliberately sniff, let alone eat, any part of the plant, which also contains highly toxic steroidal alkaloids.

But don’t let that dissuade you from planting them. The striking plants not only keep rodents away, but they attract pollinators and are exceptionally eye-catching in the spring garden. Just don’t plant them near the front walk.

Alliums are related to onions, and their bulbs’ scent makes no secret of it, so they’re typically left undisturbed. Their flowers have a similar, although milder, fragrance. If rabbits are particularly hungry, they might attempt a nibble, but the bitter sulfur compounds in the bulbs, leaves and stems will send them running. The plants are also toxic.

Similarly, all types of daffodils — from demure jonquils to giant trumpet types — contain bitter, toxic properties that most critters know to avoid.

These bulbs aren’t as offensive, but they are off-putting

Although nicely scented to us humans, the strong, sweet perfume emanating from Dutch hyacinth flowers is off-putting to many animals, as is the fruity scent of the unrelated grape hyacinth, which deer and rabbits perceive as musky. Neither is as offensive as pungent alliums, but both hyacinths also contain toxic compounds that cause mouth irritation and stomach upset if bitten or ingested.

Spanish bluebells contain saponins, which smell and taste like soap, as well as poisonous cardiac glycosides.

Snowdrops, Siberian squill, anemone, glory of the snow, winter aconite and star of Bethlehem are smaller, so-called “minor” bulbs with flowers that bloom earlier than the larger bulbs above. But they pack a punch in deterring wildlife browsing, thanks to their unpalatable smell, bitter taste and/or toxic compounds.

Because they have strong defenses, multiply readily and are not kept under control by animals, some of these plants, particularly Siberian squill, Spanish bluebells and star of Bethlehem, can quickly become invasive, so plant with caution.

Mix the offensive bulbs with other bulbs that animals love

All of these plants have spent generations using their natural defenses to avoid being eaten, and you can take advantage of that, too.

If you’d like to plant bulbs that animals love to eat, such as tulips or crocuses, try surrounding them with unpalatable ones. As they exude odors and chemicals to protect themselves, some of those defenses will extend to their bedmates.

Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for The Associated Press. She publishes the Weekly Dirt Newsletter.

​ Orange County Register 

Susan Shelley: LA’s homelessness scandals echo Tammany Hall

• September 19, 2026

The Tammany Hall political machine that ran New York City for more than a century ended in a massive corruption investigation that eventually ensnared the city’s Democratic mayor, James J. Walker, for having a slush fund from favor-currying and for personally accepting $1 million in bribes.

The investigation was ordered by the governor of New York, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

A Democratic governor who was running for president broke up a corrupt political machine run by his own political party in a major city. And then he was elected to the presidency four times.

Currently there’s an investigation into corruption in Los Angeles, but it was not ordered by the Democratic governor, last seen fly fishing on a cable news network and musing that mistakes were made during Covid.

The investigation in Los Angeles is coming from the Republican president’s Department of Justice and the Republican-majority Congress.

That could be politically helpful to Mayor Karen Bass, who is frantically running for re-election on a record the San Andreas Fault would envy. Bass refused to appear before a congressional committee investigating fraud in federal homelessness spending managed by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, known as LAHSA.

In a September 4th letter, the mayor’s city-paid attorney, David Michaelson, informed the House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency that Bass was unavailable to appear at the “Fixing Fraud and Failure in Federally Funded Homelessness Services” hearing on September 15.

Michaelson wrote that the mayor’s office was “commencing the collection and review of records in response to the Subcommittee’s request,” cautioning that it would “take some time” given that the records requested covered a six-year period.  

The mayor’s lawyer also emphasized that Bass “does not control LAHSA’s operation, budget or administration,” which is a stretch since the mayor had appointed herself to the governing board of LAHSA in 2023 and appointed four more of its ten members.

Then Michaelson took a snarky victory lap, reminding the committee that although the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is investigating LAHSA and suspended its federal funding, a federal judge had issued a preliminary injunction that forced HUD to keep paying.

That’s some victory.

As if to leave the scene of the crime before Scotland Yard arrived with Sherlock Holmes, Bass stepped down from the board of LAHSA on September 9. She said she was so very busy, and she didn’t have time for it. Then, on the day of the congressional hearing, she blamed Trump. “Let’s call this what it is,” she wrote in an online post, “the latest attack on Los Angeles by Donald Trump to punish our city and distract from his administration’s corruption.”

