Bad play
Dear ER:
Manhattan Beach’s decision to move the Saikley Six Man Volleyball Tournament to mid week is a bad decision. South Bay is and has been a beach community embracing a “fun” lifestyle for many years. Instead of looking cynically at this, the city should take the opportunity to embrace all of those people spending money. The financial report listed in your recent article shows a loss of $20,428, with a possible additional of 30 percent overhead costs. You can not drive, walk, crawl or ride a bike into Manhattan beach without spending 5 dollars a head. 60,000 people are spending money in a small city for 3 days. Is that a bad thing in a struggling economy? Don’t forget the countless parking lots and meters full to the brim, parking tickets, and other fines levied that weekend. Manhattan Beach has a population of 35,135 people and had 7 arrests the weekend prior. The weekend of Six Man with a population of 95,135. the arrest rates spike from .0211 percent to a whopping .0409 percent or 39 people. That is a rise of .02 percent! A few bad seeds in a crowd of 60,000 people is unfortunate as well as unavoidable. If this crowd of 60,000 customers was approached optimistically the juice would far out-weigh the squeeze supposedly put on MB. Of those arrests most were misdemeanors resulting in a significant fine payable to the city as well. I say fill the hotels and the restaurants, fence the tournament in (which was already done this year), check identification making the entire tournament 21 and over, sell $7 beers, $5 waters, [check] vendor sponsor space, take it to the bank and hope that the next year is better. Give the people one weekend a year to play volleyball and legally drink a cold beer with feet in the sand.
Dan Troutman
Redondo Beach
Night spike
Dear ER:
Not many events live up to their billing, but this one exceeded it! Laughter, great stories and so much love. You could just feel the energy in the room!! Anyone with a pulse had goose bumps during the honoree ceremony.
I want to thank all who helped make this possible. Everyone at the CBVA and Hermosa Beach Historical Society for their hard work. Emcee Jim Arico did an incredible job, and Chris Warshaw wrote the honoree bios with amazing flare. Presenters Ron Lang, Sharkie Zartman, Chris Marlowe and Jim Menges shared wonderful stories in front of a packed house with passion and clarity like it all happened yesterday. Robi Hutas had a beautiful photo display, Also, thanks to Lance Lee for editing the highlight video, George Richardson and Bennett for the interviews, Jonathan Pasqual and Fox Sports for filming the event, Bruce Hazelton for the inductee photos, and special thanks to Annie Seawright, Chris Brown, Chris Miller and Denny Smith for all their diligent work behind the scenes.
We filmed the entire event and interviewed many of the inductees and will have a nice video available for the exhibit grand opening next year. Steve Obradovich, after winning the volleyball auction ($2,000 bid) signed by all 40 inductees present that night, said with the enthusiasm of a wide eyed teenager, “I had the time of my life, I don’t want this night to end!” You gotta love that fire coming from a legend of the sport. That feeling seemed to prevail throughout the room. Well, the night had to end, but it’s also the beginning of a great new tradition for beach volleyball.
Look forward to seeing everyone again next year.
Kevin Cleary
Web comment
Leave Artesia well enough alone
Dear ER:
In a time of great economic distress facing our grand nation and city I am dismayed that the Redondo City Council would even consider such a frivolous issue as changing the name Artesia Boulevard to that of the existent Redondo Beach Boulevard. Such an alteration would only cause confusion and unnecessary expenses to the City and the business owners. I have discussed this with some of the business owners on Artesia Blvd. Those I spoke with were opposed. They said they would be burdened with the cost of new letterhead and business cards, for example: they also envisioned wasted time offering directions to an otherwise well-known location.
To our city government: Consider the costs, changing street signs and maps. I wonder how our struggling post offices would handle the extra work of forwarding and redirecting the mail. Confusion would be abound, how would the Council address this? Do they plan to send literature to every household in Redondo Beach? Even if they do, surrounding communities would be oblivious to such abrupt changes. Sure, it would be swell to have Redondo Beach Blvd. actually go through Redondo Beach, but at the moment common sense tells me, “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.”
