Selfish views of a noisy few
Dear ER:
CenterCal’s Redondo Beach Waterfront project has been blatantly attacked by a very small group of boisterous people within our community. I cannot help but think that the opposition’s views are less about the project and more about egos, pride and frankly, small-mindedness.
As someone who has seen the one sided posts on social media, it is clear that this group has failed to see the bigger picture. Yes, there are places at the Waterfront currently used for Yoga and other exercise activities. Yes, we are able to walk along parts of the ocean. However, what these people continue to distort is how much better the Waterfront will be for Redondo residents, small businesses and our community.
Instead of walking along a parking lot, the proposed boardwalk would actually be aesthetically attractive, and 100 percent of the coastline will be accessible. The infrastructure, including the parking structure and pier, both of which are falling into disrepair, will be redone on CenterCal’s dime. The alternative is for the City to buy bonds, which would be financed through our taxes.
Take a step-back and look at the long-term advantages of this project, and see how ROW (Rescue our Waterfront), which should stand for Ruin Our Waterfront, has not proposed any strategy at all. Realize that this is about the social and economic health of our entire community not just the selfish views of a noisy few.
Yvonne Vick
Redondo Beach
Unintended consequences
Dear ER:
It’s a shame nobody goes to the Redondo Pier anymore (add sarcasm), as portrayed in waterfront developer CenterCal’s video. Saturday night, hubby and I walked to the Pier for a bite. As Village residents, we’ve enjoyed A Basq Kitchen and wanted to try The Slip. Ventured down, people everywhere. Enter Slip, place packed (Councilman Jeff Ginsburg and his wife were there). Stood 20 minutes, gave up, went to Barney’s Beanery. Small wait to be seated, it was packed, too. After eating, went down to the new Boogie, again packed. Our city wants to tear down all these new, little eateries along the International Boardwalk and put a road in their place.
Yes, a road to connect Torrance Blvd and Harbor Drive — or as it should be re-named, “Where’s-the-Harbor” Drive. CenterCal should take a lesson from Skechers. Skechers actually listened to the Manhattan and Hermosa Beach communities and scaled down their project and removed a bridge and tunnel. What a concept, actually working with residents instead of ignoring them. The opposition would not be fighting back if this had happened. Keep our Harbor a harbor.
Kelly Charles
Redondo Beach
Loaded plan
Dear ER:
The 211page Manhattan Beach Draft Downtown Specific Plan includes provisions that were to have been omitted, obliterating hopes for a continued small town character.
The city wants to urbanize its downtown to increase its tax base, ostensibly to pay for excessive city hiring and expenses. So it engaged Urban Land Institute (ULI) to investigate how more taxes could be wrung out of downtown. Meanwhile, downtown landlords desire higher rents, want to increase the heights of buildings and increase parking to make downtown a “visitor’s destination.” All this, rather than retain the small town character that many residents cherish.. The ULI report (p. 15) concluded”…the economic health of the City’s downtown retail is excellent. Rents are high, vacancy is low. The tenants represent a healthy mix, with small shop dominance”.
The City Council hired another consultant to draft a specific plan, increasing taxpayers’ expense to nearly $500,000. The consultant devised an advisory committee of three resident reps and up to 17 business representatives and conducted workshops where no oral comments or questions were permitted from citizens. The meetings were closed, except to those the consultant determined were “stakeholders.” Residents wishing to observe was forcibly removed.
The draft specific plan if approved will unduly restrict uses of both residential and business property in the downtown and will violate the California Coastal Act.
William Victor
Manhattan Beach
Tennis, anyone?
Dear ER:
Where did the writer get his information with regards to Victoria Azarenka’s game being modeled on Maria Sharapova’s (“Victoria victorious,” ER March 24, 2016)? Baseline bashing game? If the writer knew anything about Azarenka’s game compared with Sharapova’s, he would know that Azarenka moves much better, has world class net skills compared to Sharapova, has more consistent and relentless groundstrokes and is the only woman to have beaten Serena Williams four times, all in finals. Sharapova hasn’t beaten Serena Williams in over 10 years.
Azarenka can play all-court tennis, whereas Sharapova is the baseline ball basher. If you look at their stats after any match, you can see that Sharapova will usually have more winners and more errors because she employs first strike ball bashing with shots tending to have high margins of error. Azarenka employs deep penetrating, relentless groundstrokes that move her opponents around so she can set up open spaces to hit safer winners. She uses the forecourt and has world class net abilities. She also possesses an Olympic Gold doubles medal and several other grand slam mixed doubles titles.