That might have worked for her, except for all the arrests. On Wednesday, three people in the L.A. area were charged in three separate federal cases with committing fraud to loot millions of dollars from homelessness programs and spend it on the good life. The founder of a nonprofit in Culver City allegedly took $7.5 million of public money and used some of it to pay for the construction of a nightclub and bingo hall in Inglewood.

In another case, an employee of a service referral agency was charged with accepting more than $180,000 in bribes from a service provider to refer nonexistent people for billable services. That service provider was already arrested, back in January. Six people have been arrested so far in the federal investigation into homelessness service providers in Los Angeles.

There will be more, prosecutors said.

In addition to LAHSA, which is a joint city-county agency, the city of Los Angeles runs its own homelessness program, “Inside Safe.” It has cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and there’s little to show for that spending. Bass, who created Inside Safe, has refused to allow the city controller to audit it.

A court-ordered independent report found $2.3 billion out the door for city homelessness programs, but the auditors said they could not “completely quantify the total amount spent” because of a lack of recordkeeping.

After seeing similar results in a county audit of LAHSA, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted in April 2025 to pull the county’s roughly $300 million in annual funding out of the city-county entity and run homelessness programs from the county directly.

LAHSA’s federal funding may be gone, too. Although the mayor’s lawyer bragged that a federal judge ordered HUD to resume payments, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals stayed that order. HUD’s June letter to LAHSA, informing the agency its federal funding is suspended while the Office of Inspector General investigates “wanton mismanagement of public funds,” is back in force.

LAHSA was formed in 1993 and made responsible for accepting and disbursing funding for homelessness services. Thanks to tax increases and COVID spending, LAHSA’s annual budget grew from about $62 million in 2015 to $352 million in 2020, and then to $814 million in 2025, before the county pulled its funds out.

For decades, LAHSA has been the lead agency for the Los Angeles Continuum of Care, overseeing the annual request for federal funding, the Homeless Management Information System, the annual homeless “point-in-time” count and the coordinated-entry system, which connects people to housing and services.

But on Tuesday, LAHSA’s governing board voted not to seek that role again. It wasn’t entirely their choice, because HUD’s suspension means LAHSA could face “permanent debarment” at the conclusion of the inspector general’s investigation, making the agency ineligible to receive federal funds.

In June, HUD said it “uncovered evidence of LAHSA’s repeated false statements and its irresponsible actions and failures, including its lack of financial management, internal controls, and safeguards against conflicts of interest.”

That could turn out to be minor compared with the federal criminal investigation into fraud in homelessness programs. Prosecutors can draw on the resources of the U.S. Treasury Department, including the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, to see where the money went.

LAHSA’s problems could mark the end of the investigation. Or it could be just the beginning.

Write Susan@SusanShelley.com and follow her on X @Susan_Shelley

​ Orange County Register 

Think your HOA is strict? Meet the rules of Indian Creek’s Billionaire Bunker

• September 19, 2026

By Luisa Yanez, Miami Herald

In Indian Creek Village, money can buy you a $100 million mansion, a sprawling waterfront compound and a front-row seat to one of the most exclusive enclaves in South Florida.

But you still have to follow the rules created when the village first incorporated in 1939.

Welcome to Billionaire Bunker, where some of the world’s richest people live by a surprisingly detailed set of rules.

Indian Creek Village Manager Guillermo Olmedillo said this week that the village follows state and broader municipal laws, as well as the rules contained in its 103-page Land Development Regulations, also known as the Indian Creek Village Code.

And the rules have teeth. Willfully violating the Land Development Regulations or failing to comply with them can bring a fine of up to $500-per-day. The village can also seek court-ordered enforcement or revoke a building permit.

Like in many other well-heeled communities, there are limits on height. Limits on paving. Limits on walls. Limits on guest houses. Limits on pools. Limits on generators. Limits on docks. Limits on the number, or groups, of animals you can own.

The regulations spell out what property owners can build, where they can build it and how they can use their land, among more than 100 additional requirements.

Indian Creek is not alone. The city of Coral Gables famously fought for decades to protect residential neighborhood character by restricting overnight pickup-truck parking. In 2012, voters ultimately overturned the broader ban.

