A Shore thing
Dear ER:
Fifty percent of new Manhattan Beach houses built between the ocean and Valley Drive have basements (*Absence of limits,” ER November 17, 2014)? That is a high number and I think the City Council members who approved basements on 30-foot by 90-boot lots should have to live next to a home being built when they are shoring for a basement. Hey, if you want real big square footage buy a hill section lot.
Peter Rech
Facebook comment
Kids on the march
Dear ER:
What did their parents think about this? Back in the ‘60s we had an anti war Sit In at Aviation High School. Our principal let it last about 60 seconds. And believe me, we jumped when Mr. Gossard said we were breaking the law and that we should be in class. Truth be told, if he had called our parents we would have been in trouble at home, too. AHS Class of ’66 hail to thee.
Johnnie Alan McCann
Facebook comment
Field trip
Dear ER:
Good on you, students. Exercise your first Amendment right. As for those people taunting you, that’s what you voted against. Think of it as a field trip in your government class. Regardless of whose position you take, this was an excellent learning lesson. Thank you. And to the Mira Costa High School administration who accompanied the kids for their safety, thank you.
Willard Weston
Hermosa Beach
Protests the parents
Dear ER:
Mira Costa High School students utilized their First Amendment rights to chant anti-Trump slogans. If Hillary Clinton had been elected President, would Principal Ben Dale have allowed students to walk out of school chanting Benghazi, Clinton Foundation, Liar, Allowing Uranium to fall in Russian hands and emails. (Lock Her Up)? Dale he should be made to appear at a school board meeting to explain why this walkout was allowed to occur.
Mira Costa High School students can’t vote so they have to show their voice in other ways. But, maybe, they should protest the fact that less than 20 percent of their parents bother to vote in City Council and School Board Elections. Their parents have shown no respect for authority or appreciation for the bonds that have being approved by those who did vote: Measure BB — $67 million for renovation of Mira Costa High School, Measure EE — $39 million for new gym and Measure C — $114 for Elementary and preschool.
Robert Bush
Manhattan Beach
First Amendment choices
Dear ER:
Is Mira Costa High School principal Ben Dale shepherding students to City Hall who wish to protest the election of Donald Trump the same Ben Dale who called in a militarized response to a peaceful lunchtime rally on campus by students who were protesting his firing of popular French teacher Timothy Hirsh last year? It seems like some people think the First Amendment only applies to what they want to hear.
Stephanie Robins
Manhattan Beach
Ta TOT
Dear ER:
The Redondo Beach Chamber of Commerce doesn’t drive the Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) (“Chamber city revenues under scrutiny.” ER November 17, 2016). The City’s own annual report describes exactly why the TOT went up: “Hotel occupancy rates for the City’s 13 operating hotels increased by 6.6 percent from prior year FY 2013-2014 with a 12.4 percent revenue increase primarily due to the reopening of the Redondo Beach Hotel after approximately a year’s closure.” Economics, not parties on the patio. If the chamber drove the TOT was it also responsible for the downturn in 2011 when it begged City Council for more money? What a disappointment this council, is pandering to special interest. In 2018, the TOT gets a $2 million bump, which means another $200,000 for the Chamber. Think they won’t load up the cash wagon for Mayor Steve Aspel to make that happen? The $28,000 the chamber PAC gave councilman Christian Horvath will look small in comparison to how much they will spend to keep this contract on the books and our city will continue to be plagued by Aspelitis.
Gene Solomon
Redondo Beach
Results based funding
Dear ER:
The Redondo Beach Chamber claims their work is responsible for increased hotel occupancy (“Chamber city revenues under scrutiny.” ER November 17, 2016). Yet the hotel industry reported record revenues and occupancy in 2015 and expects increases in 2016. Hotel occupancy in Redondo would have increased with our without the spending of hundreds of thousands of dollars through the Chamber. The Chamber claimed the investment is justified because our city has more hotel business than other beach cities. Yet, while Redondo’s hotel tax rate is higher than other beach cities, our hotel tax revenue was $4.3 million. Manhattan Beach’s hotel tax revenues were over $5 million and El Segundo’s was over $6 million. Hermosa, one-sixth the size of Redondo, gets hotel revenues of $2.3 million. So Redondo does not have more hotel business than neighboring cities. These cities all show hotel tax revenue increases without investing a dime in their Chambers. El Segundo did not fund their chamber a single dime.Yet yet their hotel tax revenues went up nearly three times as much as Redondo’s. Are we really getting any return on this huge giveaway to the Chamber? It appears not. Mayor Steve Aspel made a long winded diatribe about how great the Chamber is, how the Chamber give both he and his mayoral opponent Matt Kilroy the same amount of campaign contributions in his last mayoral run. Aspel forgot to highlight the Nafissi/Horvath race for District 3. In this race, the Chamber held fundraisers for Horvath, contributed directly to Horvath’s campaign and spent $28,000 in “independent” campaign expenditures supporting Horvath and slandering Nafissi. That was the most spent on a single district election in the City’s history. Aspel also neglected to mention the Chamber has already held a fundraiser for Aspel for his Mayoral run against Bill Brand next March. Any question why Aspel and Horvath stood up for the Chamber? The Chamber gets tax money from the city which it uses to fund staff, facility rent, and all sorts of infrastructure that the Chamber then uses to support its PAC. This conflict is why only three percent of all Chambers that receive monies from their cities also have a PAC. Now that active residents have shown a light on the questionable Chamber/City relationship and funding, the cockroaches are all scurrying.
Jim Light
Redondo Beach
Letters by the numbers
Dear ER:
I’ve collected letters to the editors from Easy Reader and late 2015 and recently analyzed those that expressed an opinion regarding the CenterCal Waterfront project. Here are my findings from the 56 editions surveyed.
60 letters were written against the project from 21 different people. 42 letters were written by 4 people; 7 people wrote more than 1 letter; and 10 people wrote only 1 letter.
70 letters were written in support of the project from 37 different people. 30 letters were written by 5 people; 6 people wrote more than 1 letter and 26 people wrote only 1 letter.
Conclusion: As suspected, there are a few really noisy people who claim to represent the majority of residents on this issue. I believe that like this survey indicates, residents in Redondo Beach favor the project by at least a 2-1 majority.
Arnette Travis
Redondo Beach
