Year in Review: Manhattan, Hermosa mull school facilities bonds
and Ryan McDonald The Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach school districts face different problems with their facilities, but both considered asking voters to pass bonds to finance expansions and upgrades in 2015. In Manhattan Beach, the school board recently hired a prominent political consultant to test the waters for a November 2016 election. Hermosa, in […]
Year in Review: Hermosa tries to reshape nightlife in downtown
As Hermosa Beach became an increasingly popular night-life destination over the last decade, residents have grown correspondingly weary over the impacts that late-night traffic brings. The concentration of alcohol-serving establishments in and around Pier Plaza has become a source of crime. Hermosa police issued 600 alcohol- and public nuisance-related citations in the previous year. In […]
Year in Review: Hermosa likely has more hotels in its immediate future
By Ryan McDonald With multiple projects set for the downtown area, hotels dominated the discussion of Hermosa Beach development in 2015. Proponents and developers touted hotels as financial boons and land-use solutions. Voters passed Measure H in the November election, which boosted the city’s transient occupancy tax on hotel beds from 10 percent to 12 […]
Beach people passings 2015
2015 saw the passing of local surfing pioneers as well important civic and business leaders.
2015 Year in Review: Redondo Beach fights over mixed-used development
A sign planted by Legado Redondo opponents in the Redondo Beach Civic Center traffic circle. Photo It was the year of mixed-use development battles in Redondo Beach. Two separate, nearby projects along Pacific Coast Highway in South Redondo were the sharp focus of many residents, who conflated the projects based solely on their status […]
2015 Year in Review: Redondo Beach’s waterfront fight intensifies, abates
After a tumultuous 2015, the future of the Redondo Beach waterfront appears to have cleared up, ever so slightly. Despite a defeated ballot measure that some feared would result in guaranteeing the AES power plant’s retention into the future, the power plant’s land is on the market, the result of an agreement between […]
2015 Year in Review: Redondo Beach council politics: A year of campaign dustups, lines in the sand and recusals
Christian Anthony Horvath shares a kiss with his wife on May 12. Horvath ended the night down 16 votes, but came ahead of his opponent, Candace Allen Nafissi, by 12 votes during a second ballot count on May 18. Photo Last March, a wide-open field of seven candidates stood in competition for two seats […]
Year in Review: Hermosa Beach voters forcefully reject oil drilling
Hermosa Beach residents went to the polls March 3 to decide on Measure O, the ballot measure that would have lifted the city’s ban on oil extraction. Voters emphatically chose to maintain the ban, with extraction opponents outnumbering supporters nearly four to one. Turnout for the special election approached 60 percent of registered voters, a […]
Letters 12/31/15
Wave of the future Dear ER: Now this would have put Redondo on the map (“Kelly Slater introduces ‘the perfect wave’ machine,” EasyReaderNews.com.) Unfortunately, the powers that be at City Hall ignored this offer and abdicated harbor revitalization to a mall developer with no harbor or waterfront experience. Jim Light Website comment A lot […]
2015 Year in Review – Canvassing the Galleries: The year gone by in art
They come and they go, not only art shows but exhibition spaces and the people who have their work on view. This is a survey of what the South Bay put on display during 2015, a few things left out on purpose and probably just as many left out by accident. With some luck, most […]
2015 Year in Review – The Big Upscale
Steakhouses and Italian food make an emphatic return to the South Bay, more chef-driven neighborhood restaurants arrive, Redondo Beach blossoms, and both quality and prices rise One of the things that makes the lives of volcanologists interesting is the way that hotspots can suddenly cool, while an area nearby that has been quiet starts […]