The regulations govern everything from the size and height and paint of a house to fences, pools, driveways, generators, docks and accessory buildings. All are meant to keep the “quiet elegance” of the village.

Some are surprisingly specific but are likely being followed by famous billionaire residents, including Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Tom Brady, Carl Icahn, Norman Braman, Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner.

For example, you can’t allow grass to grow more than six inches. All construction sites must be covered with a layer of sod to prevent “dust and unsightliness.” House paint colors are restricted. For-sale signs must only be made of “sealed wood, signboard or sheet metal.” But there’s more: They must be primed and painted with a minimum of two coats, using gloss letters on a matte background and gloss foreground.

Now, the rules that may be hardest to explain to a billionaire arriving home from the airport:

No helicopters or helipads allowed

The regulations say that “in no instance” can a landing or storage area for a helicopter or other aircraft be allowed as an accessory use. So much for landing directly in the backyard.

Your mansion has a minimum size

To qualify as a mansion on Indian Creek, size matters. The village doesn’t just tell homeowners how big their houses can be. It tells them how small they can be.

A residential principal building, together with its accessory buildings, must contain at least 5,000 square feet of gross floor area. At least 75% of that space must be under the roof of the main house.

So yes, Indian Creek effectively has a minimum mansion size.

You can’t pave paradise

Even Village billionaires need to leave some room for grass, whether they like it or not.

The regulations limit building coverage to 25% of the building site, which means at least 55% of the property must remain landscaped or pervious open space. And that calculation isn’t simply about the footprint of the house.

Driveways, sidewalks, parking areas, swimming pools, athletic courts, terraces and other hard surfaces count, too.

Mansions can’t crowd mansions

Here’s another rule. A principal residence in the village must be at least 100 feet from the rear, or waterside, property line.

Accessory buildings must be at least 50 feet from the water. The required front setback is 50 feet and side setbacks are 25 feet.

So even when your backyard is Biscayne Bay, you can’t simply push the mansion to the water’s edge.

Where the pool can go

A swimming pool can extend into the waterfront setback, but it can’t rise more than three feet above the established yard grade.

And there’s one hard rule: No swimming pools in the front yard.

Even your guest house has rules

A property can have up to two additional structures.

The regulations list possibilities including guest houses, caretaker residences, cabanas, gyms, libraries, pool houses, boat houses and detached garages.

But there’s a catch: Those buildings generally can’t be designed to function as independent residences, except if they are for household employees.

And under the residential building standards, an accessory building is limited to 800 square feet.

Privacy has a height limit

Indian Creek is famous for privacy. But even here, there are limits on how high you can build the wall around that privacy.

Front- and side-lot fences and walls can’t exceed seven feet above the approved finished grade of the main building.

They also must be set back 10 feet from the front property line, with landscaping required in that setback to screen the wall from view. So you can have the wall. Just not an enormous one.

Driveways have rules, too

Even the driveway needs to give the neighbors some elbow room. The regulations require every driveway to be at least 15 feet from a side property line.

Rules for hurricane generators

Indian Creek has a specific provision governing emergency electrical generators and HVAC structures.

A generator enclosure can’t exceed: 18 feet wide by 20 feet long by 12 feet high.

And it must be set back 100 feet from the front property line, 100 feet from the water, 25 feet from the side property line and 10 feet from the main building. Those setbacks cannot be varied.

You can’t create another lot

Want to turn one piece of Indian Creek property into two?

The regulations say “No further subdivision” is permitted.

The rules generally require a residential site to have at least 200 feet of water frontage on Biscayne Bay, with specific exceptions for some existing lots.

For an island with a famously limited number of residential properties, that’s a critical rule.

The waterfront isn’t entirely yours

Owning a waterfront mansion doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want at the water’s edge.

Boat houses, boat landings, docks, piers and mooring posts must be built according to plans approved by the village council and require a Miami-Dade County environmental permit.

No marketing from mansions allowed

The regulations also put limits on how homeowners can use their properties for events.

A homeowner can’t allow the property to be used by a third party for an event or gathering — including a party — intended to promote, sell or introduce a commercial service, product, celebrity or brand.

So throw a party if you want. Just don’t turn the mansion into a marketing event.

