by Keith Robinson

In Memorium

Dear ER:

Truly amazing men [“PV, Hermosa plane crash victims recalled as adventurous, charitable”]! Touched so many people’s lives. They will be missed dearly.

Cherri Murray

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Teacher recalled

Dear ER:

Mr. Urban was a fantastic teacher [“PV, Hermosa plane crash victims recalled as adventurous, charitable”]. He was always kind and generous with his time and energy to give back to his students, and those with less in Mexico.

Still remember the Jolly Ranchers, talking about SCUBA diving, and the tons of candy students would donate from Halloween for the kids in Mexico.

Cornerstone would not have been the same without him and the support of the Chambers family to make that school what it was for me and many other students. God bless you all.

Patrick Fallon

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Holiday publicity

Dear ER:

What a way to ruin the holiday season with a political publicity photo of the Mayor’s sister-in-law, Kathleen Paralusz, a City Council candidate “Live Christmas trees liven up Manhattan Beach tree lighting,” ER Nov. 25. 2010].

Janet Alson

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Stocking coal

Dear ER:

Nepotism lives in Manhattan Beach!

“Longtime MB”

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Bag it

Dear ER:

This was a great step forward by the city of L.A. and we support it whole heartedly [“L.A. County’s plastic bag ban may support MB’s,” ER Nov. 25, 2010].

Being a Manhattan Beach native it’s nice to see your town supporting your cause! Go MB! It’s our belief that L.A. will start and soon enough all the coastal towns in California will finally eliminate the troublesome plastic bags. Reusable bags are here to stay!

Douglas Lober

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So long

Dear ER:

She refused to get involved in local affairs, was a shill for the bar interests, turned the Fiesta into “Crap-ola Hermosa” with its kitchen cabinet vendors and even chiropractors [“Chamber head out of a job, ER Nov. 25, 2010]…Hooray, now maybe the Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce can actually do some proactive planning.

“Local Yokel”

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New wave

Dear ER:

Despite the proof reading need I love what’s happening [“Big Wave Challenge, contest series announced by SBRC,” ER Nov. 25, 2010].

This is a long time coming, a crew of surfers dedicated to the sport, the community we live in and the legacy of wave riding for generations to follow! Looking forward!

Dan Bradford

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Wave II

Dear ER:

Good work Balzer and the SBBC Crew. I am sure lot of work went into setting this up. I hope it goes off beautifully and that your efforts continue to get the kind of sponsorship you need to keep this going for years. Good luck!

Marcus

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Russian roots

Dear ER:

Thanks, that was very interesting [“Gambrinus” restaurant review, ER Nov. 25, 2010].

I was born in Moscow in 1959 but my mother and I fled the country and came here to England. To be honest, I didn’t care much about my Russian heritage until my mother died last month, now I’ve been trying to find out as much as I possibly can. Seemed like food was as good a place as any to start!

You don’t generally hear much about Russian cuisine do you?

Jerald Voorhees

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Drawn in

Dear ER:

I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Gil’s prints in previous shows [“Painted ladies of the sea,” ER Nov. 18, 2010]. It’s difficult to conjure up what his images would look like from just reading, but when you see big prints of big colorful ship hulls, there’s a sense of space and scale that is simultaneously intimidating and welcoming.

The graphically composed views draw you in to detailed sections from a massive structure. You can practically feel the tension from the photographer’s POV.

John MacLean

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Watts up?

Dear ER:

That’s nice, Hermosa get $350,000 when Watts schools are sharing books from lack of funding [Hermosa gets $350,000 school safety grant, ER Nov. 11, 2010]. The kids at Watts won’t be able to read the new school safety signs due to illiteracy and lack of damn books.

‘Lady Day’

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Step up

Dear ER:

The deadline for filing to run for the Manhattan Beach City Council in the March 8, 2011 general election is Dec. 10, 2010. So far only two candidates, Amy Howorth and Kathleen Paralusz, have taken out papers to run for the two open positions.

Incumbent Portia Cohen has not yet indicated if she intends to run for a second term while Mitch Ward is term limited out of office as of March 11.

If you have ever thought about giving your energy and time to local public service to try and make our town better, please consider running for City Council. Or if you know someone who would be a great leader please urge them to make a run at helping govern our town.

Our city faces many important issues, among them undergrounding more utilities, finding a city manager (We haven’t had one for a year), giving city staff their annual raise, and closing the library for a year or more so it can be remodeled.

Please step forward to try to help our community be as good as it can be.

