Posts by Mark McDermott
Coyote Peninsula – The thriving, wild animals of Palos Verdes
by Mark McDermott First in a series One day last June, Sheri Hastings heard a telltale sound as she was shoveling out the muck in the horse stalls at her property on Portuguese Bend in Rancho Palos Verdes. Her dog, Blue, was baying, and he was doing so with such insistence that it could only…
Read MoreHATE CRIME – Community decries anti-Jewish graffiti at MCHS
by Mark McDermott The swastikas and anti-Semitic words scrawled across the Mira Costa High School campus last week were the subject of more than two hours of impassioned public testimony at the September 14 meeting of the Manhattan Beach Unified School District Board of Education, including appearances by local rabbis and dozens of concerned parents. …
Read MoreCITY COUNCIL – City imposes a new contract on firefighters
by Mark McDermott The Manhattan Beach City Council imposed a new contract on the Manhattan Beach Firefighters Association in a unanimous vote Tuesday night, ending a three-year conflict with the firefighters but doing so in a manner that was decidedly non-conciliatory. The Council’s action came a little more than a week after the issuance of…
Read MoreEDUCATION – Cochran, longest serving MBUSD trustee, is not seeking reelection
by Mark McDermott Nineteen years ago, Jennifer Cochran was a young mother newly arrived to Manhattan Beach when a teacher conducting parent kindergartner orientation at Meadows Elementary casually mentioned the district’s ongoing funding issues and several programs had only been kept alive through parent involvement. A lightbulb went off in Cochran’s mind’s eye. “That’s when…
Read MorePOLICY – Manhattan Beach homeless count continues to decline
by Mark McDermott Manhattan Beach’s efforts to reduce homelessness appear to have made an impact. The results of the 2022 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count were released last week and found only nine unhoused people living within Manhattan Beach, a steep decline from the 41 people found experiencing homelessness in 2018 and a 40 percent…
Read MoreLike a Wagon Wheel the Old Crow Medicine Show keeps rolling
by Mark McDermott They were a scraggly bunch, and they formed a convoy of sorts, an ‘82 Volvo station wagon leading an old Ford Econoline van, crossing over the New York border into Canada in the early fall of 1998. The two rattling vehicles were crammed with stringed instruments, the only weapons these boys carried…
Read MoreThe Songs of Waylon Jennings
Shooter Jennings and friends celebrate the late great Hoss by Mark McDermott Nobody brought the thunder like Waylon Jennings. His thunder took many forms. Jennings rattled the suits in Nashville when he refused to play by the established music industry rules, growing long hair and a beard and seizing total artistic control of his work…
Read MoreCITY COUNCIL – Manhattan Beach will not trap and kill coyotes, for now
by Mark McDermott The defenders of coyotes descended upon Manhattan Beach Tuesday night. They implored the City Council to refrain from trapping or killing the animals, whose presence locally has been on the rise, and who have allegedly killed at least two pet cats. For now, local coyotes won a reprieve. The Council backed a…
Read MoreDEVELOPMENT Project Verandas decision looms for City Council
by Mark McDermott The Manhattan Beach City Council will decide Tuesday whether to allow Project Verandas to proceed, or to uphold any or all of the five citizen appeals against the 79-unit apartment complex, inviting an uphill legal fight in hopes of upending state housing law. Two council members, Suzanne Hadley, and Joe Franklin, announced…
Read MoreTwo Class of ‘19 Mustangs begin pro baseball careers
by Mark McDermott Chase Meidroth has dreamt about this moment for most of his 21 years. It began with T-Ball, then started coming into focus in Manhattan Beach Little League. By the time he was a star infielder for the Mira Costa Mustangs, the dream had become clear. He wanted to be a professional baseball…
Read MoreELECTION 2022 – Hildy Stern, Sally Peel not seeking reelection
by Mark McDermott Councilperson Hildy Stern and MBUSD Board of Education President Sally Austin Peel are not among the 13 candidates who have filed for the November 7 election. Both are still serving their first terms and eligible for reelection. Peel expressed gratitude for her term on the school board but noted that the last…
Read MoreESAW 2.0 – How the best art walk in California got even better
by Mark McDermott Like the city that gave it birth, word of the El Segundo Art Walk began as a whisper. A group of artists led by Holly Socrates had the idea, back in 2015, that El Segundo’s burgeoning creative scene and its rows of low-slung warehouses, wide array of businesses, and hometown vibe might…
Read MoreThe road to Bruce’s Beach
How her father’s experience with Martin Luther King Jr. informed Janice Hahn’s leadership at a historic moment by Mark McDermott Janice Hahn was only nine years old, and her father was already her hero. But he was also a hero to thousands of others, particularly in South Central Los Angeles. Kenneth Hahn was a larger-than-life…
Read MoreDEVELOPMENT Manhattan Beach City Council delays Project Verandas decision
by Mark McDermott The Manhattan Beach City Council, after more than four hours of testimony, staff reports, and discussion, decided after midnight Tuesday not to decide on the five appeals filed against Project Verandas, a 79-unit apartment complex proposed in El Porto. The project appeared to face possible defeat as the first two councilpersons to…
Read MoreLAW ENFORCEMENT City bids MBPD Chief Abell an emotional farewell
by Mark McDermott Nobody wanted to follow Chief Derrick Abell. This was not about his leadership, of course. Most of the City of Manhattan Beach had followed Abell’s leadership, either during his prolific tenure as police chief, or when he also took the helm of the fire department, or when he filled in as city…
Read MoreEL SEGUNDO ART WALK – How Sir Henry the Octopus came to El Segundo Brewing Company
by Mark McDermott Sir Henry the Octopus first came to life at El Segundo High School. His benefactor, Casey Montz, was a student at ESHS and possessed a natural artistic gift. One day, an AP art teacher announced a special task. Students were asked to make 12 different artworks from a single theme. As his…
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