Really?
Dear ER:
Seriously?!? A 13-paragraph rant on dog barking in the 11/4 edition [“Loaded Dog,” ER letters section, Nov. 4, 2101]! Either you all at the ER didn’t have enough letters to publish that week (hard to believe given our recent election results), or author “Leigh” is a relative.
Dan
Manhattan Beach
Really
Dear ER:
Thank you Leigh as you expressed my every thought. I am totally done with people who just leave their dogs in the yard to bark all day while they are at work. The dogs are just what you say – neglected, which is abuse.
I don’t bother calling the authorities in Hermosa as their attitude is “oh, something must have set the dog off. Just deal with it!”
There are dogs all over the beach every day running, playing, peeing and I’ve never seen anyone get a ticket. I’ve been bitten walking but won’t give it up. I just want responsible owners, as they love their dogs and do take care of them and deal with the barking. Those dogs I can love. Sorry there are other people sufferers out there like me,
Katie
Via email
‘Barking mad’
Dear ER:
After reading the letter about dogs barking and the alleged danger and destruction it causes, I had to reply. As a dog owner I consider myself extremely conscientious about chronic dog barking. I believe that I, like most dog owners, try to be respectful of our neighbors.
However I must point out to “Leigh” that dogs bark. It sounds to me from her 13-paragraph diatribe, that she has way too much time on her hands and probably sits around waiting for a dog to bark to fuel her hatred for dogs in general.
I find her description of dog barking as “molestation” offensive. And no one really wants to read about her “pooping in her toilet.” So, my only conclusion after finishing that waste of space on the Letters to the Editor page is that Leigh is “barking mad.”
Mary Lou Wagner
Via email
Free the wolves
Dear ER:
There is no solution to this problem [barking dogs] except the absolute banning of dogs in all residential areas worldwide.
The keeping of dogs means the imprisonment of dogs. These descendents of wolves are congenitally programmed to free range as Nature intended, and keeping them unnaturally confined in places like back yards is entirely alien to them. This is why dogs show their anguish in the only way they can – by barking, howling, whining and squealing.
This mindless treatment of dogs by millions of owners is animal cruelty on a colossal scale. The dog is used to stroke the ego of wickedly selfish people. Its naive trust in its substitute “pack leader” is utterly misplaced.
There is an online petition calling for “No Dogs Anywhere.” The sooner all societies wake up to the fact that this is the only fulsome solution, the better.
Peter Bright
Web comment
Dogs and dollars
Dear ER:
The BCHD “paid” $1.8 million of our hard earned property tax dollars to be “selected” as a “Vitality city” by an insurance company, Healthways [“Beach Cities officially named Vitality City,” ER Nov. 4, 2101]. Perhaps instead of an insurance company, they should be paying a remedial logic provider to learn that “competing” to spend our property tax dollars isn’t a contest at all.
Perhaps the BCHD should spend some of our property taxes figuring out how to silence barking dogs? There’s a lot of research that shows that barking dogs take a huge toll on the health of surrounding neighbors and create health costs well beyond the lot lines.
That would be a good use of BCHD instead of finding make-work projects.
Jane
Web comment
Book ‘em
Dear ER:
To those who think that they’re police booking pictures should not be shown; those pictures are a matter of public information [“Police stings massage parlors,” ER Oct. 21. 2010]. That means that anyone can acquire them. It can be a crappy deal (for the accused) but it’s part of what makes information open to all, so citizens can be or don’t have to be watchdogs.
Adam Ruseling
Web comment
G, thanks
Dear ER:
I want to personally thank each and everyone who supported and/or voted for Measure G [“New Harbor zoning wins with Measure G,” ER Nov. 4, 2010].
Since AES purchased the power plant in 1998 and first broached the idea of redeveloping some of its waterfront property 11 years ago I’ve participated in over 100 public meetings, workshops and hearings related to the land use issues regarding our city’s coastal commercial area. Along the way I’ve had the privilege of meeting many fellow citizens who share my desire to improve our Pier and Harbor area as well as the entire community.
Although the passage of Measure G was a significant milestone, the real work of actually transforming our Pier and Harbor area back into a place that all of us can once again be very proud of and frequently enjoy still lies ahead. In this regard I hope everyone stays connected and continues to express your concerns and support as new issues arise, which can easily be done visa vie SaveOurSeaside.com. Together we can turn our visions into realities! Thanks for caring.
