Posts by Mark McDermott
The Manhattan Beach 10k bring community back together
Photos by EnduranceSports.com by Mark McDermott After a year in virtual existence, the Manhattan Beach 10k came roaring back to actual life Saturday morning as 3,396 runners filled local streets in the 44th annual running of the race. Stewart Harwell, who won the race in 2017 and 2018, once again finished first with a time…
Read MoreManhattan Beach About Town: Alice in Wonderland at MCHS,
High School drama After a long stint of virtual productions, Mira Costa High School’s drama department will put on its first-ever, outdoor production, with “Alice in Wonderland” on October 14, 15, 22, and 23 at 7:30 p.m. Seating is limited. General admission: presale $13. Door $16. Student/senior: presale $11. Door $13. Visit MiraCostaDramaBoosters.org for more…
Read MoreRestaurants to pay a fee for outdoor dining in Manhattan Beach
by Mark McDermott The Manhattan Beach City Council last week implemented a $1 per square foot fee per month for restaurant use of public space for outdoor dining decks, a pandemic relief measure enabled by the city a little more than a year ago, which, until now, was free. The fee structure was devised by…
Read MoreThe last days of Wilfred Sarr
by Mark McDermott In September of 1960, a very unlikely GI went on leave. Wilfred Sarr was 24. He’d been drafted the previous year, unceremoniously yanked from Compton College, where he studied psychology for one very good reason. “Well, I knew that I was crazy, no doubt about that,” Sarr said in an interview in…
Read MoreManhattan Beach will require employee vaccinations
by Mark McDermott City of Manhattan Beach employees will be required to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination, or a valid exemption, by December 1 as a new condition of employment. The City Council approved the policy Tuesday night in a 4-1 vote. Councilperson Richard Montgomery and Steve Napolitano brought the matter to the council due…
Read MoreBLACK LIVES MATTER Legislation meant to return Manhattan Beach’s Bruce’s Beach to family descendents clears key hurdles
by Mark McDermott Legislation crafted to pave the way for the County of Los Angeles to return land in Manhattan Beach that belonged to Willa and Charles Bruce before it was taken through eminent domain a century ago cleared two more hurdles last week in its journey towards becoming law. SB 796, known as the…
Read MoreLegislation to return Bruce’s Beach in Manhattan Beach clears legal hurdles
by Mark McDermott Legislation crafted to pave the way for the County of Los Angeles to return land in Manhattan Beach that belonged to Willa and Charles Bruce before it was taken through eminent domain a century ago cleared two more hurdles last week in its journey towards becoming law. SB 796, known as the…
Read MoreSurge slows, but Labor Day may spur cases
by Mark McDermott All three Beach Cities experienced their third straight week of declines in the number of new COVID-19 cases as September arrived, but medical experts were bracing for a possible new wave of cases following Labor Day weekend. The Beach Cities registered 174 new cases the week ending September 4, compared to 228…
Read MoreEDUCATION: COVID Outbreak at Pacific Elementary prompts new outdoor mask requirement
by Mark McDermott Eight students and one staff member tested positive for COVID-19 last week at Pacific Elementary, an outbreak that the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health responded to with a specific health order requiring that masks be worn throughout the campus, even outdoors. John Bowes, superintendent of the Manhattan Beach Unified School…
Read MoreRedondo BeachLife Festival hopes to rock steady
by Mark McDermott Yes, live music is back. And no, the pandemic is not over. But as BeachLife Festival prepares to relaunch this weekend with a lineup most decidedly arranged to maximize rock n’ roll and good vibes, the music part of the equation has been carefully designed to predominate over the pandemic. BeachLife headliners…
Read MoreBen Harper & the Innocent Criminals play BeachLife in Redondo Beach September 12.
by Mark McDermott The first thing you hear is a long sinuous wail. A young yet regal man is seated on the stage, bowed almost reverentially over his lap slide guitar, a big booming bass man by his side, surrounded by a swell of soulful yet thundering percussion. There’s a glow of gold, somehow, emanating…
Read MoreREAL ESTATE: Manhattan Beach sets new median home price record
by Mark McDermott Neither calamity, drought, nor plague can stop it. Though we’ve not yet seen swarms of locusts to go along with the forests in flames, and the most devastating global pandemic in human history, data suggests that pretty much nothing can slow the Manhattan Beach real estate market. Last month,…
Read MoreManhattan Beach suffers first COVID-19 death since winter
by Mark McDermott The latest surge in COVID-19 cases propelled by the Delta variant of the novel coronavirus this week claimed the life of a Manhattan Beach resident, the first death from the pandemic locally since last winter. Los Angeles County likewise reached a grim milestone, surpassing 25,000 deaths due to COVID-19, including an average…
Read MoreMira Costa High kicks off new year with ‘Senior Sunrise’
by Mark McDermott A miracle occurred early Wednesday morning. It wasn’t just the fact that Mira Costa High was kicking off a new school year in the midst of a global pandemic, or even the oddity that tables stocked with dozens of doughnuts went largely untouched in the midst of more than 200 teenagers. The…
Read MoreDining decks approved until January, possibly permanently, in Manhattan Beach
by Mark McDermott The outdoor dining decks constructed by restaurants as an emergency measure during the pandemic will be in Manhattan Beach four months longer due to the recent surge in COVID-19 cases, and possibly much longer. The City Council on Tuesday night unanimously agreed to keep the decks until January 3 and will consider…
Read MoreAnother surge in the ICU: the Delta variant “hunts” the unvaccinated population
by Mark McDermott When the wall came down in the ICU at Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center, a small group of nurses, doctors, and technicians danced in jubilation. It was May 21, and to this exhausted crew of health care workers, it felt like the pandemic’s end was finally in sight. “We are…
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