Laguna Beach Local News More than 45 people met at Laguna Beach City Hall on June 15, 2021, to celebrate the reopening of California’s economy. Photo by Sharon Evans. More than 45 residents and city employees came together at Laguna Beach City Hall to formally recognize the city’s reemergence from COVID-19 restrictions and celebrate their post-pandemic lives on Tuesday. Mayor Pro Tem Sue Kempf and long-time resident Denny Freidenrich met up for the friends and neighbors, many of whom hadn’t seen each other in the last 16 months, for the community group photograph. Freidenrich asked for a moment of silence to remember the more than 600,000 Americans who have died after contracting COVID, more than 62,000 of whom were Californians. Of those, 5,099 people were from Orange County by Tuesday, according to the Orange County Healthcare Agency. He praised his neighbors for remaining calm during the unprecedented health crisis, despite the trauma everyone was experiencing.