And then there are the animals

The regulations say domestic or other animals kept in groups such as packs, herds, litters, bevies or flocks larger than three are prohibited, unless the Village approves otherwise by resolution.

So the rule isn’t simply “three dogs.” It’s written broadly enough to cover groups of animals.

Taken together, the regulations offer a revealing look at Indian Creek. The bottom line is to protect the exclusive, high-end character of the village.

©2026 Miami Herald. Visit at miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

California Never: Why tech billionaires can’t build their new city

• September 19, 2026

I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard people flying over the vast American West for the first time exclaim: “Who says we don’t have plenty of room for millions more people? There’s nothing but empty space down there!”

Now, these are not necessarily people with master’s degrees in urban planning, to be sure. Empty space is one thing; water is another. The Mojave and Sonoran deserts don’t have a lot of it. Nor do Utah or West Texas, for that matter.

But those who came before us somehow built Los Angeles, for instance. Yes, their “Chinatown” scam famously stole the water from up north to do that, but needs must. There was a lot of water in the Eastern Sierra. Still is.

Could we build a California city today? We certainly need one—or five, or 10. There’s not enough housing for those of us here already, not to mention for our grandchildren. Civilizations have been building cities ever since we emerged from the caves. Can-do Americans can do anything we put our minds and backs to, right?

Wrong. You can’t build a new city in our state, at least not easily. A consortium of Silicon Valley billionaires calling itself California Forever has for years been trying to build a fairly large new city in the rural north near the Sacramento Delta. Once again this year, efforts to get the project going died in the state Legislature before its latest session ended this month.

“It’s just incredibly hard to do large projects in California,” Ben Metcalf, managing director of the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley, told The New York Times.

The pioneers who built the California cities in which we now live had their own obstacles to overcome. But they never encountered one as large as the bureaucracies we have created today.

The consortium trying to build in Solano County southwest of Davis is called California Forever. It proposes to put up not only a city of 400,000 residents, but also a shipyard and a manufacturing center that would create lots of jobs. The plan is flush with cash, with money from venture capitalists including LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Steve. Labor unions like it, as does Gov. Gavin Newsom.

I like it, too. But along with navigating the crazy regulatory climate that faces anyone trying to build something—anything—in California, the group has also done pretty much everything wrong.

You don’t build trust among rural landowners, including some farming families in the area that have owned their acreage for over a century, by secretly and anonymously buying up property. But that’s what the company originally did as it assembled about 70,000 acres as a start.

Since no one would say what was going on, rumors started to circulate about foreign money being involved in the mysterious scheme. Another massive PR stumble: When the Times first reported on California Forever and some landowners collectively refused to sell, the company filed suit, claiming collusion among the current owners to get a better price for their farms.

Lawsuits never win friends.

Then, two years ago, California Forever planned to win approval for the city by putting a ballot issue up for a vote in Solano County. Polling showed that the initiative would fail at the polls, so the company stopped that effort. Now, one of the newer ideas is to get a quaint incorporated town called Suisun City to annex 23,000 acres of agricultural land to make development easier.

It’s a sweet idea: the city would feature low-rise, three-to-five-story buildings and lots of parks. But you know who’s not so popular these days? Tech moguls.

The state desperately needs new housing. But so far, this scheme is more like California Never.

Larry Wilson is on the Southern California News Group editorial board. lwilson@scng.com.

​ Orange County Register 

When the police destroy innocent people’s property, who pays the bill?

• September 19, 2026

Carlos Pena watched in horror for 13 hours as a SWAT team raided his North Hollywood print shop in August 2022. They were pursuing a fugitive who had no connection to Carlos but had barricaded himself inside his business. In the coming weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court could decide whether to take Carlos’ case seeking compensation.

A new nationwide study from the Institute for Justice (IJ), titled “Public Benefit, Private Burden,” makes clear that when law enforcement damages innocent people’s property while pursuing a fugitive, this creates genuine hardship for the property owner. At the same time, compensating the owner would have a negligible impact on government budgets. The Supreme Court should make clear that when such damage happens, the innocent property owners must be made whole.