Michelle Murphy

Manhattan Beach

Send him packing

Dear ER:

Hermosa’s former Public Works Director, Rick Morgan, thankfully took a city “buy-out” and retired with a fat pension for life. City Manager Stephen Burrell has thusly, in my view, lost his puppet to the benefit of the city. It’s now time for the council to refocus and move to replace the manipulative Burrell with a new or interim city manager who will place residential infrastructure front and center at every council meeting, rather than pulling every trick possible to keep Hermosa’s councils uninformed, dysfunctional, and himself in full control.

Hermosa Hills’ 80-year-old concrete streets (built for Model-T Fords in the 1920s) have been neglected long enough by Burrell. Burrell and his manipulated, liquor-expanding councils have for years used the excuse that they were not paving Hermosa Hills streets because the area was supposedly to be “utility under-grounded.” Under-grounding was essentially scrapped there years ago due to the outrageous cost estimates being provided by the utility monopolies. Those neglected streets remain in the worst condition in the South Bay, and are seriously affecting residential property values, which Torrance resident Burrell could not care less about, and which are the predominant generator of revenue for Hermosa Beach.

Still Hermosa’s council remains impotent in limiting downtown liquor expansion. Now the council finds itself with members Patrick “Kit” Bobko and Michael DiVirgilio wanting to add more full liquor licenses to upper Pier Avenue. These two even desire multiple 3,000 to 15,000 barrel-per-year breweries in the city with such production breweries to each be brewing and bottling one million to five million 12-ounce bottles of beer per year 100 feet from expensive residential homes near South Park. Obviously an inappropriate use for residentially dense Hermosa Beach, and a use to not even be bringing any net revenue increase to the city, as these would be wholesale brewing operations. Bobko and DiVirgilio evidently have no problem with the brewing odors to also be depreciating surrounding residential areas, year around.

Bobko and DiVirgilio would best retire from the council or terminate their insidious self-promoting Democrat and Republican photo-op politician nonsense to concentrate on improving Hermosa’s residential infrastructure during their remaining council term.

Enough of their use of elected positions to pander to negative city uses and interests, they ignorantly believe will bring them kudos and campaign donations from those connected to such negative uses and/or political party affiliations. DiVirgilio absolutely needs to be voted off the council in next year’s election. He’s simply too slick and deceitful a politician. Hermosa does not need the disingenuous, synthetic Bobko either.

Nonetheless, Hermosa is fortunate to now have three on its council (Peter Tucker, Howard Fishman, and Jeff Duclos) who understand that there’s more to this community and its men, women and children than its excessive booze interests, and which council members also appear to be refocusing on matters of residential infrastructure, especially the paving of the city’s horrible concrete residential streets. The question remains though, as to whether they are willing to refocus or replace Burrell.

Howard Longacre

Hermosa Beach

Poetic injustice

Dear ER:

Re: “Loaded dogs,” ER letters, Nov. 4: thanks for the inspiration. Sorry, Edgar.

The Retriever

Once upon a midnight stillness,

Sleeping in such sweet contentment,

Bundled up in dreams

and stardust that I wore.

Then, suddenly there was a bashing

A pounding sound, as if a lashing,

Ripping me from reverie,

That no one could ignore.

Here I was in bleak November

Just one happy thing, remember

Praying for the sleep to savor,

The peacefulness right to the core.

This sound persisted, I resisted,

The rapping, lapping, yapping

Just outside my chamber door

To still the beating of my heart,

I stood repeating

T’is some visitor, entreating

Pounding, pounding, through the night

Was it banging, knocking, scratching,

Might I be in danger, what could it be

I must go forth to yet explore

Alas, the stark discovery!

It is that beast that lives next door

Barking, barking, like before

His owner is that damned Lenore!

Quiet, quiet, then I swore

Quoth the Retriever, ‘Nevermore’

His voice comes weeping like the fog

A sound as dense as city smog

His face in grimace like a hog

The insidious beast is creeping

His barking, seeping, seeping

Through the cracks within my door

All day long I have been waiting

Waiting for the sound I’m hating

I just go on anticipating

I can’t complete the simplest chore

Like a soldier in a war,

The silence you must restore

Quoth the Retriever, ‘Nevermore’

I turn and I can see his face,

His tennis balls all over the place

Get down, get down,

You’ll break my vase!

I run to grab my can of mace

To banish, banish from my space

Your barking I can take no more

Hairy, hideous beast from Hell

In the back yard where you dwell

Speak now if you be fiend or hound

Go now or I will call the pound

Leave no flea or clump of fur

There is none about you I adore

Panting like a burning furnace

Your golden glean yet to be seen

Retreating out my door

Take thou snout from out my heart

Round in circles, there you dart

Hark: Stop your pooping on my floor!

Quoth the Retriever, ‘Nevermore’

Mallory and Georgette Gantner

and Edgar Allen Pooch

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