Julian R. Stern
Redondo Beach
Workman’s plan
Dear ER:
I would like to thank the Hermosa City Council, city staff, Police and Fire, Rotary, Kiwanis and Woman’s clubs, and every citizen of Hermosa Beach who helped my family through a very sad time. There are too many people to thank, but the whole town came to our aid and put John Workman’s memorial and reception together. I am overwhelmed by how many people loved my Johnny. I never knew, nor did John, how he positively touched so many lives. I thank you all who shared with us the wonderful memories you had of John and for attending his visitation and memorial. One friend said, “If a Hollywood producer had planned John’s memorial, they couldn’t have done better.” All of you, the people of the city John loved, put this memorial together. Having this wonderful outpour of love and positive feelings was your gift to help us get through this tough time. I am so proud of you and my city. It was a perfect day and I’m sure John was there is spirit. God bless you all and again, thank you from our family.
Mary Ellen Workman
Hermosa Beach
Monument to excellence
Dear ER:
Thank you for the recent article highlighting the DeMaria family home in Manhattan Beach (“A Tree Family Affair”). In this era of McMansions, maximum footprint builds and tasteless non-architectural edifices to ego, it is refreshing to read about the attitude behind such an exemplary home.
Phrases such as “He only used half the 40 ft. by 120 ft. lot — the house is 2,400 sq ft. out of a possible 5,400…” and “exuberant functionality” were inspiring. That this talented architect chose to “analyze the entire tree section” and not to simply construct another grotesque monster on a petite slice of earth should be an example to those pursuing construction and renovation, not just in the Beach Cities, but everywhere.
Applause to Mark McDermott for yet another well-researched and well-written article. Kudos to the DeMaria family, especially talented architect dad Peter. And to us all, a pause for reflection as to what “our” monuments to ourselves, our homes, say about our values and priorities.
Jules Kovisars
Web comment
DiVirgilio thanks voters
Dear ER:
I would like to thank the Hermosa Beach voters for re-electing me to serve on the City Council for another four years. It is an honor.
Throughout this campaign, I’ve been humbled by the unwavering support from individuals, families and businesses throughout our community.
My thanks to the friends, neighbors and supporters who opened their homes, delivered or displayed yard signs, contributed financially, and endorsed me personally to potential voters.
Most especially, I must acknowledge the extra-ordinary efforts of Dorothy Forba, who helped guide this campaign to victory, and the unending assistance from Ken Hartley and Cammie Herbert. And, finally, I am grateful to my wife Danay, whose grace and optimism knows no bounds.
I look forward to our continued work together, and will continue to welcome the opinions and concerns of each of you in this great city. Thank you.
Michael DiVirgilio
Hermosa Beach
Disappointed
Dear ER:
After watching last Tuesday’s Council meeting where AES summarized their plans to build a new power plant on Redondo’s waterfront, I was disappointed by their marketing pitch. I hope Redondo’s and Hermosa’s council members will do what is right for the South Bay and take a position to oppose the development of a new power plant. It is not needed and we will suffer from tremendous negative impacts for the next 50 years if a new plant is built. I believe that it is imperative that council members act now to express opposition before the application approval process starts, just as AES must start planning prior to approval.
I am concerned that AES is not trustworthy. They sued local residents who opposed them on Redondo’s utility tax vote and have faced lawsuits around the world related to their pollution and toxic waste disasters. They have already shown us they do not care about their current noise, environmental, and fiscal impacts on our community.
I am also concerned about the health impacts of the air pollution. Who is going to warn the public when particulate pollution ramps up substantially? This plant is going to run significantly more often than the current plant, exposing us to a massive increase in pollution.
The plans include four 120-foot-tall smokestacks (huge). It will continue to be the eyesore and blight of our waterfront and will expose densely populated residents located right against its property lines to devastating impacts without buffers.
Christine Wike
Hermosa Beach
Waste of time
Dear ER:
The Local Values (“Postal drop,” ER Nov. 17, 2011) ads are a nuisance. We do not want them. It is a total waste for carriers to lug them to our doorstep, where we promptly put them into the recycle bin.
Cheryl Kohr
Redondo Beach
