Letters: 9-30-2021
BuyMat Wuerker
Back to the beach
Easy Reader is leaving its office at 2200 Pacific Coast Highway this week, and relocating in downtown Hermosa Beach. The new office is at 67 14th Street. The office was formerly occupied by architect Larry Peha, who recently retired.
Safety check
Dear ER:
My respect for Manhattan Beach Police Chief Derrick Abell is immeasurable. As he stated, other police departments are looking for an example to set a COVID policy. MBPD can take the opportunity to help establish a new standard that demonstrates its understanding of this health crisis. We ask a much higher standard of law enforcement to, at all costs, always put public safety first. It’s the job. Is it a stretch to make sure that applicants share that mentality when applying? Their understanding about preventing an airborne virus from spreading should be relevant. Please do make it a requirement for a safety officer. Those who find it objectionable to aid the public good might be questionable for the job. I am positive the health care partners they come into contact with frequently would have no objection.
Stewart Fournier
Manhattan Beach
One more restriction
Dear ER:
The Hermosa Beach City Council gleefully enacts new restrictions of the week. But when will they restrict homeless camping out? When there are dozens or hundreds like Venice it will be too late. Or is it too politically incorrect to enforce laws against trespassing, loitering, camping out, litter, and homesteading? I am not alone in opposing Hermosa’s passive refusal to protect citizens and property.
Brian Hilgers
Hermosa Beach
Power plant protest
Dear ER:
On October 19, the California Water Board will hold a public hearing to consider extending operation of the AES power plant — again. This time for another two years. The original retirement date of December 31, 2020 was set in 2010 by the same Board that is now considering yet another extension. The argument is that this power plant is needed as a “peaker plant” to provide power during periods of high energy use. But this 68-year-old gas-fired plant is so dilapidated that it failed to provide power during some of the hottest days last summer due to, ironically, overheating and mechanical failures. When it does operate, it is one of the most polluting power plants on the entire California coast. It fouls ocean water, kills sea life, emits highly toxic emissions, causes noise and visual blight, and belches carbon into our rapidly warming world. Whatever happened to California being a “leader in climate change?” Don’t worry about AES. They’re a multi-billion corporation based in Arlington, Virginia to whom ratepayers pay $40 million every year just to be “on the ready.” And if they can’t start up when called upon it’s “oh well, maybe next time.” Several state agencies are conning us, and they will continue to con us unless we make our voices heard. Please sign our petition and sign-up to testify October 19 at the links provided below.
Chng.it/gCXK6TNV59
Waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/grants_loans/sustainable_water_solutions/docs/2021/notice_sadwplan_opp.pdf.
South Bay Parks Conservancy
Redondo Beach
Show me the money list
Dear ER:
The Beach Cities Health District asserts that the health district spent $8.8 million in 2019-2020 on programs and services for the Beach Cities community. However, unlike Sequoia Health District, BCHD does not provide a comprehensive list on its website of the expenditures meant to benefit the community. There is no section on the BCHD website that would provide a clear accounting as to what and to whom the $8.8 million was expended. To validate their claim, BCHD can be fully transparent by providing on their website a detailed list containing the amounts and recipients of the $8.8 million dollars for programs and services to the community. This information should be provided in a manner that is easily accessible and understood by the citizens. Let the community see for themselves the manner in which the $8.8 million was expended.
Sheila W. Lamb
Redondo Beach
It starts with an idea
Dear ER:
The greatest mind in human history used “crayons and fantasy” to enrich human life. All great things begin with imagination (“Architect retained to ask what residents want in harbor area,” ER Sept. 23, 2021).
Barbara Epstein
Redondo Beach
Citizen service
Dear ER:
I was honored to participate in the Redondo Beach September 11 service to remember the people who died in an event that changed our world forever (Redondo Beach quietly marks 20th anniversary of September 11, ER Sept. 16, 2020). Thanks to Lisa Davis Rodriguez for organizing what should have been a City event — a prime example of how a city benefits from Leadership Redondo — and to the Leadership Class 2007 for this amazing class project.
Joan Irvine
Redondo Beach
Priorities
Dear ER:
Local businesses should be the priority and need the Chamber’s support, especially after the past 18 months (“Hermosa Beach Chamber seeks balance between traditional fiesta, Fiesta Locale, ER Sept. 16, 2021). Without the success of local businesses, there is no Chamber.
Lauren Burton
Manhattan Beach
Art ow
Dear ER:
Who cares if it’s Andromeda (whom Perseus rescued)? This is what art should be — an exploration of the worlds we live in, and those that came before (“Are you thinking what I’m thinking, ER Sept. 23, 2021).
Steve Shriver
Palos Verdes
Art us
Dear ER:
We are quite a selection of artists (“Are you thinking what I’m thinking, ER Sept. 23, 2021). We all had great fun meeting one another. I knew few by face but not many. Thank you Bondo Wyzpolski and the Palos Verdes Arts Center for bringing this show to the public .
Richard Stephens
Redondo Beach
Art form
Dear ER:
It was a whole new collaborative art form (“Are you thinking what I’m thinking, ER Sept. 23, 2021). John Cage (fortune cookies), plus Mussorgsky (“Pictures at an Exhibition” ), plus the Medici (“let me suggest the theme”), mixed with something akin to musical theater (take your pick) and maybe the Met Gala?
Antoine Squerb
Palos Verdes