Ultrafication
Editor’s note: The following Letters to the Editor were selected from Facebook comments posted on last week’s cover story, “Ultrafication: Manhattan Beach’s ultra wealthy are transforming every aspect of the once laid back, middle income beach town.”
Playing the field
Dear ER: My motto has always been work in El Segundo (where I grew up), party in Hermosa (where I have been a Hermosa Beach Historical Society board member for over 10 years) and live in Manhattan (where I have called home since 1989). If you choose to live and work in L.A., the South Bay is one of, if not the best community to live in. If it wasn’t “ultra-desirable,” it wouldn’t be “ultra-expensive.” If you never bought in, or cashed out your family homes and moved away and want to feel you were the only cool ones ever, you’re wrong. Sure, the wealthy new residents may have never enjoyed all the stories we reminisce about, but that in no way means they are all bad, rude people. The main challenge we now face is not “ultrafication” from wealthy residents moving in, it is “ultra-densification” from the cash rich, nonresident developers who have no sense of community, and want to over-densify existing properties throughout the South Bay and Los Angeles. Environmental issues also have to be dealt with. Hermosa crushed oil drilling plans and we will need to rally to stop Hyperion from continuing to dump wastewater into the bay and to stop the desalination plant being considered north of El Porto. Active community members will continue to protect our ever changing beach lifestyle from “ultra-densification” and lessen environmental damage. Mark Shoemaker Dear ER Msgr. John Barry is the coolest clergyman I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. A true servant of the lord and shepherd of the people. American Martyrs is so lucky to have him. I’m proud to have been born and raised in the South Bay, but since moving away, all I ever miss about the whole shebang is the beach. The rest is just far too stressful. Sure, it’s a beautiful oceanside area, but there are hefty monetary and mental wellbeing prices you must pay to live there. The South Bay really, really wants to think it embodies that whole chill surfer dude feeling, but it doesn’t. I got to the party a bit late (‘87) and I really wish I could have experienced the beach cities of my mother’s younger days. Regardless of what it has become, however, I’ll always have a spot in my heart for my hometown. Cassandra Rachelle Carl |
Memories all that’s left
Dear ER:
I was born in ’54. Lived on 5th Street, walking only. It was amazing. At age 6 we moved to 6th, just up from the tracks. Even as a child I knew it was an incredible place to live as I lay in the warm sand wondering what people do with their lives when they don’t have access to a beach. My home life was less than desirable but my beach life was something I will never forget. My final move was to a rental on 15th and The Strand in Hermosa before leaving in 1975. Live in Oregon now but have taken kids and grandkids down, renting houses on the beach. Wonderful memories. Very sad we will not be able to afford rents there anymore.
Christina Tonne Gibson
Manhattan’s not unique
Dear ER:
Ultrafication has been speeding up and down the California coast, New York City and its suburbs, the Florida Gold Coast, Hawaii, London and other “choice” areas throughout the world. Global wealth, tech wealth, sports wealth — the wealthy want to live in the best places on earth.
Gina Woolfolk
Hermosa compromise
Dear ER:
I can’t blame the locals whose home values have gone up 500 percent since the ‘90s. It was weird living on Marine Street. I would meet people who dropped $2 million to $5 million cash for a walk street house, then not live in it. They didn’t like the beach but the zip code was a good investment. I live in Hermosa Beach now.
Michael Cruz
Totally get it
Dear ER:
Manhattan Beach is still an awesome place. I graduated from Ladera, Center and then Costa in ’83 and have been fortunate to own a home in Manhattan Beach for the last 11 years. I mention this only for perspective. Of course Manhattan has changed, but nothing is forever frozen in time. This same phenomenon has occurred in virtually all California coastal cities, including Carmel, Santa Barbara, Malibu, Santa Monica, Newport and Laguna. I totally get a “lamenting the old days” sentimentality, as this was such a wonderful place to grow up. However, I so tire of the so called “locals” who preface their comments with the fact that they no longer live here. If you did, you’d find an incredible place that for the most part has vastly improved. We can argue over building codes and snobby, entitled people for sure, but the core of this place is still present. I still see many of the same folks on the beach, at the slew of 4-man v-ball tourneys, in the water and at restaurants and they love it. Do some folks get left out? Yes, but that’s a CA/NY phenomenon that is tied to supply and demand. It is what it is.
Mike Barrett
Double hit
Dear ER:
Manhattan Beach residents these days wouldn’t know a “sleepy little beach town” if it came up and bit them in the ass at Starbucks. You clearly don’t have a clue what it was like 30-plus years ago.
