Letter to the Editor: 3-11-2021

Refresher course

Dear ER:

In the 1980s, Hermosa Beach schools had an enrollment crisis, similar to today’s declining enrollment (“Hermosa cuts six teachers, including sole physical education teacher,” ER Mar 4, 2021). The answer was to get rid of the district and be absorbed, as the stepchild, into the Manhattan School District. Aviation High School was already on the chopping block. A small group of parents fought hard to remain a self-controlled district, albeit, a much scaled down version. The plan was to retain much of the property, for our posterity, should future needs arise. We were assured, by all the experts, that this area was too expensive for families to live here.  School Board member Mary Lou Weiss, saved the day. A deal was carved out to allow Hermosa students to elect which high school they preferred, Mira Costa in Manhattan or Redondo Union in Redondo Beach. The city received what is now the Community Center and other perks. The school district leased out North School to a day care center and several other uses. We became a lean machine. I was never in favor of borrowing over $60 million in bonds to build the monstrosity at the North School site, for approximately the same number of students we had in the ‘80s. Brick and mortar buildings don’t make our kids smarter; good teachers do. We can blame this disaster on the pandemic if you wish, or perhaps it’s just ego? Just be glad we didn’t go with Manhattan Beach. 

Gary Brown 

Hermosa Beach

 

Weeds in the garden

Dear ER:

Redondo Beach continues to float the idea of a community garden. I support the idea of a community garden. What I do not support is the “non-profit” South Bay Parkland Conservancy or any of the people who are associated with that organization having anything to do with this, for the following reasons. Mayor Bill Brand, who’s on the SBPC advisory board, can’t vote on anything having to do with the SBPC or the parkland issue because this presents a huge conflict of interest. Additionally, do we really want to open ourselves up to more lawsuits, since Jim Light sits on their board and he has been party to various lawsuits against our city on more than one occasion, for various reasons?

Erika Snow Robinson

Redondo Beach

 

Revenue neutral senior care

Dear ER:

As a publicly-owned agency of Hermosa, Manhattan and Redondo Beach residents, BCHD has the ability to provide our seniors with affordable long term care by using its tax-free status to issue bonds, build in a cost-effective manner, and operate as a not for profit facility. Instead it’s choosing to build an “upscale” high-end facility with expansive views according to its $300,000 contract investment banker. The majority owner-operator will be a private, for-profit developer that plans to target 80 percent non-residents as its tenants on our publicly owned land. If BCHD is going to provide assisted living, and that’s an open question, we must require BCHD to build cost-based, affordable assisted living for our residents and save our seniors 25 percent or more over BCHD’s for-profit developer plan. We don’t allow municipal governments to “mark-up” the public cost of their projects, nor should we set the terrible precedent of allowing BCHD to mark up its projects. Our seniors paid for the land and buildings of BCHD, they shouldn’t have to pay BCHD inflated prices for assisted living just so BCHD can bypass a public vote on development.

Mark Nelson

Redondo Beach

 

The power of projection

Dear ER:

There is no question that what happened to the Bruce family in Manhattan Beach almost 100 years ago was wrong and racist.  I don’t know a single person who doesn’t agree with that. However, watching a resident talking on TV about how racist and nasty Manhattan Beach still is today to Black people you would think nothing has changed in these 100 years.  I have a neighbor who is a widow and often takes in a roommate.  A while back she took in a middle-aged, Black woman and we had them over for dinner.  I asked her roommate how she liked living in Manhattan Beach.  She said quote, “I love Manhattan Beach.  Everyone is so friendly and nice.  I’ve never lived in a nicer place.”  I got to thinking, maybe it is because she is so friendly and nice.  And maybe the vast majority of people who live here have actually made progress, as Martin Luther King Jr. prayed for, that people would be judged by their character, not the color of their skin.  And maybe, just maybe, if you go around with a chip on your shoulder accusing people of being racist, they aren’t as friendly to you as you would like. But these are just my thoughts, and as always, I could be wrong.

Russ Lesser

Manhattan Beach

Shaper ahead of his time

Dear ER:

I met Phil Becker when a couple of friends were looking for someone to reproduce a Santa Barbara George Greenough surfboard design that Greenough had shaped out of balsa (“Surfing’s John Henry,” ER Mar 4, 2021). He called it the ‘Baby’ (7-foot-8). Phil had done a couple of stringerless Bob McTavish knock offs for those friends, including Mike Tiberio and Joey Smoot. Phil was happily up for the experiments and mowed right into them. Kneeboarder George’s ‘Baby’ was a precursor to the modern short board. He had made it to try to stand up surfing and didn’t like it, sticking with his fiberglass ‘spoon’ kneeboards. We were gaga. Those concept boards were very reduced in length for those ’67 – ’68 days: a 6-foot-1″ and 7-foot-4). I stood in Phil’s Rick shaping room while he roughed out a narrow 7-foot-10 that I surfed everywhere, including Rat Beach, Rincon, Haggerty’s, and the epic Lunada Bay swell of ’69. Phil was a kind and good man and had a lot of patience for us groms.

Kit Boise-Cossart

EasyReadernews comment

 

Surfing’s original sin

Dear ER:

In the world of surfing, localism is probably as old as the sport itself (“Water colors,” ER Feb. 25, 2021). It seems almost natural that a surfer or group of surfers, upon discovering a special place or peak that they like (especially one that is near where they live), would want to make that place or peak exclusively their own.  But here’s the thing: waves couldn’t care less who you are, what you look like, where you come from, or even how well you ride them. They were breaking long before the first surfer even existed, and they’ll still be breaking long after the last surfer is gone. The ocean is for everyone- share it wisely.

Spongebob Kahanamoku

Pineapple-Under-The-Sea

 

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