The schools’ year
Dear ER:
Now that we do not have to worry about oil drilling in Hermosa Beach, we need to focus on our schools. Beautiful vistas are not the only draw for Hermosa Beach. Our fine schools draw people here, raise our housing values and contribute to the well being of the community. We must revisit a school bond issue or a parcel tax to ensure that our schools retain their high marks. We are more than willing to pay our fair share.
Ron and Joan Arias
Hermosa Beach
Get schooled
Dear ER:
Please come to the Hermosa Beach School District’s March 25 visioning meeting and contribute your thoughts on school space. Here are some of my thoughts.
Reopening the North School site is the right thing to do for the Hermosa School District to solve overcrowding. We are presently over capacity by 500 students.
The North site has its challenges – traffic flow, specifically. I anticipate a strong working partnership with the city to solve the current congestion at Valley/Ardmore/Gould. Moving 300 students to North and adjusting space at Valley and View schools would create the space for all students, ease traffic congestions at Valley and View and create a new space for our community to use. This move to North is preferable to a land swap with the Community Center or remaining solely at the two current schools.
The Community Center is not an appropriate place for a 21st century school for many reasons. My top four reasons are:
- A North School renovation allows the community to envision a space that meets our carbon neutral goals, has a park and field already attached to the school, is in a neighborhood away from heavy traffic and lessens the impact of Valley School traffic on Pier and Valley.
- The traffic on PCH and Pier is not only a safety issue but also a health issue for children. Air pollution has a significant impact on lung development and asthma.
- Transforming this historic Community Center into a school that meets 21st century ed code regulations would negatively alter the space and current beauty of the space. Ensuring that there is the appropriate amount of outside play space, teacher/staff parking, bathrooms, windows, and ADA compliant facilities would be challenging.
- Hermosa’s goal is to be a carbon neutral city by 2020. The renovation of this historic building into a green and sustainable space would be costly and impractical.
Maggie Bove-LaMonica
Member, Hermosa Beach School Board
Hermosa Beach
What’s good for B is good for G
Dear ER:
If we must adhere to “the Will of the People” relating to Measure B and keep the AES site as a Public Utility use, then surely the obstructionists will “walk their walk” and adhere to “the Will of the People” relating to the 2010 Measure G vote. The “people have spoken” with the passage of Measure G — they have approved the current Waterfront zoning.
CenterCal has abided by the Measure G requirements. Based on AECOM’s independent study, we now know many of the half-truths from the obstructionists — gridlock traffic, a loss of views and access to the water, lack of profit, etc. — are baseless. With the release of the EIR this summer, those and other arguments will be resolved and the impacts will be mitigated if necessary.
Elisabeth Diels
Redondo Beach
AES reality check
Dear ER:
The Yes on B folks smugly insisted we were a vocal minority. A local gadfly and RBTV regular called us terrorists. A local pro-B businesswoman took to Facebook and said a “bunch of loudmouth liars in this city convinced good residents to vote wrong.” Through it all, we were simply friends and neighbors who didn’t want to sell out our city’s waterfront to a multi-billion dollar, out-of-state energy corporation, so we supported a grassroots effort to defeat bad zoning. We voted and we won. Let’s get to work on a zoning measure that transforms the AES property into something that is of benefit to all instead of a road-choking, school-packing condo cluster.
John Conyne
Redondo Beach
Outsized PV Inn proposal
Dear ER:
The corner of Pacific Coast Hwy. and Palos Verdes Blvd – the site of the former Bristol Farms, other shops, and the Palos Verdes Inn – is no thing of beauty. A reasonable proposal for its development would be welcome. However, Legado Companies has proposed a three- and four-story mixed-use development consisting of 180 apartments, 37,600 square feet of commercial space, renovation of the Palos Verdes Inn, inadequate underground parking, and minimal above-ground parking. Legado’s proposal requires receiving a “density bonus” from the city as well as a waiver of development standards for the height. CalTrans estimates the increase in traffic at over 2,600 cars/day at this already congested intersection.
The City of Redondo Beach’s Planning Commission is holding a hearing on this development March 19 at 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers at 415 Diamond Street. Please join your neighbors to have your voice heard to stop the overdevelopment of this area.
Joyce Neu
Redondo Beach
Play CenterCal down the middle
Dear ER:
Although I don’t think the first market analysis of the CenterCal proposal was a “sham,” like Redondo Beach Councilmember Steve Sammarco says, I am glad there was a second financial analysis. The study confirmed what we already knew – the project will benefit the community economically and the market demand overwhelmingly supports the well thought out proposal that CenterCal put together. Each component of the presentation – retail, dining and entertainment; hotel and office – will perform strongly..
Hardly any opponents spoke up during the public comment period – probably because there was nothing negative to say. Sammarco, himself, said the second AECOM study was “excellent.”
Although a traffic study was not done, AECOM made it clear they don’t see traffic as a strong impediment to demand. Just look at the facts to see why you should support the Redondo Waterfront project.
Thomas A. Gray
Redondo Beach
Listen or lose
Dear ER:
The political landscape of government in the South Bay is changing as elected officials recognize the need for a broader inclusion of stakeholders in public policymaking. A relatively small number of highly motivated and skilled advocates can build community support to promote their agendas. Measure O in Hermosa Beach and Measure B in Redondo Beach are examples of these new realities.
As a result, elected officials are recognizing the political realities of reaching out to its citizens to promote more shared responsibility and engage more people in the work of building stronger, better communities. This will require city leaders to sharpen their skills in convening stakeholders, facilitating conflict resolution, mediation, and reaching out to diverse populations.