Sean Guthrie
Redondo Beach
Now, gridlock
Dear ER:
The people have spoken! Let’s line the waterfront with condos and a shopping mall, then we can sit on our decks and watch what happens when it is suddenly discovered that Harbor Drive is only one lane in each direction and that there are only two east-west streets: Beryl, also one lane in each direction, and 190th Street. Can you say “gridlock” boys and girls?
‘Carpet Bagger’
Web comment
Sharrowing concerns
Dear ER:
The Hermosa Beach Public Works Commission (PWC) held an open forum Oct. 20 regarding bike sharrows on Hermosa Avenue. Over 30 people – almost entirely residents – spoke to concerns or supported various features of the Bike Master Plan.
The Commission will submit to City Council to maintain the current sharrows and promote an education campaign on safety, vehicle code and road-sharing protocol. Regarding Pier Avenue, it is recommended that the city first assess traffic volume and lane usage once development has been completed prior to installing sharrows.
On behalf of the PWC, we thank our community for your participation – your opinions and emails were constructive, insightful and most appreciated.
We also thank our speakers Charles Gandy, mobility coordinator/transportation programs, Long Beach; Dan Gutierrez, certified bike instructor, League of American Bicyclists; Marissa Christiansen, South Bay initiative director, Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition; and HBPD Chief Greg Savelli for contributing additional perspective.
Visit hermosabch.org to view the presentations and public comment.
The benefits of cycling as exercise, culture and lifestyle are globally recognized. The PWC is committed to coordinate education, cooperation and logistics with our residents, neighboring cities, and South Bay health, law enforcement and special interest groups. Please watch for forthcoming events and continue to share your issues, solutions and the road.
Julian Katz
Public Works Commission Chairman
Kimberlee MacMullan
Public Works Commissioner
Hermosa Beach
Send him packing
Dear ER:
Hermosa’s former Public Works Director, Rick Morgan, thankfully took a city “buy-out” and retired with a fat pension for life. City Manager Stephen Burrell has thusly, in my view, lost his puppet to the benefit of the city. It’s now time for the council to refocus and move to replace the manipulative Burrell with a new or interim city manager who will place residential infrastructure front and center at every council meeting, rather than pulling every trick possible to keep Hermosa’s councils uninformed, dysfunctional, and himself in full control.
Hermosa Hills’ 80-year-old concrete streets (built for Model-T Fords in the 1920s) have been neglected long enough by Burrell. Burrell and his manipulated, liquor-expanding councils have for years used the excuse that they were not paving Hermosa Hills streets because the area was supposedly to be “utility under-grounded.” Under-grounding was essentially scrapped there years ago due to the outrageous cost estimates being provided by the utility monopolies. Those neglected streets remain in the worst condition in the South Bay, and are seriously affecting residential property values, which Torrance resident Burrell could not care less about, and which are the predominant generator of revenue for Hermosa Beach.
Still Hermosa’s council remains impotent in limiting downtown liquor expansion. Now the council finds itself with members Patrick “Kit” Bobko and Michael DiVirgilio wanting to add more full liquor licenses to upper Pier Avenue. These two even desire multiple 3,000 to 15,000 barrel-per-year breweries in the city with such production breweries to each be brewing and bottling one million to five million 12-ounce bottles of beer per year 100 feet from expensive residential homes near South Park. Obviously an inappropriate use for residentially dense Hermosa Beach, and a use to not even be bringing any net revenue increase to the city, as these would be wholesale brewing operations. Bobko and DiVirgilio evidently have no problem with the brewing odors to also be depreciating surrounding residential areas, year around.
Bobko and DiVirgilio would best retire from the council or terminate their insidious self-promoting Democrat and Republican photo-op politician nonsense to concentrate on improving Hermosa’s residential infrastructure during their remaining council term.
Enough of their use of elected positions to pander to negative city uses and interests, they ignorantly believe will bring them kudos and campaign donations from those connected to such negative uses and/or political party affiliations. DiVirgilio absolutely needs to be voted off the council in next year’s election. He’s simply too slick and deceitful a politician. Hermosa does not need the disingenuous, synthetic Bobko either.
Nonetheless, Hermosa is fortunate to now have three on its council (Peter Tucker, Howard Fishman, and Jeff Duclos) who understand that there’s more to this community and its men, women and children than its excessive booze interests, and which council members also appear to be refocusing on matters of residential infrastructure, especially the paving of the city’s horrible concrete residential streets. The question remains though, as to whether they are willing to refocus or replace Burrell.
Howard Longacre
Hermosa Beach
