Staff hits it out of the park
Dear ER:
Congratulations to new Manhattan Beach Parks and Recreation Director Mark Leyman and his division managers for the impressive presentation they made at the recent city budget meeting. Leyman offered a clear and comprehensive overview and each manager filled in the details about past year’s accomplishments and future goals. They were all prepared and organized. They were ready and able to respond to both the public audience and the City Council and Finance Department with comprehensive and accurate data.
Having attended many of these meetings in the past, I was pleased to see the professionalism. Special acknowledgment is due to Eve Kelso for her work on behalf of the Older Adults and Dial-A-Ride services.
Fyllis Kramer
Manhattan Beach
AES proposal clears the air
Dear ER:
I’ve been watching the proposals for the new AES power plant in Redondo Beach. Representatives from AES have stated that their new plant would be more efficient and cleaner than its current plant.
A recent Los Angeles Times article reported that most of our air pollution is produced by the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). They found concentrations of the wind-driven particles to cover over 23 square-mile area, including parts of the South Bay.
Just recently, the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) stated in a letter to the State Energy Commission that “after a careful review and a detailed evaluation of the Redondo Beach Energy Project, SCAQMD has determined that the proposed [AES] project complies with all applicable federal, state and local air quality rules and regulations.”
At some point, we have to give credibility to the experts and discount unreliable opinions and allegations. I’m all for a cleaner, greener planet. But if California wants to use more renewable energy  we are going to need cleaner power plants to help support that.
California already meets or exceeds President Obama’s’ clean air agenda. California is way ahead of the clean air curve.
Tony Czuleger
Redondo Beach
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Park it, but not in a park
Dear ER:
“The city [Hermosa Beach] voted unanimously to approve a final conceptual design for the first phase of improvements to the playground area at South Park … construction for the project, set to start in July, will cost $563,000” (ER June 5, 2014).
Are you kidding me? The city is about to incur a $17.5 million debt for it’s oil project and we are begging the State to loan us $11.5 million and the city is going to spend about half a million dollars on — improving a playground?
I should not have to say this, but apparently some folks do not realize that Hermosa is in the direst of financial straights. Hermosa will desperately need financial help, but people will not be inclined to help the city if they see it spending big bucks on non-essentials. And, more importantly, we Hermosa Beach taxpayers — the ones who will have to cough up the $17.5 million — are wondering how in the world could the city be spending big bucks on non-essentials during this financial crisis.
John Williams
Hermosa Beach
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Beverly Hills’ blackened gold
Dear ER:
Is there anything John Szot won’t say (or fail to say) in his letter writing campaign to promote oil and gas drilling in Hermosa Beach?
In his last letter to Easy Reader he cites the “path of Beverly Hills” (ER June 12, 2014) as a reason why Hermosa Beach should allow oil and gas drilling in Hermosa Beach. Of course, what he fails to say is that in 2011 the Beverly Hills city council voted 4 to 1 to ban oil drilling within the city limits. The law prohibits oil, gas and other hydrocarbon extraction to occur after 2016. (Beverly Hills Municipal Code 10-5-306)
According to Beverly Hills Patch “. . . the majority of council members said health concerns are the primary motivation for the drilling ban.” In voting for the ban, Beverly Hills City Councilman Julian Gold said “. . . having an oil well on a high school campus is inconsistent with our existing city law, inconsistent with our general plan, it’s inconsistent with state law as it relates to new schools. . . ”
The official Beverly Hills press release of 9/30/11 notes that “[Officials and residents have expressed concern over impacts of an industrial use so close to a school and residential neighborhoods.”
The press release continues, “’[This is a proud moment for Beverly Hills,’ said Mayor Barry Brucker. Many people in the community have long recognized that oil wells are an incompatible land use in Beverly Hills and worked tirelessly for years to get the oil wells shut down. The community is grateful to the efforts of those citizens.”
Szot also fails to note that in May 2014 Beverly Hills became the first city in California to ban fracking. So much for Beverly Hills’ love affair with oil and gas drilling.
