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 of ham and cheeses
Dear ER:
Wow, $27 million (Mickey’s Deli sells $27 million Super Lotto ticket,” ERNews.com). The winner could buy the Hermosa Beach Mermaid property. Congratulations to Mickey’s. We’ve been buying sandwiches there for 50 years, when a ham and cheese was 50 cents.
JoAnn Turk
Website comment
A lot of beans
Dear ER:
There is a lot about CenterCal’s proposal that doesn’t make sense from a business standpoint.
When you actually review building costs, for CenterCal to have an economic success the lease cost per sq.ft. needs to be over $7.16. That’s higher than 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica. Currently, Barney’s Beanery’s prime spot on the Redondo pier is $3.25. With lease prices so far from reality what happens if CenterCal can’t make a 10 percent profit? They don’t have to pay anything to the city.
When they are gone, we are stuck with a mall that no local business can afford to lease space in, and a gigantic 45-foot tall concrete eyesore blocking what was once an unobstructed ocean view.
Time to go back to the drawing board and create something that benefits the city as part of a larger urban plan.
Wayne Craig
By email
Old guard vision
Dear ER:
The future of Redondo Beach could be environmentally impressive, sustainable and beautiful, drawing tourists and locals alike. Or it could be the mall CenterCal is proposing. Del Amo and other local malls designed in the current industrial fashion look so much the same that while visiting them you could literally be in any city, anywhere.
In cities that were wisely planned, there’s beauty, history, art and a wise sense of how the streets function together. Maybe we won’t be Paris or Rome, but do we have to model Redondo after the lowest common denominator? I don’t know if it’s greed or if the people who push us so hard for these industrialized improvements really find their vision aesthetically pleasing.
In a time when people are coming up with genius concepts to deal with global warming and other ills, is it possible that we could tap into some of that forward thinking and not simply have a group of the old guard lead us into the past while presenting it as the future?
Lorrie Kazan
Redondo Beach
If not for Bill
Dear ER:
It’s amusing to read the letters-to-the-editor by CenterCal’s supporters, telling us to “believe the facts, not the propaganda.” Notice how many of them wrote letters in support of AES in that company’s attempt to add 600 condos to our waterfront. If not for Bill Brand and R4 (Redondo Residents for Responsible Redevelopment) they would have succeeded.
Now some of these same folks want us to believe that CenterCal’s project is “great for our community environmentally.” Does CenterCal know that 10 theater complexes have closed in the past two decades or so in the Beach Cities and Torrance while only one, the AMC in Del Amo, has opened in the past decade (and that replaced the old UA Del Amo). Do they just think ‘if we build it, they will come?’
I’m not anti-growth. In 1990, as editor of the Redondo Beach News, I ran a survey to see if our readers wanted to rebuild the Pier. They did. I was chair of the Redondo Beach Public Library Commission when we built the main library and was a founder of the Library Foundation that helped build the North Branch. Two years ago I voted in favor of The Shade Hotel in Redondo Beach. But much of this project resembles 10 pounds of sausage in a five pound bag.
On Wednesday, December 2, with less than 48 hours notice, over 100 people showed up at the new Redondo Beach Hotel for the first meeting of ROW (Rescue Our Waterfront). It was very gratifying to see so many concerned citizens on such short notice.
Ross Yosnow
Redondo Beach
Let it be
Dear ER:
I love the quaint, old Redondo pier and don’t want it to be demolished by CenterCal. It’s already making a very nice comeback. Revitalize Don’t Supersize.
Suzanne McCune
Website comment
A rose by any other name
Dear ER:
A “lifestyle center” is simply a mall, rebranded. We already have a lifestyle in Redondo Beach, so why would we need one built for us? Don’t let CenterCal’s shills or slickly-produced sales videos fool you.
J.C. Conyne
Redondo Beach
