Posts by Dan Blackburn
Lisa Nichols promoted Hermosa Beach Community Resources Manager
by Dan Blackburn Longtime Hermosa Beach city employee Lisa Nichols has been named Community Resources Manager. Nichols had been serving as interim manager since the departure of manager Kelly Orta last September. Nichols said this week that her first priority is hiring a consultant for a recreation needs assessment plan. The plan will anticipate the…
Read MoreHopes high in Beach Cities for retail pot pioneers
By Dan Blackburn In 2017, Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, and Redondo Beach each banned retail sales of cannabis, joining a third of California cities – about 162 — with prohibitions. Catalyst Cannabis Co. is seeking to lift the local bans through the initiative process. Last week, the Los Angeles County-Recorder certified the company’s signature gathering…
Read MoreHermosa Beach Restaurants to pay for dining decks, but rent’s modest, at least for now [Updated]
by Dan Blackburn Hermosa Beach restaurants will pay $1.50 per square foot for dining decks the City Council allowed to be built in parking spaces during the pandemic ban on indoor dining. The council voted unanimously at its Jan. 24 meeting to begin imposing the fee Mar. 1. The dining decks occupy 60 parking spaces…
Read MoreHermosa Beach Parking Permit design embraces female empowerment
by Dan Blackburn Hermosa Beach’s 2022-23 residential parking permits will feature art by Armelle Ngo, who will be the featured artist at the upcoming Hermosa Beach Fine Arts Festival in May. Ngo said her inspiration for the design pulls from “Hermosa’s natural beauty” and includes elements of female empowerment. She fuses flamboyant colors with bright…
Read MoreHermosa council welcomes back popular events
by Dan Blackburn Five additional community events for the new year were unanimously approved Tuesday by the Hermosa Beach City Council, including the return of a popular adult tennis tournament hosted by the Beach Tennis Association. The tournament will take place on the beach tennis courts, at 14th Street, on March 5-6; April 9; June…
Read MoreHermosa Beach Residents agitated by plan for fourth Hermosa Starbucks
by Dan Blackburn Hermosa Beach residents living near Second Street and Pacific Coast Highway were startled recently to learn that city officials were eyeing approval of a fourth Starbucks coffee shop in the 1.3 square mile city. The proposed location was Felder’s Body Shop from the late 1960s until 2018 when Felder died in a…
Read MoreHermosa Beach Police Chief Paul LeBaron identifies social media as drug dealer tool
by Dan Blackburn A Hermosa Beach teenager’s 2020 drug overdose death put local law enforcement on the trail of dealers who use social media to initiate sales. A months-long investigation, Police Chief Paul LeBaron told the City Council at its Tuesday night meeting, “resulted in the arrest of four adults and one juvenile.” Undercover officers…
Read MoreHermosa students to get COVID-19 test kits
by Dan Blackburn Hermosa Beach School District students will receive two COVID-19 rapid antigen home test kits this week from the Los Angeles County Department of Health. Antigen tests indicate whether or not the COVID-19 virus is present in the user’s nose, at the time the test is administered. The tests will be distributed at…
Read MoreHermosa Beach 2021: Outdoor dining surge, new school opens, costly vote, lawsuits
Outdoor dining, bike lanes approved Work on restriping traffic lanes on Hermosa and Pier avenues started almost immediately last year, part of a plan to accommodate restaurant and retail needs as the pandemic stretched into the new year. It was one of the first items on the City Council’s 2021 agenda, and it prompted a…
Read MoreHermosa Beach Council complies with state demand for 558 new residential units by 2029
by Dan Blackburn An amendment to the city’s housing plan, to accommodate creation of 558 new residential units in Hermosa Beach By 2029, was unanimously adopted Tuesday by the Hermosa Beach City Council during a meeting continued from Dec. 14. The amendment is an effort by city officials to conform local housing practices to state…
Read MoreHermosa Council forms committee to study cannabis drive
by Dan Blackburn Hermosa Beach city officials may respond to resident Colton Chacker’s attempt to authorize two marijuana sales outlets by crafting a competing ordinance “more beneficial” to the community. The City Council spent more than two hours Tuesday discussing the issue. In the end, the council voted 4-1 to direct staff to form an…
Read MoreLa Penita says ‘adios’ Hermosa, hopes to relocate
by Dan Blackburn La Penita Mexican restaurant, a popular Hermosa Beach fixture for 43 years, will serve its last meal at its present location on Saturday at the end of business, 10 p.m. The beloved ,family owned, neighborhood restaurant has been at the corner of Longfellow Avenue and Manhattan Avenue since 1978. The family previously…
Read MoreHermosa Beach Dining decks, lane reductions extended through May 2022
Despite pandemic Hermosa Beach schools spared from national teacher shortage
by Dan Blackburn California, the biggest state with the most schools and students, also has the worst teacher shortage in the nation. According to a recent report by the Learning Policy Institute, a Palo Alto-based nonprofit education research group, “a staggering 80 percent of California school districts are impacted by shortages.” That means an estimated…
Read MoreHermosa Beach Council sent measure to comply with State lot split law
by Dan Blackburn A state-mandated plan to increase housing supplies throughout California could be satisfied in Hermosa Beach by passage of an urgency ordinance, which the city’s Planning Commission unanimously endorsed during its meeting two weeks ago. The proposed ordinance goes to the City Council for consideration at its Dec. 14 meeting. Commissioners made several…
Read MorePoint of order point of contention in Roberts vs Rosenberg rules of order
by Dan Blackburn Hermosa Beach city council members will consider changing the rules by which their public meetings are governed. The proposal to change the current parliamentary structure, which emerged from a recent council retreat, would scrub Robert’s Rules of Order, a guiding publication that has laid out procedural rules for the last 146 years.…
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