Posts by Mark McDermott

In 2006, Steve Shaw started giving not-so-grand tours of Redondo Union High School’s athletic facilities. Shaw, a teacher at the high school since 1982, was part of a committee of physical education instructors and coaches who were trying to bring attention to the severe degradation of the school’s eastern 30 acres. He gave the tour…

Mikkel Andersen was 17 years old and off on a great adventure. He’d come to Redondo Beach from his home in Copenhagen, Denmark in order to learn English at the EF International Language School. He had visions of star-studded Los Angeles and took his camera everywhere, enthusiastic to learn about the American culture he’d only…

Measure G, the proposed harbor zoning supporters hope signals the beginning of harbor revitalization, swept to victory by a 52 to 48 percent margin at Tuesday’s polls. The measure’s passage signifies the culmination of nearly nine years of debate over the future of harbor development that began with the city’s proposed Heart of the City…

It has been difficult for Republicans to rouse candidates to run for what has amounted to the biannual political slaughter otherwise known as running against Democratic Congresswoman Jane Harman. In this year of Democratic turmoil, however, Republicans were empowered enough to stage a genuine primary contest that featured three candidates. The winner of that contest,…

Nobody has won the war, but supporters of Measure G won the battle of the Pacific Coast Highway and Catalina Avenue intersection on Friday afternoon. What supporters described as an impromptu counter-protest brought roughly 30 pro-G activists to the street corner at 5 p.m. Friday, squashing a protest organized by Building a Better Redondo against…

Two women were arrested on suspicion of prostitution last week in a sweep of Redondo Beach massage parlors conducted by undercover police detectives. Meanwhile, local authorities, a pastor and a patron of the massage parlors described an illicit and increasingly sophisticated Redondo Beach sex trade. The arrests, part of an ongoing operation by the Redondo…

Two women were arrested on suspicion of prostitution last week in a sweep of local massage parlors conducted by undercover police detectives. The arrests, part of an ongoing operation by the Redondo Beach Police Department’s Special Investigations Unit, occurred Oct. 13. Detectives arrested Vilma Ramirez, 33, a Bell Gardens resident and an employee of Lee’s…

Building A Better Redondo on Monday launched its most comprehensive attack yet on Measure G, arguing that the city’s proposed zoning would cause traffic gridlock and block views throughout much of South Redondo by allowing the equivalent of more than two Galleria malls in the harbor area. At a press conference at the Crowne Plaza…