Rachael Brown
University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
Desal your call
Dear ER:
Last week the Hermosa Beach City Council unanimously voted to oppose West Basin Municipal Water District’s proposed desalination project. I applaud this leadership by our council and now it’s time to do our part. West Basin is a leader in treating and reusing wastewater. Reusing wastewater will not only provide our region with an ample, clean water supply, but it will also reduce by millions of gallons, the wastewater entering our Bay each day.
West Basin is busy “educating” the public and our elected officials about desalination because they want this project to happen. The truth is that this project will commit our community to fixed, long term fees, even if the plant is not operating. There are many options for producing reliable water supplies that are more affordable and better for our environment.
I encourage my South Bay neighbors to send West Basin Board President,Carol Kwan an e-mail (latonyad@westbasin.org) expressing opposition to this project.
Jose Bacallao
Hermosa Beach
Appeal to Legado
Dear ER:
On November 19, 2015, after four public hearings, the Redondo Beach Planning Commission denied the Legado mixed use project. The plan plan called for 149 apartments, 37,000 sq. ft. of commercial/retail space, a new access road and a massive underground parking garage next to the Palos Verdes Inn. Legado’s appeals hearing is set for Tuesday, April 5 at 6 p.m. at the City Council Chambers, 415 Diamond Street. Let’s ask Legado Companies to finally listen to their neighbors by remodeling the hotel and getting it back open as soon as possible. Let’s ask them to build a quality mix of new residential and commercial development at a scale and density that fits with the surrounding neighborhoods and Riviera Village. We welcome change that fits our beach community.
Jane Abrams
Redondo Beach
Hahn shake
Dear ER:
Janice Hahn is welcome to be as delusional as she wishes when reflecting upon her political career, but she certainly cannot expect the rest of us to buy her self-serving nonsense (“Local politics Hahn’s bread and butter,” ER March 31, 2016). She wants everyone to believe that her late father Kenneth Hahn had very little to do with her political rise — “riding his coattails hasn’t worked all that well.” Does anyone seriously think she would have been as successful in Los Angeles County politics if her name had been Janice Smith or Janice Garcia? Apart from her years as a teacher it would appear from her Wikipedia entry that Hahn has had only one other stint in the private sector – working as a lobbyist for SoCal Edison. So I find it difficult to believe she has built her own network of political supporters instead of inheriting them from her father and her brother.
The other risible claim that Congresswoman Hahn makes is that she is leaving Congress because she finds it too partisan for her tastes. According to the Washington Post’s Congress Votes database, Janice Hahn voted with her party 96 percent of the time in the 112th Congress, ranking fifth among the 200 Democrats in the House. She followed up that performance with another 96 percent showing in the 113th Congress, good for seventh among the 202 Democrats. For someone so servile to her party’s leadership to bemoan the lack of bipartisan cooperation is certainly amusing in a sad, yet telling way.
I’m sure Hahn will enjoy her potential role as a County Supervisor, but I am equally sure that once she becomes bored with the routine she will start casting about for yet another taxpayer-paid position in LA County. The Janice Hahns of the world aren’t the cure to our political dysfunction. They are largely the cause of it.
John Ward
Redondo Beach
Cop of java
Dear ER:
I want to say thanks to the Redondo Beach Police, their new chief Keith Kauffman and everyone else who had a hand in orchestrating the March 22 event at 4 Brothers in North Redondo Beach. I enjoyed the opportunity to chat with several officers and am looking forward to doing it again.
Thanks for coming out and making yourselves available to the people.
I don’t want to leave out the VIP’s , a great group of volunteers looking out for the citizens of Redondo Beach.
Gary Mlynek
Redondo Beach
92 acres and counting
Dear ER:
AES has a 51 acre power plant for sale today. SCE has 20 acres of right-of-way that will be unnecessary once the power plant is gone. The city has 21 acres of pier and harbor awaiting redevelopment. What would you do, given the first opportunity in over 100 years to reimagine 92 acres of prime waterfront real estate, the largest area under consideration along the coast of the second biggest metropolitan city in the United States only, 30 minutes from LAX? Would you be creative, imagining that parts of the 92 acres could be parkland, wetlands, botanical gardens, a dog park, a museum, a theater, a performance amphitheater, a swimming pool, a skateboarding park, a fitness facility, a research center, an educational facility, and harbor access?
