Charlotte Lesser retires after 45 years leading Neighborhood Watch
On the last day of February in 1980, Charlotte Lesser saw a newspaper headline that grabbed her attention. “A Streak of Stealing That Just Won’t Stop,” the Daily Breeze headline read, atop a story about 111 burglaries that had occurred within Manhattan Beach in the previous month. Neither the news of the crimes themselves […]
Wanderer of the New West: Costa alum Mark Sundeen returns with his book, Delusions + Grandeur
by Mark McDermott Mark Sundeen heard the call. It was a beckoning countless others have heard across two centuries of American history: “Go West, young man.” The problem was that, as a California native who grew up in Manhattan Beach and attended college at Stanford, he was already at the far western edge of […]
In Memorium: Mira Costa student Ford Savela was “a beacon of hope”
by Mark McDermott Two weeks ago on a Tuesday night, Ford Savela, his brother Chase, and another friend were on their way home from the gym when they decided to stop at the Taco Bell on Sepulveda. As they turned, a car came speeding southbound down the boulevard. The resulting collision cost Savela his life. […]
Shooting the moon (and the sun): How Bo Bridges captured totality
by Mark McDermott The April 8 eclipse of the sun by the moon was not on Bo Bridges radar. Bridges was planning to visit his oldest son, who is going to college at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas, for the school’s annual dads’ weekend. He was also going to bring his second […]
Teacher layoffs still loom within Manhattan Beach Unified after Governor’s budget is released
by Mark McDermott Governor Gavin Newsom released his proposed budget in January, and though he is attempting to spare public education from significant cuts, the Manhattan Beach Unified School District’s budget outlook did not significantly improve. The district still faces the prospect of laying off as many as 70 teachers in the next two years […]
Into the Tropic of Cancer
How a wandering surfer’s search for waves resulted in one the world’s great musical festivals in a Baja Pueblo by Mark McDermott A few years ago, a van swung onto Manuel Márquez de León, a street that runs through the downtown “Centro” district of Todos Santos, a pueblo in Baja California Sur, Mexico. The vehicle […]
Community gathers to celebrate the life of Pat Dietz
Editor’s note: Pat Dietz, the iconic co-founder of Dietz Brothers Music in Manhattan Beach, passed away June 28 after being injured while saving his grandson from an out-of-control car in Torrance two days earlier. Due to the nature of his death, the family had to delay his burial and memorial until a cause of death […]
Greenberg appointed to the MBUSD school board
by Mark McDermott Bruce Greenberg was appointed to the Manhattan Beach Unified School District at a special meeting Wednesday afternoon. Greenberg will fill the vacancy left by Jason Boxer, who resigned in January. The board chose an appointment process over a special election due to its cost, which the LA County Registrar estimated at $879,000. […]
Manhattan Beach Mayor Stern launches Kindness Initiative
by Mark McDermott On the morning of May 22, 2020, Maureen McBride opened up her boutique in downtown Manhattan Beach, Tabula Rasa Essentials, for the first time in ten weeks. Those ten weeks had been rough. McBride had endured many sleepless nights. The world had been turned upside down. The pandemic had launched its ravaging […]
The invisible rope
by Mark McDermott and Ryan McDonald A rope went up on the beach below Bruce’s Lodge on June 23, 1912, the very first Sunday the resort that welcomed Black beachgoers to Manhattan Beach was in operation. Though the man responsible for roping off of the beach was one of the city’s founders, George […]
Governor Newsom signs Bruce’s Beach bill into law
by Mark McDermott and Gavin Heaney Video by Jefferson Graham, Photos by Kevin Cody Governor Gavin Newsom came to Manhattan Beach Thursday morning and signed S.B. 796 into law, paving the way for Los Angeles County to return beachfront land which was historically Bruce’s Beach to the descendants of the family who lost the […]
Let it out: Coming together and letting go at BeachLife Festival
by Mark McDermott and Rachel Reeves By the time the Marleys stepped onto the Hightide stage at BeachLife Festival Sunday night, 51 bands had performed several hundred songs from morning til night over the previous three days. They sang of love and sex and drugs and beauty galore, of hellhounds, oceans, and midnight jokers, of […]
New Power Trio: Lamkin, Stroman honored for business advocacy in pandemic, Villareal heads North MB
by Mark McDermott Nobody had any plan for this. Almost exactly 18 months ago, nearly every business in Manhattan Beach was shut down. Kelly Stroman, the president and CEO of the MB Chamber of Commerce, remembers sitting down with her one full time employee, Carolina Dorado, and addressing a single simple question: what do we […]
Manhattan Beach Unified prepares for a full reopening of schools
Back to school never felt quite like this before. Parents with kids attending Manhattan Beach Unified School District have received a flurry of messages from the district in the last week, both full of anticipation and long outlines of what will be required as the district prepares for its day of school next Wednesday. On […]
Manhattan Beach receives $8.4 million in American Rescue Plan funds
by Mark McDermott The Manhattan Beach City Council on August 3 accepted an allocation of $8.4 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds, and then quickly put $2 million of it to use — paying down the debt for the new $9.7 million Fire Station No. 2, a move that will save the City $1 […]
Manhattan Beach considers using Redondo Beach’s homeless court
by Mark McDermott The Manhattan Beach City Council continues to grapple with a conundrum as it tries to address the city’s homeless population. The council has been interested in Redondo Beach’s innovative “homeless court” program, which. since it’s implementation late last year. has worked with 50 people among its homeless population of 176, and […]