Szot’s reference to Detroit is almost too off-the-wall to address. The Economist (April 7, 2012) notes that “Detroit’s financial problems have been building up for decades. City revenues have been hit by the collapse of manufacturing, declining property values and the flight of better-off people to the suburbs.” The only thing that will contribute to “declining property values” in Hermosa Beach, and the “flight of better off people to the suburbs” is the construction and operation of 34 oil and gas wells, and pipelines by E&B on a 1.3 acre site in one of California’s most densely populated urban residential areas.
George Schmeltzer
Hermosa Beach
Well calculated investment
Dear ER
According to Tom Morley (ER Letters, June 19, 2014) there is simply not enough oil in the Hermosa Beach drilling project to generate enough revenue for Hermosa Beach to justify its approval.  If so, why would E & B be willing to spend $30 million to settle the Hermosa’s Mcpherson Oil lawsuit? E & B is a successful company. They would not be moving forward with this project unless they expected a good return on their investment. And the return they expect is based on their estimates of oil recovery, not Morley’s or for that matter Kosmont’s.
Richard Finken
Redondo Beach
No kidding about oil
Dear ER:
Hermosa Beach is a beautiful, quiet and sleepy little town (the downtown bars notwithstanding), where everybody knows your name. I live about 500 feet away from the proposed drilling site and am pregnant with my first baby. I wouldn’t want to live 500 feet from an oil drilling site even if I were not pregnant, but thinking about my child and how this project will affect his or her health makes me even more adamantly opposed to it. I have attended presentations, looked at the financial data, and evaluated the EIR. While E & B will do everything they can to convince our citizens that we need money and that our city’s future will be in jeopardy without the drilling project, that is absolutely false. Hermosa Beach does not need the oil money. Anyone who says otherwise is dishonest or misinformed. Of course any municipality, especially in California, could use some extra dough. There are myriad ways to grow a municipal economy, and I am willing to bet we can find one that does not jeopardize the beauty of our town or the health and safety of our people, especially our kids. Two votes made a difference in our last election. Be sure to vote when this issue is on the ballot.
Julie Hamill
Hermosa Beach Resident
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Drinking and driving on the beach
Dear ER:
I hope the Hermosa Beach police abandon their ineffective crackdown on  drinking on the beach.
The lifeguards are trained and know too well when and how to drive on our beaches. They travel in designated lanes or on the most remote areas, away from the water, even when on an emergency call. They understand the dangers vehicles are to peoples lives. Just recently in Venice, a vehicle traveling just a few miles an hour caused life-threatening injuries to a sunbather. But lifeguards are there to save lives, so it has become a necessity.
This cannot be said for the Hermosa police. They travel as close as possible to beach-goers, parking inches away, just to bust some quiet person who did not hide his beer in time. On the other hand, the Hermosa police have given open drinking permits to those drinking in red cups — rowdy volleyball players, Kings hockey players on a victory parade, etc. And if they think they are going to fine Hermosa Iron Man participants on the 4th of July, they will have a riot on their hands.
Taxpayers money would be better spent protecting our health and safety, not invading our privacy.
Contrasting waterfront visions                     Â
Dear ER:
What a stark contrast between  the views of Redondo Councilman Bill Brand’s and Redondo Mayor Steve Aspel’s on the proposed Redondo Beach waterfront development. Brand provides a thoughtful account of how our City is in the process of selling out its residents to Center Cal development, which is  intent on building a high-end mall on our waterfront, between Torrance Boulevard and Ruby’s parking  lot, obscuring 75 percent of the view we presently enjoy along Harbor Drive.
Center Cal is attempting a tourist-first attraction at the expense of our quality of life. The majority of our city council members approved this Memorandum of Understanding, without the independent environmental impact or financial feasibility studies. Redondo Beach officials have been desperate to start development, especially since the City has not maintained the harbor infrastructure. Other developers had better ideas that did not push for a Mall 25 larger than Plaza El Segundo, jammed into half the space. Center Cal invited public input in three meetings, and then ignored all of it.
Mayor Aspel wants to avoid the heavy-lifting of government that includes. He attempts to distract us from reality, crafting an oceanfront mall while ignoring citizen outcry for a project with no predictable financial gain for Redondo Beach for 30 years.
Mary Ewell,
Redondo Beach