Or would you maximize developer profits by turning it all into some combination of restaurants, bars, offices, hotels, movie theaters, condos, apartments, and townhomes? Don’t spend too much time letting your dreams percolate. Mayor Aspel has already shot them down and continued the city down the path towards cookie cutter development. That happened when the Mayor broke the 2-2 City Council tie to extend the Exclusive Negotiating Agreement with CenterCal. Why did he vote to extend the ENA? Apparently someone with financial authority at the city authorized CDM Smith to overrun the cost of the DEIR by $600,000 without the authorization of council or any transparency to the taxpayers that they blew budget so badly. To cover their tracks, they needed CenterCal to pay for this overrun so that the city didn’t need to. CenterCal agreed as long as their ENA was extended.
By aligning the current sale of the AES property with the original August expiration of CenterCal’s ENA, the city could have combined these properties and worked with a single developer. That developer could have produced a single, integrated master plan (ours is over 20 years old). That developer could have used a much bigger canvas – 92 acres instead of 21 acres for the CenterCal Waterfront– to spread cost, revenue, impact, and density over a much wider area. That developer could have produced a truly balanced approach for our waterfront. One developer for both sites has less overhead and more ability to spread cost of infrastructure improvements so the residents get more balance.
Rather, we have a cookie cutter development Grove by the Sea at the CenterCal site and an unknown development at the AES site. Two developers compete to crunch in as much density as possible to achieve a payoff for their investment so the residents get two separate monstrosities. Thanks for the creative, imaginative Leadership Redondo.
Martin Holmes
Redondo Beach
Out of the kitchen
Dear ER:
In a recent Letter to the Editor, Redondo Beach Planning Commissioner Rodriguez laments the difficulty of his job and our annoying democracy (“The downside of downzoning,” ER Letters March 24, 2016).
Rodriguez complains the Planning Commission job would be so much easier if we didn’t have to submit certain zoning changes to the voters of Redondo Beach. Spoiler alert. Measure DD was passed because the City disenfranchised voters and ignored their input. Rodriguez also states a General Plan update is too expensive and will take too long to accomplish. What are his data points for these assertions? There are none. He is simply projecting his own views onto the citizenry when just the opposite appears true. Any reader of these Letters to the Editor would see residents clamoring for an update to the General Plan.
No money for the update? How about we cap the T.O.T. contributions to the Chamber of Commerce next year rather than an unlimited funding? They used about $200k to promote tourism in Redondo in 2015. Let’s use the other $400,000-plus paid to update the General Plan?
No money for an update? That’s how we got into a pickle over the parking garage — by not spending money to maintain the building.
Don’t like the voters? Resign
Eugene J. Solomon
Redondo Beach
Redondo death spiral
Dear ER:
Legado Development is returning next Tuesday to the Redondo City Council, along with their bulldozers. For those that don’t know, Legado wants to build a monstrous 149 apartment unit complex at Pacific Coast Highway and Palos Verdes Boulevard, on top of what is currently there. The intersection is rated an F by Caltrans. The sewer system also needs an upgrade. Legado, themselves, recently stated in an email to the City of Redondo, “Legado will also fund the construction of a wastewater line that will serve not only the Project but the City at large, a need that exists today but for which the City has not programmed the resources to fund the construction of the improvements. The estimated costs of this much needed infrastructure and traffic-related improvements will exceed $1million, which the City does not today have the resources to bear.”
Now, it’s not just the residents, but even the developers are getting in on the act of ridiculing the City of Redondo for lack of planning. A new general plan every 20 years is not much to ask for, especially when the City’s infrastructure can’t handle the development. The City has decided that they will pass off all infrastructure upgrades onto developers. This forces overdevelopment, which causes even more traffic issues. A death spiral for our community. Update the General plan so we don’t have sell our community to developers.
Nils Nehrenheim
Redondo Beach, 90277
Park plan
Dear ER:
The Manhattan Beach Downtown is the best in California. Better than La Jolla, Santa Monica, Malibu and Carmel. When you approach the downtown, you feel like you’re entering Shangri-La – you feel younger, healthier, smarter and lose all your worries. Question is, how can we improve the downtown without destroying the unique small town beach character?
The Urban Land Institute (ULI) stated that the economic health of the city’s downtown retail is excellent, rents are high, vacancy is low and the tenant represent a healthy mix, with small shop dominance.
