Oil in the wounds
Dear ER:
Hermosa Beach is a wealthy community relatively speaking, and thus the arguments
for the Proposition S school bond measure are not only correct, but are financially acceptable.
What is perturbing however is the cognitive dissonance on display in our community. On successive pages of Easy Reader we have the plight of our schools and the dire circumstances regarding our Fire Department, which needs both operating funds not apparently available, as well as millions of dollars of capital improvements.
And yet we as a community have zero interest in even remotely considering a giant revenue source in our own backyard on essentially political grounds, with zero thought to the consequences we now face day to day.
It is exactly this attitude that sadly makes Proposition S not a slam dunk. We might possibly consider “balance” in the source of funds when we consider the balancing act of our needs.
And I might add, it is also sad that our Superintendent of Schools was cowed within an inch of her mental stability not to take a stand for the schools when it came to the millions of dollars that would have flowed to the schools from oil revenues, but today feels emboldened to make a stand for the bond issue.
Jeffrey Bronchick
Hermosa Beach
School to scale
Dear ER:
I do not hate kids. I do not hate schools. I am not a terrible person. But, I do detest waste. Yes, something should be done at North School to relieve overcrowding at the other two Hermosa Beach schools. But the answer is not to spend every dollar we have to build a school almost twice the size we need while we ruin the surrounding neighborhood with traffic gridlock and parking problems. We can spend a reasonable amount of money to refurbish or build a smaller school at North School and do some improvements at the other two schools for a lot less than requiring taxpayers to pay $127M over the next 30 years. I am voting No on measure S.
Marie Thomas
Hermosa Beach
Shared sacrifice
Dear ER:
People ask why we support Measure S when our children attend American Martyrs School. The answer is simple. It is because we care about our community and our friends who have children who attend Hermosa’s public schools. Hermosa Beach is a first-rate community. We have a wonderful beach, great parks and extraordinary restaurants and shops. Our community deserves a first-rate education system with new and modernized facilities.
In addition to the beneficial impact that an excellent public school system has on property values, it has been thoroughly documented that children perform better academically in newer and updated school facilities. Our schools suffer from significant overcrowding, reliance on temporary buildings, inadequate facilities and deteriorated physical structures. The 21st Century School Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of America’s educational facilities, published a summary of studies on the impact of school facilities and student and teacher performance. The common theme among these studies was that students perform significantly better in newer and modernized schools. The children who attend Hermosa’s public schools deserve an opportunity for such success.
We must do better for the children in our community. Measure S will address the serious issues facing Hermosa Beach’s public schools.
Anthony J. Napolitano
Hermosa Beach
Name it
Dear ER:
An anonymous ranter wrote about how terrible it is to have a “homeless” person in one of our local parks (“Asleep in the park,” ER Letters April 28, 2016). How about the real name for it — without means, no food, no family, no hope. Like it or not, homelessness, or whatever you name this tragic condition, is here to stay.The anonymous ranter went on to say, .”this is ridiculous not to have some form of deterrent.” Really? Like what? Barbed wire? Officers waiting with truncheons?
Are there no workhouses? Are there no prisons to alleviate the glut of “extra citizens.”
I would like to suggest the anonymous ranter contact the Los Angeles Mission via their website losangelesmission.org. They provide much needed support to LA’s homeless and are available to help with small community welfare issues. The mission can provide up to 446 beds per night and since January has produced over 575,000 meals to the needy.
Calling the police is always a good idea when you feel threatened or menaced by a starving homeless person. The county maintains a social services provider who can be called upon for individual needs assessments.
There is no quick fix. The only deterrent this reader can think of is generosity, sincerity, compassion and love for every member of society.
Baker D
Hermosa Beach
Not a wonderful job
Dear ER:
Perhaps the fellow human being who has been “occupying” Noble Park for the past three months would have a place to go if our city had resources for the homeless (“Asleep in the park,” ER Letters April 28, 2016). Note that is the duty of the Hermosa police to protect and serve all citizens, including the indigent, though that may not be the “wonderful job” some more housing-fortunate citizens would prefer to see.
Google “homeless shelter Hermosa Beach” and one is referred to a facility in Gardena, over six miles away, or in Los Angeles, over nine miles away. We have NIMBY’d ourselves into the situation where the desperate can no longer be ignored.
Name withheld by request
Hermosa Beach
Sidewalk shuffle
Dear ER:
Sidewalks are forcing mothers and babysitters with strollers, dog walkers, seniors and children at play into the streets, which are overrun by silent electric cars with drivers swigging coffee, texting, emailing, answering calls and blowing through stop signs. There are three laws to keep the sidewalks safe and available, but everywhere I walk my dog I see mothers and babies forced into the streets. I barely escaped death just recently. If you walk in the Beach Cities, you know I speak the ugly truth.
Photos after photos, calls after calls, visits after visits mean nothing to Redondo code enforcement. They won’t even return an email or respond.
David Saber
Redondo Beach
Bottoms up environmentalist
Dear ER
I have always been an environmentalist, but not always to save the planet. I grew up in South Dakota and was taught from an early age to conserve and not waste. Turn off the lights when you leave a room, don’t leave the water running and “eat your food. There are starving children in China.” We never waste food even when we eat at a restaurant so we can’t contribute to Residential Food Waste Recycling Program.
In Manhattan Beach, we recycle, conserve water and have a citywide ban on smoking. (I worked for 34 years in the aerospace industry and was confronted daily with smoke from cigarettes and cigars.)
The Paris Climate Change Agreement is hailed as “historic, durable and ambitious,” but I’m doubtful about the government’s ability to manage the program. Congress should reject the agreement, because it will create higher energy bills for consumers, kill jobs, fund a massive transfer of wealth to green initiatives and have little real impact on climate change. A top-down, concentrated effort to shift away from the use of coal, oil, and natural gas will prevent millions from enjoying the basic energy needs Americans and the developed world takes for granted.
Robert Bush
Manhattan Beach