The report studied 2,700 claims for compensation for law enforcement property damage across 222 local jurisdictions with SWAT teams. The most common claims involved residential damage caused by routine law enforcement activities, such as police breaking down a door or fence to conduct a search or respond to an emergency, and the median claim was for $1,260. Seeing as fewer than half of Americans have sufficient funds to cover a $1,000 emergency expense, this type of damage creates genuine hardship for unlucky property owners. And unlucky property owners were the largest group of claimants in the study, with 90% of claimants not being the target of the law enforcement action and 70% of those having no connection to the target whatsoever. Despite that, 41% of claims from completely innocent property owners were denied—just as happened to Carlos.

The tens of thousands of dollars in damage done to Carlos’ shop when tear gas was deployed and holes were blasted in the walls and ceiling is an outlier in terms of cost. Only about 1 in 10 claims in the study was for $10,000 or more. But Carlos’ case still highlights the fact that innocent people with no connection to the criminal suspect are often the ones left holding the bag when law enforcement damages private property in the line of duty.

After Carlos watched the business he built over 31 years get destroyed right in front of his eyes, he sought compensation from his insurance company, the U.S. Marshals and the city of Los Angeles. The insurance company told Carlos it didn’t cover “acts of government”; the Marshals, despite being on the scene during the raid, pointed him to the city, because it was the city’s SWAT team that caused the damage during the raid; and the city denied his claim.

But paying innocent property owners would be a drop in the bucket of a local government’s annual budget. The data show that even if every claim for compensation for police damage merited payment—and undoubtedly some would not—the average annual cost for a local government would be just $6,500. This undermines the argument made by some that local governments would be in financial trouble if they paid up when police damage innocent people’s property.

The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution requires the government to pay just compensation when it “takes” property for a public good. Getting dangerous criminals off the street is certainly a public good, but when innocent people’s property is damaged in the process, they must be compensated.

The U.S. Supreme Court should take Carlos’ case and ensure that public benefits are no longer private burdens.

Jeffrey Redfern is a Senior Attorney at the Institute for Justice (IJ) and represents Carlos Pena in his case seeking compensation.  

​ Orange County Register 

What can Chicago tell us about real estate in Southern California?

• September 19, 2026

I’m penning this column from one of our great U.S. cities, Chicago.

The scale of the downtown area is overwhelming. Massive skyscrapers rise from the banks of the Chicago River as it meanders toward Lake Michigan. The El bangs along rickety tracks in its endless loop around downtown. Of all the major metropolitan areas in our country, Chicago may be the most impressive.

As I walked Chicago this weekend, I was struck not simply by its size, but by its resilience. This is a city built around transportation, commerce and real estate. Yet the way each of those functions today bears little resemblance to the city that produced many of the magnificent buildings surrounding me.

Which caused me to wonder. What makes a piece of commercial real estate endure?

Is it the building, the location, the infrastructure surrounding it, or simply our willingness to imagine a different use when the old one no longer works?

Commercial real estate is littered with buildings constructed perfectly for yesterday.

Chicago provides plenty of examples. The city grew because of its strategic location, first as a connection between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River system, then as a railroad hub linking eastern markets with the rapidly developing West. Commerce followed the transportation, people followed the commerce and real estate followed the people.

Sound familiar?

Southern California developed differently, but the fundamentals are remarkably similar. Our ports, freeways, airports, population and enormous consumer base created one of the largest industrial markets in the country. Manufacturers, distributors and logistics companies needed places to make, store and move things, and an industrial real estate market grew around them.

But markets change.

Manufacturing processes become more sophisticated. Distribution becomes more automated. Companies require more power, greater clear heights, better loading and fewer employees per square foot. Buildings that were state of the art 40 years ago can suddenly find themselves functionally obsolete.

Office buildings face an even greater challenge. Remote and hybrid work have changed the amount and type of office space many companies require. A magnificent downtown tower can still occupy a great corner, offer spectacular views and sit adjacent to tremendous infrastructure, yet struggle because the original assumptions upon which it was built have changed.

So what happens next?

Some buildings will continue doing exactly what they were designed to do. Others will be renovated and repositioned. Some may find entirely new uses, while others will eventually disappear and give way to something the original developer never contemplated.

We see the same thing happening in Orange County.

Older manufacturing buildings are being occupied by advanced manufacturers whose products their original occupants could scarcely have imagined. Corporate campuses are being reconsidered. Industrial buildings are being modernized. Office owners are wrestling with what their properties should become if traditional office demand never fully returns.

Which brings me back to Chicago.