Parking: I have been visiting the downtown since 1960 and have always been concerned about the parking problem. Residents and visitors are frustrated when they trying to find a parking space. More people should be encouraged to bike or walk. Mid-block crosswalks would remove parking spaces and be dangerous for the pedestrians. Drop-off locations throughout the downtown and a turnaround for cars will help parking.
Buildings Three to four story buildings and towers (six feet above height limit) at corner of buildings are not compatible with the small town beach character. Maximum frontage width of 50 feet for individual buildings will prevent merging of typical 30 foot lots. Ground floor space should have an “active” use such as “eating and drinking establishments, retail sales and/or personal services.”
Consultants: Urban Land Institute (ULI) $125,000 and Manhattan Beach Specific Plan $300,000. What will be the final cost for implementation of the Manhattan Beach Specific Plan?
Robert Bush
Manhattan Beach
Rachael Brown · Commented on Victoria victorious: Manhattan Beach resident Azarenka wins BNP Paribas Open
I find it very telling that Mr Teetor has failed to address the aforementioned complaints. I have read the article a second time and am again surprised at just how poorly this article is written with regard to both facts and as a matter of propriety.
“Azarenka, a blond woman who is two years younger than Sharapova and four inches shorter at 5-foot-10, has long been compared to her, and not just because she is from Belarus and Sharapova from Russia”- I fail to see how this is sentence even makes sense. Are you suggesting they have been compared because Sharapova is Russian and Azarenka is Belarusian? They are two different countries.
Secondly, again, I fail to see what purpose the writer’s reference to both female tennis player’s grunts serve. This is completely detracting not only Azarenka’s tennis but also women’s tennis by focussing on innocuous aspects that have nothing to do with how one plays tennis.
Finally, please do your research on Maria Sharapova, Victoria Azarenka and Serena Williams. Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams haven’t had a “rivalry” in more than 10 years which can easily be discovered in head to head stats.
For your convenience, here are some relevant facts:
- Victoria Azarenka was the World No.1 just before Serena Williams and before her injuries caused her ranking to plummet.
- Maria Sharapova’s departure (whether temporary or longer) doesn’t mean anything significant because she isn’t on the same level as both Azarenka and Williams. Before Azarenka’s injuries, she was completely dominant over Maria Sharapova. In 2012, Azarenka defeated Sharapova at the Aus Open Final, Indian Wells Final, US Open Semi Final and Beijing Final. That’s 1 final at a Grand Slam, 2 finals at premier mandatories and a semi final at another Grand Slam.
- It remains as a fact that Victoria Azarenka is the only female tennis player that can consistently challenge Serena Williams and even last year in her injurious state, Azarenka was the only one who had match points against Serena and took a set off Williams in all 3 encounters. The same cannot be said at all for Sharapova.
- Azarenka and Sharapova have different games. Azarenka can play all-court tennis whereas Sharapova is the baseline ball basher. If you look at their stats after any match you can see that Sharapova will usually have more winners and more errors because she employs first strike ball bashing with shots tending to have high margins of error. Azarenka employs deep, penetrating relentless groundstrokes that move her opponents around so that she can set up open spaces to hit safer winners. She uses the forecourt and has world class net abilities- She possesses an olympic Gold doubles medal and several other grand slam mixed doubles titles.
If the above still doesn’t ring a bell for you, at the least, it is in your best interest to amend certain parts of your article that suggest that Azarenka is a clone of Sharapova.
Rachael Brown
University of Technology
Sydney, Australia
Redondo Beach City Council to Hear Legado Companies Appeal
We’re not sure which will be discussed at Redondo Beach City Council hearing (Tuesday, 4/5*): Legado Companies’ already-denied, 149-unit plan (at old Bristol Farms, PCH + PVB), or another, still-too-dense 146-unit version?
Legado has vocally threatened legal action, should the City deny these plans that would cram more residential and commercial footage than allowed or required under Redondo law. And, they’ve held the City hostage, refusing to renovate/reopen the property’s Palos Verdes Inn since last June’s fire, denying Redondo much needed revenue. Is this a good neighbor?
Legado virtually ignored residents on the adjacent streets, instead wining and dining Chamber of Commerce and residents (some who live miles away), for support. Legado Companies’ plans bring no value to our lovely beach community, only too tall and dense buildings, and more traffic. We’ll suffer for decades, while the profit goes to Legado Companies. in Beverly Hills.
We applaud upgrading this important property they’ve let deteriorate for 10 years. It simply needs to fit in density and scale with our Riviera Village area.
Amy Josefek
Redondo Beach, CA