Jenn Bullivant
Not townies
Dear ER:
As a Manhattan Beach native who grew up here in the ‘60s through the ‘80s, when it was just a little, kid friendly place with surfers everywhere and friendly people, this “new” Manhattan Beach frustrates me. I still live here, as do my siblings, thanks to my parents buying here after WWII. But I struggle with many of the new people with their money and often, really crummy, holier-than-thou attitudes. I wish the newcomers would chill out and stop being so pushy and demanding, especially when driving. I am not one to live in the past, I do like a lot of the changes to Manhattan Beach. However, I miss the friendly, easy going, live and let live lifestyle that has been pushed out. Note to newcomers: Be nice. Locals are “locals,” not “townies.”
JT Pogreba
Mowed down
Dear ER:
I will never go back to my hometown. It’s gone, like other towns the wealthy mow over. On the East Coast — Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard and south of there, Palm Beach, the Bahamas. They ruin everything in their path, with no compassion for the local people.
Judy Capper
Why the surprise
Dear ER:
I moved to Manhattan Beach in 1998, as a 9-year-old. I watched the city change before my eyes as I grew up. I go back to a home that is even more of a paradise than before. Only cons — I can’t run up and down Sand Dune park without making an appointment first. And the tourists that come in on the weekend I try to avoid at all costs. It’s not a surprise to me people discovered this amazing town. I didn’t appreciate it growing up, and now I love going back. I hope to raise my kids in the great school system I experienced at Mira Costa and Manhattan Beach Middle School.
Cat Wennekamp
Good and evil
Dear ER:
My wife’s family has been here since the ‘40s. Yes, a lot of change over the years. Some good some bad. A lot of good people and some with the attitude I have money, therefore I am special. American Martyrs is a very welcoming community. Life goes on.
Edward Myska
Forgotten names
Dear ER:
It makes me so sad that the once quaint, laid back, beautiful town I grew up in is now crowded, rich and overgrown. I loved the little house and businesses that used to be there like Mr. Johnnies, Joe’s Candy Cottage, the La Mar movie theater, Rexall Drug, Zeppy’s Pizza, The Surf and more.
Andrea Atkins-Thatcher
Past mayors urge council to
shorten, not extend terms
Dear ER:
Upon review of the June 7, 2016 staff report, our opinion as concerned former Manhattan Beach mayors, is that there is no “legal or otherwise compelling” reason to cancel the March 2017 Municipal election (“Manhattan Beach considers changing city election date,” ER June 9, 2016). State Senator Ben Allen said, “There is no compelling reason, legal or otherwise for Manhattan Beach to cancel or change the March 2017 municipal election.”
The staff report presented three options to the council, based on SB 415 (as it stands today). The bill was passed to theoretically, increase “voter participation.”
[Editor’s note: SB 415, the California Voter Participation Rights Act, passed in September 2015, requires municipalities to change their election dates to correspond with statewide election dates if local turnouts are 25 percent less than the average turnout for the past four state elections.]
Option one calls for the “shortening of the four-year term by five (5) months.” Whereby the newly elected council members in the March 2017 election would serve until the California Statewide General Election in November 2020. Under Option One the term of the elected city treasurer would likewise be shortened.
Option two provides for extending the terms of all current council persons by eight months, then a second extension for either seven or 12 months if current members are re-elected, and the same to those newly elected in the next two elections. This is a potential extension of 20 months.
Option three is wait until the end of 2017 to determine if the State Legislature will “amend” this bill, considering: 1. Cities such as Beverly Hills, La Mirada and Southgate are not cancelling their elections in 2017 and 2019; 2. the Los Angeles County Elections Chief stated that there is no way that LA County can handle municipal elections in all 88 cities in LA County along with the statewide elections at the same time.
We urge the council to adopt Option One. If the combined efforts of L.A. County and numerous cities are unsuccessful in their efforts to get SB 415 amended, then shorten the next council terms by five months. Current Councilmember Amy Howorth, elected City Treasurer Tim Lilligren along with the 13 undersigned former mayors are asking you not to extend your own terms.
Former mayors: Jim Aldinger, Steve Barnes, Portia Cohen, Walt Dougher, Joyce Fahey, Bob Holmes, Amy Howorth ( former Mayor and current council member), Joan Jones, Russ Lesser, Tim Lilligren (former mayor and current city treasurer, Richard Montgomery, Nicolas Tell, Jr., Mitch Ward, Linda Wilson
Corrections
Last week’s cover story“Ultrafication,” mistakenly reported that the Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce supported Measure O on the 2015 ballot. The chamber did not support the measure, which would have permitted oil drilling in Hermosa’s tidelands. Additionally, the story misidentified the Manhattan Beach organization headed by Tony Choueke. Its correct title is Manhattan Beach Property Owners Association.” Easy Reader apologizes for the errors.