Public engagement requires authentic intent by elected officials in empowering stakeholders to shape government policy rather than persuading residents to accept decisions already made.
Edward C. Caprielian, Ph.D.
Manhattan Beach
Glacial speed
Dear ER:
I can’t believe there are residents who want to cancel the King Harbor Waterfront Project because they think we are moving too fast. The idea of revitalizing the pier in Redondo is nothing new. It’s been around for 25 years and for 25 years we’ve managed to get nowhere.
We finally have a developer who is willing to invest millions of dollars to replace our crumbling infrastructure and revive our local businesses. AES tried to revitalize the area with Measure B,and the residents said that they wanted to keep the power plant.So now we’re stuck with an industrial use of that land. Let’s not make the same mistake again.
This is our golden opportunity, and we cannot pass it up. If we lose CenterCal, it’ll probably be another 25 years before another developer is willing to deal with us. Revitalizing the waterfront area is our golden ticket.
Christina Jesperson
Redondo Beach
No flensing here
Dear ER:
Being the leader of nothing, nor wishing to ever make such an egotistic and bizarre claim, I thought I might respond to spiritual and community “leader” Rev. Nyback’s letter to the editor (“Back together again,” ER March 12, 2015). As I perused her missive, I wondered why it read as apologetics in the aftermath of a positive position on oil drilling…disguised, as would be expected, as Humanist emotional charity. Nyback says she deplores sarcasm as it, in its root, infers violence. Obviously she does not appreciate the Latin/ Greek marriage of the Avestanian ‘thwares’ and ‘twerk’ (“to cut”) to ‘sarx’ and ‘sarkos’ (“piece of meat”) and thence to ‘sarkazein’: “to strip off flesh” and simultaneously “to speak bitterly, sneer,” a nice piece of flensing irony. I needn’t explain that religios are almost completely bereft of any sense of humor. Considering the influence of their incredibly dark and horripilatingly violent science-fiction liturgies (the Bible, the Torah, the Mahabharata, the Tanakh, the Magisterium, the kabbalah, the QuRan, etc.), this is understandable.
I wonder, then, what Nyback thought of the Christos attacking moneychangers in the temple. Seems measurably a good deal more violent than sarcasm to me (and I applaud Him for it). And if we go beyond the Nicean travesties now accepted as canon, back to when Christians weren’t Constantinians, as every single one of them now is, we find the mythical Jesus had a pretty, eloquently sarcastic tongue when needed. Oh, and Flavius Josephus, who lived back then, wrote of no fewer than 19 Jesus Christ figures (the term is a rhetorical redundancy: Jesus/Yashua = savior + christ = savior, thus ‘savior savior’). Biblical scholars estimate there were dozens more back when prophets were as common as the moneychangers we now see occupying churches, TV, and Congress.
Historically, temples and churches have been conservative business inventions, with a few liberal in situ heretics here and there (the Berrigans, Gilad Atzmon, Shlomo Sand…) and remain so, despite the rather astoundingly obvious fact that Jesus was an anarchist, certainly no less than a profound socialist.
Why then does Leader Nyback’s letter read as what simultaneously infuriates Republicans as they sardonically adopt it as PsyOp: compromising relativistic chatter to achieve a small take-back in the face of crushing defeat (here, of the initiative)? What, I wonder, was the motive mindset?
Mark S. Tucker
Manhattan Beach
Bowling for dollars
Dear ER,
The profligate spending Hermosa Beach City Council is at it again. At the February 24 council meeting, the council approved spending $60,000 for lights for the lawn bowling facility. This is a facility with 48 members, meaning the city is spending $1,250 per member. At Tuesday’s council meeting the council was poised to give the city manager Tom Bakaly a seven percent bonus, costing taxpayers $12,950. And the council is planning to spend thousands to have a one day retreat at the Beach House. I don’t have a problem with lawn bowling or even adding the lights if the city’s coffers were overflowing money, but they’re not. The city cannot even afford to give raises to its employees (except the city manager), pay for repairing our aging sewer system, installing speed reduction devices on Prospect Avenue or redoing the sidewalks on 8th Street. What kind of message is the city council sending to its employees and residents? To my way of thinking the message is clear: if you have pull with the council or the city manager, the council will spend money, but it’s tough toenails when it comes to spending money for projects that benefit the average Joes of the community. I hope residents will keep in mind our Council’s fiscal irresponsibility when they go to the polls in November to elect two new councilmembers.
Fred Huebscher
Hermosa Beach
Glad to meet you
Dear ER:
Campaigning Redondo Beach Council District 3 was a unique and rewarding experience. I want to thank those that voted for me, my wonderful volunteers, and everyone that contributed to my campaign financially and through emotional support. The walking of the district allowed me to meet wonderful people with great life stories that I will never forget. Additionally, new friendships were made. Also, I want to thank my opponents for taking their time to campaign for the opportunity to serve the City of Redondo Beach. I encourage voters to go to the polls again in May to cast their votes in the District 4 runoff election. I wish Candace Nafissi and Christian Horvath the best in each of their campaigns.
Sandy Marchese
Redondo Beach
What would Socrates say
Dear ER
iPads were stolen from a Manhattan Beach middle school (“59 iPads stolen from Pacific Elementary, E.R. January 29, 2015). High School students in El Segundo are required to purchase insurance for their iPads. Since the time of Socrates, it has been apparent that the only thing required to study is a flat surface. There is no reason to provide kids with expensive electronics to study. Let’s remember that entitlements permeate society all the way to the upper class (or upper middle class, as they refer to themselves in Manhattan Beach).
Don Wahl
El Segundo
