“Confidential” thank you
Dear ER:
Thank you very much for reporter Robb Fulcher’s excellent article on drugs and alcohol at Mira Costa High School (“High School Confidential,” July 29, 2010). I recommended it to all my friends and parents because he laid out the multi-pronged program so well. It can be challenging to understand the breadth of what everyone’s doing there, and the combined effort of all kinds of services and organizations, in addition to MCHS counselor Rocky Wilson. Thanks again for a very interesting and honest article about the state of affairs at not only MCHS, but the other schools, as well as the current drugs of choice for the kids. We need to know this. Kudos.
Ann Pitts
By email
Volleyball’s pied piper
Dear ER:
Soon after arriving in Redondo Beach in the fall of 1995, I found the game of beach volleyball. Or, perhaps it was Bill “Siggy” Sigler and his passion for the game who found me. With his passion and tireless energy, Bill has introduced thousands of players to the sport. Undoubtedly , many of those introduced by Bill have participated in the Manhattan Beach Six Man and continue to support many local volleyball events, including “paid” AVP events.
So I was a bit confused when I read Brent Griebenow’s view on why Bill and his fellow promoters might choose to organize a similar event running parallel to the Manhattan Beach Six Man (“Spike the faux Six-Man,” ER letters, August 5, 2010). Could it be that the feedback Bill received from many friends and players was that the elevated team fees for the Manhattan Six-Man were simply too much for a day of fun in the sun?
Siggy has always allowed a large number of players at his signature events to trade their time setting up courts, checking in players or cleaning up afterwards for any, minuscule fee that may have been charged. This insured all would have the option to participate.
As for Bill not making the City Council meetings to hash out grand plans, I understand he was at the beach teaching a class of beginning players and running coed volleyball leagues. Oh what a sensible use of time.
And, wouldn’t it be great if all of us could hit the clock every morning while working in our dream job? I say life would be good and I say, “Game on, Siggy!”
Michael Walker
Redondo Beach
Too close for comfort
Dear ER:
It is a violation of journalism ethics for a member of a public commission or a committee to attend meetings as a voting member while at the same time serving as a paid reporter to write stories about and take pictures of those meeting. What happens to journalistic objectivity in such a case? Well, that is exactly what is occurring when Councilman Howard Fishman’s former campaign manager Geoff Hirsch attends meetings of the Hermosa Beach PCH/Aviation Committee as an appointed member, while at the same time serving as a reporter for the Hermosa Beach Patch. Besides the obvious lack of objectivity and promotion of personal agendas that are going on, there appears to be conflicts of interest on several levels. Hirsh should resign immediately from the committee or be removed . He and councilman Fishman should both stop trying to impose their will and their personal agendas on the committee and start to listen and learn from the business members who have, combined, over 200 years of service along the Pacific Coast Highway and Aviation Boulevard.
Roger Eldon Bacon
Owner, Ralph’s Shopping Center
Hollywood Riviera
Give it time
Dear ER:
At the July 6 Redondo Beach City Council meeting, a letter from the Knob Hill Community Group (KHCG) was presented by Kelly Martin. KHCG is concerned about a major zoning change at the former school site at Pacific Coast Hwy. and Knob Hill Avenue. Martin urged the council to reconsider its decision to soon vacate the site, and to instead go back to the RBUSD School Board and extend the lease, allowing time to find viable options for commercial development of the site.
A zoning change to commercial would deny future school/city use, and broadly alter the historic avenues. A big box commercial project, going nine houses deep into a neighborhood, is a world of difference from the current school/city use.
The School District is hurting, but their minimum bid of $500,000 per year does not seem a significant increase over the approximately $300,000 per year now in place with the city and Carden Dominion School.
The issue seems to center around refurbishment/maintenance costs, with the city and the school district at odds. A delay by the city in using an estimated $1 million to relocate Parks and Rec seems appropriate in these times of hunkering down. Surely, the school district and city can try again to find a way to extend the lease for two years.
Sally Spotts
Redondo Beach
Doth protest too much
Dear ER:
The letter from a major Redondo Beach master leaseholder Les Guthrie (who continually puts on a show of anger) reminds me again that the center of the harbor problem is due to this awkward structure of managing public land (“Frustrated, but not mad, yet,” ER letters August 5, 2010).
Since the harbor was built, this leaseholder has amassed millions of dollars by forming creative business arrangements.
Millions have been made by the leaseholder because the harbor has traditionally been mismanaged by the city with inconsistent zoning and a climate that is exactly what the leaseholder complains about. All of this is done in order to lease out public land by the leaseholders in the most expensive way possible, with sweetheart long-term leases with the city. And we the taxpayer have been footing the bill.
Roger Boater
(name withheld by request)
Web site comment
Dead Zone growing
Dear ER:
The good news from the Gulf of Mexico is that the oil-spouting BP well has finally been sealed, and that the devastating impacts of the massive oil spill on beaches, wildlife habitats, and marine ecosystem are gradually abating. The bad news is that there are no plans to abate a much larger, deadlier, and continuing spill smothering life in the Gulf.
Each day, the Mississippi River dumps into the Gulf of Mexico millions of tons of animal waste from Midwest factory farms and animal feed croplands. The nitrates in animal waste and fertilizer runoff produce vast algal blooms that suck up oxygen from the water, killing marine life. The pesticides seal the deal. According to Wikipedia, the resulting “dead zone” extends over 8,500 square miles, roughly three times the size of the BP oil slick.
We react dramatically to unanticipated threats like the BP oil spill and accidental deaths. Yet we tend to accept and tolerate the much more damaging, but routine, threats from animal waste discharges and deaths from killer diseases linked to meat and dairy-laden diets.
Joel Barslitski
Hermosa Beach
