by Ed Hart
Just the other morning, I was having breakfast at one of our most beloved breakfast spots in downtown Hermosa. The kind of place where the coffee never stops flowing, the regulars know each other by name, and the waiters feel more like neighbors than employees. I asked the waiter how things were going. He paused for a second and said something that stuck with me: “Honestly… I’ve never seen business this slow for this long.”
That sentence has echoed in almost every conversation I’ve had recently with restaurant owners, shop managers, and small business operators across Hermosa Beach. And that’s the part we need to talk about honestly.
Because it has been said “the map of a city is not the city itself.” The spreadsheets are not the sidewalks. The codes are not the community.
The revenue projections are not the reality of empty tables.
For years, many residents and stakeholders felt something was off with the direction Hermosa Beach was heading financially and administratively. There was growing concern that previous leadership was taking the city down a path that would eventually leave us facing uncertainty, pressure, and financial strain.
When City Manager Steve Napolitano came along many people felt hopeful again. Hopeful because experience matters. Competence matters. Leadership matters. People believed the city could regain balance and reconnect with reality.
But after watching the last City Council meeting, many were left with another feeling: Concern. Not just about policy, but about dysfunction. About disconnecting. About a city government that sometimes looks like it is operating inside a bubble while the economic reality outside that bubble is rapidly changing.
Here is the uncomfortable truth: Most city departments expect next year’s revenues, salaries, and budgets to increase. Meanwhile, much of Hermosa’s business community is experiencing the exact opposite. Businesses are making less than they did last year. Costs are skyrocketing. Insurance is higher. Labor is higher. Utilities are higher. Regulations are heavier. Consumer spending is tightening.
Margins are disappearing. Yet many business owners feel like the city still sees them as an endless source of revenue that is expected to absorb fee increases, delays, penalties, and outdated processes to compensate for years of poor financial decisions made by leadership they never controlled.
And to city staff, this is important to say clearly: This is not an attack on you.
Most staff members are simply doing the jobs they were trained to do — enforcing codes, following timelines, applying systems, and operating within rules handed down over decades. But respectfully, the system itself no longer matches reality. The permitting timelines the city is giving businesses belong to another era. The pace of the modern economy has changed dramatically. What worked 15 years ago no longer works today.
A small business in 2026 is competing not just with neighboring cities, but with Amazon, delivery apps, changing consumer behavior, inflation, remote work culture, and economic uncertainty all at once. Please be mindful that businesses today need a city that acts like a partner, not a hurdle. Hermosa Beach cannot regulate itself into prosperity.
We cannot keep saying we support small business while making it harder, slower, more expensive, and more exhausting to survive here.
The good news is this: Hermosa Beach is still magical. People still want to be here. Families still love this town, visitors still fall in love with our coastline. Our restaurants, shops and local businesses still create the heartbeat of this community. But heartbeats can weaken when pressure never stops. This moment is not about blame. It is about recalibration.
It is about rebuilding trust between City Hall and the people who actually create the energy, jobs, culture, and economic life of Hermosa Beach every single day. The solution is not hostility between business owners and the government. The solution is modernization, cooperation, urgency, and humility. If Hermosa Beach can reconnect policy with reality, codes with common sense, and leadership with listening, this city can become stronger than ever. Not just financially stronger. Humanly stronger.
That is the Hermosa Beach worth fighting for. ER
Dogs, booze, and Temu
Dear ER
I am sorry to see how the Hermosa Arts Festival has turned into a giant beer garden with Temu-style resellers up and down Pier Avenue. Fewer food vendors were smashed into half the normal area. Where food and tables used to fit comfortably became the expanded beer garden. Apparently the city thinks a beer garden is better than all the other drinking establishments that line Pier Plaza. The Arts Festival is now a drinking festival, or perhaps a contest.
I hope the artists did well. There were definitely fewer of them. The fair was completely packed, dogs being stepped on. Do owners really think their dogs enjoy the fair? Please don’t bring your dogs to the fair. It’s not fair. At least the blacktop wasn’t hot.
That said, the music was absolutely fabulous. Congratulations to the talented band with the woman leading on Sunday. Perhaps I will listen from afar next year.
Stacey A. Morse
Redondo Beach
Happy 100th
Dear ER:
My heartfelt thanks to everyone who joined us for our 100-year Kiwanis celebration. Hermosa Beach has always been a community that cares — where neighbors come together to help children, support those in need, and make our small beach town stronger for generations to come.
Rick Koenig
Lt. Gov. Div. 19
Hermosa Beach
What District 5 stands for
Dear ER:
Thank you Redondo Beach Mayor Jim Light, and Council Members Paige Kaluderovic, Graham Castle, and Brad Waller for correctly articulating the intent and scope of this project (“LGBTQ+ artwork moves forward for North Branch Redondo Beach Library,” ER May 14, 2026). This project would probably not have happened if it weren’t for the wonderful residents who spoke so eloquently at the Council meeting to show the world what Redondo really stands for — love, diversity, and acceptance.
Unfortunately, the LGBTQ+ community is still often maligned,” which is why this project is a must. The cowardly online vitriol — in no small part triggered by the gross negligence of posting a misleading AI‑generated image — is alive and well. Yet when it comes time to suit up and show up, the majority of residents in Redondo are kind, intelligent, and loving.
I believe District 5 Councilman Scott Behrendt is incorrect in his conclusion that the majority of District 5 residents opposed the project. I live in District 5 and everyone I know is for it. This is an excellent reminder of why a cooperative, inclusive, and positive City Council majority is critical, and why residents need to continue to support candidates who represent all of Redondo.
Marie Puterbaugh
Redondo Beach
Seismic decision
Dear ER:
The families of Silverado Memory Care on the Beach Cities Health Care campus attended the April BCHD board meeting to object to the eviction of their loved ones with dementia from the taxpayer-owned, former hospital building (Silverado families seek pause on redevelopment plans,” ER May 21, 2026). The pleas fell on deaf ears BCHD CEO Tom Bakaly reported the building did not meet seismic standards for continued operation. No, it doesn’t meet 2026 seismic standards, but neither does any other building that wasn’t built under the current code. The 2026 seismic standards are not applicable to the former hospital. BCHD knows it, but it tried to mislead the Silverado families. When that didn’t work, board President Jane Diehl made the false claim that “it’s the law” that the building had to be demolished . Former Redondo Beach Councilmember Horvath read the State law to the room, demonstrating that the law clearly exempts memory care and skilled nursing use from seismic retrofit to relocate their loved ones? CEO Bakaly’s statement that “there’s 1,600 available memory care beds within 60 miles” was of little solace and it was a highly inappropriate, empathy-free statement in response to the shared grief at the meeting.
Mark Nelson
Redondo Beach