Great cities endure because they adapt. The river that once moved raw materials now carries architectural tour boats beneath skyscrapers. Elevated trains designed in another century still rumble above streets filled with people carrying smartphones and ordering rides from apps. Buildings constructed for yesterday remain valuable because the infrastructure, location and human activity surrounding them continue to matter.

Therein lies the lesson for commercial real estate owners.

We tend to think of a building as a permanent asset, but its usefulness is anything but permanent. Markets change, technology changes, companies change and the way people work changes.

The dirt, however, remains.

And sometimes the greatest value in a piece of commercial real estate isn’t what it is today, but what someone can imagine it becoming tomorrow.

Allen C. Buchanan, SIOR, is a principal with Lee & Associates Commercial Real Estate Services in Orange. He can be reached at abuchanan@lee-associates.com or 714.564.7104.

​ Orange County Register 

Portola football pounces on Northwood’s early mistakes, picks up victory

• September 19, 2026

IRVINE—Two mistakes, two touchdowns, too much to overcome.

In the game that was deciding the winner of the coveted Fence Post Trophy – the Irvine city champion – Northwood dug a hole and Portola filled it.

The Bulldogs scored a 34-10 victory on Friday.

The score was a bit deceiving.

Northwood’s mistakes? They were big. A bad snap on a punt gave Portola the ball at the Northwood 7-yard line, which resulted in a touchdown.

A fumble inside the 10-yard line led to Galileo Chen’s 95-yard return, the biggest play of the game that staked Portola to a 14-0 lead.

A defensive stand at midfield resulted in a turnover on downs at midfield that set up a seven-play, 53-yard scoring drive.

All that took place in the first 16 minutes of the game.

“Coming into this game I think everyone had their eyes on Northwood even through we had won a bunch of games,” Chen said. “I felt people were doubting us. All the Northwood people were saying ‘This is their house,’ (though it’s Portola’s home stadium) and it was kind of personal to us.”

Portola improved to 4-1, and Northwood fell to 3-2.

The Timberwolves are young under first-year coach Stephen Barbee and have better days ahead. Apart from the mistakes, Northwood did a good job of moving the ball, but lacked the finishing move to put the ball in the end zone in the first half

And for good measure, Portola added another big play — a 68-yard run by Gavin Morrell that finished off any Timberwolves hopes of a fourth-quarter comeback. Morrell’s dash made it 31-10 with 11:18 remaining.

“We had to have some things happen, but they were milking the clock the whole second half,” Barbee said. “We needed some stops on defense and didn’t get them.

“We’re a young team and we fell too far behind to make up ground.”

Morrell rushed 21 times for 143 yards with two scores, including a two-yard burst for a 7-0 lead. The Bulldogs gained 233 yards on the ground.

Northwood was outgained, 297-205. Caden Jacobs led the Timberwolves offense with 154 yards passing. L.J. Ulmer carried 16 times for 141 yards.

The big plays were just too much for Northwood.

Portola was the beneficiary of a snap over the punter’s head, which gave the Bulldogs’ offense possession at the Northwood 7. Three plays later, Morrell busted up the middle for a lead less than seven minutes into the game.

Northwood drove from its 32 to the Portola 10, but a tie score wasn’t going to happen. A fumble at the five-yard line was returned 95 yards by Chen, who had no trouble finding the end zone in a sprint that was never really challenged.

Portola’s defense held on fourth down to give the Bulldogs possession at their 47. The defending CIF champion drove the necessary 53 yards in seven plays, with Chen catching Orion Suttle’s pass for a 10-yard touchdown pass. Andrew Chea’s third PAT of the half made it 21-0 at 8:31 in the second quarter.

Northwood got on the scoreboard on its next possession, settling for a 30-yard field goal from Dillan Low after an impressive drive petered out at the eight-yard line. Portola led, 21-3.

“That’s what we asked our guys to do, get out there and do their jobs,” Portola coach Peter Abe said. “When you get the opportunity, you have to make the play. That’s how you win these big games, and they did it.”

Northwood finally reached the end zone with a minute left in the third quarter on a picture-perfect pass from Jacobs to Elliot Kwon to make it a two-score game, 24-10.

But with 11:18 left in the game, Morrell peeled off his 68-yard response that essentially ended any comeback hopes.

​ Orange County Register