Tee off the green
Dear ER:
Metlox has space that was set aside for valet operations years ago (Manhattan Council to consider golf car fleet,” ER 26, 2016). No current parking spaces would be eliminated. This is an excellent, green solution to our parking problem. The Metlox location would serve as a charging station. Residents and visitors can ride the service for free, versus having to drive, park and pay. This is an excellent, creative, mitigation effort to our upcoming summer (and all year long) parking shortage, at no cost to the city or residents.
Kyle King
Manhattan Beach
Tom’s way
Dear ER:
Tommy Thompson has been an icon in Hermosa Beach since the day he started because of his warm heart and smile. I had the pleasure of working with him over most of his career and enjoyed every minute of it. He will truly be missed by everyone who knows him in the city of works. Let us hope he has inspired other, younger officers to be like him.
Christopher Cox
Facebook comment
Time to move on
Dear ER:
Now that the Hermosa School District’s pet project Measure S has passed, I am hopeful the Board can start focusing on District issues that will actually have an immediate impact on current students, versus the next generation of students (“Hermosa voters pass school bond,” ER June 9, 2016). This should include plans to address state student funding. Hermosa is one of the lowest funded districts in the state (and is going down in the coming years), implementing cutting edge teaching methods such as the flipped classroom, decreasing the hours of homework/quizzes on students and doing a cost/benefit analysis of standardized testing in our schools. How much funding would we really lose if we eliminated these tests?. The district should also investigate tapping into corporate sponsors outside Hermosa Beach, particularly Silicon Beach, entertainment companies and professional sports teams, through parents and the Hermosa Beach Education Foundation. However, as my property value is going to skyrocket since the bond passed, we could always trade up to a house in a new district that has already addressed these issues.
Tom Lewis
Hermosa Beach
Grant the devil his due
Dear ER:
Cash strapped Hermosa has applied for a grant from SCAG titled “Sustainable Communities Planning Grants and Incentives Program (Prop 84), SGC.” The grant is centered on the vision of a “Comprehensive Blueprint for Sustainability and a Low Carbon Future.” Funds requested: $410,400.00 with Hermosa’s match of $346,845.00.
The application has the following requirements: Reduce greenhouse gas on a permanent basis; address climate change impacts; serve economically disadvantaged community; increase housing affordability; promote infill and compact development; reduce auto usage and fuel consumption; adopt a new housing element, which states a new affordable housing overlay that designates 9 acres for exclusively lower income housing with density up to 43 units/acre; focus on reducing energy use for mobility and buildings; water conservation; reduce solid waste; decrease Community electricity by 25 percent.
I understand Hermosa has applied for several more grants from various agencies/boards. These grants all come with requirements. Is the public having any input into keeping Hermosa Hermosa? The city should make these grant applications available for reading by all residents so they can see what local control they are giving up.
Getchell Wilson,
Hermosa Beach
Republicans at the beach
Dear ER:
Congratulations to Los Angeles County Fourth District Supervisorial candidate Steve Napolitano and 66th State Assembly candidate David Hadley for their successful primary campaigns, which qualified them for the general election in November. They will need the voters’s continued support both financially and morally to be elected to serve the Beach Cities.
Napolitano is familiar with the Fourth District, both as Senior Deputy to incumbent Supervisor Don Knabe and also as a three term Manhattan Beach councilman.
He will keep our neighborhoods safe, promote jobs, protect our environment, rebuild our infrastructure, while supporting early childhood education and protecting seniors, veterans and the homeless. The Fourth District represents about two million people. Over 160 current and former local elected officials in Los Angeles County endorse Steve Napolitano for Supervisor, because he can be trusted to be fiscally responsible and hold government accountable.
Assemblyman David Hadley has protected Proposition 13 and votes against raising property taxes, cares about helping our middle class families, provides dignified leadership and is admired for his approach to solving problems.
Vote Tuesday November 8, 2016
Robert Bush
Manhattan Beach
Behind the curtain
Dear ER:
Have you ever applied for a credit card? Rented an apartment? Leased a car? Got a bank loan for a house? In all of these basic transactions, the financial institution performs a credit check.
In Redondo Beach, the majority of City Council thought this standard due diligence was a good idea. At the May 17 City Council meeting, Councilmembers Steve Sammarco, Bill Brand and Christian Horvath all voted to have city staff perform a financial analysis on CenterCal and Westport Capital to ensure these companies are capable of completing the $400 million CenterCal Waterfront project. Councilmember Laura Emdee voted against this due diligence. This gargantuan project is risky for CenterCal, which has never developed a waterfront and Westport Capital, which must dedicate a large portion of their $1.8 billion in assets to this project. In fact, CenterCal has refused to guarantee lease rates and locations for existing tenants and refused to commit to owning the development for any minimum period of time on their 99-year lease. The risk is on taxpayers, businesses and the city.
Despite a 3-1 vote in favor of due diligence, Mayor Steve Aspel chose the “ignorance is bliss” approach and vetoed the motion. Mayor Aspel selected to protect his CenterCal friends who spent thousands to get him elected. Is Mayor Aspel afraid of what due diligence would discover? Revitalize not supersize?
Martin F. Holmes
Co-Founder, Rescue Our Waterfront
Redondo Beach
Talk and listen
Dear ER
Redondo Beach has been working on pier revitalization for many years now. The pier and surrounding areas clearly need improvements and modernization. The Waterfront plan has been four or five years in development. Residents have been actively involved at every point in the plan’s development. I believe Center Cal has done a good job listening to suggestions and incorporating many into the current plan. While no large undertaking can completely satisfy everyone’s desires, I think the Waterfront plan will go a long way in that direction. The new activities and abundant public areas at the water’s edge will be great to experience. I hope everyone can look at this as a positive step in making the pier area a more attractive and exciting place for visitors and residents alike.
David Goodman
Redondo Beach
Reserved for the fish, people
Dear ER:
So CenterCal is demolishing a landmark pier (the public fishing pier known as Polly’s Pier) and then just because it “might work out to also be a pier where water taxis could depart from,” CenterCal wants to build a new pier. Is the public supposed to believe that CenerCal is being nice, or have CenterCal and city officials actually read Chapter 57 of the State Statutes of 1915, which says, “the absolute right to fish in the water of said harbor, with the right of convenient access to said waters over said lands for said purpose is hereby reserved to the people of the State of California.”
Chapter 57 also states,”The legislature conveyed certain tide and submerged lands in trust to the City of Redondo Beach for the purposes therein stated, primarily for the promotion and accommodation of commerce navigation and fisheries.” Nowhere in Chapter 57 does it say that the purposes are shopping, eating and movie going. Which by all accounts are the only activities that CenterCal originally proposed in their “Lifestyle Center,” called The Waterfront. It sounds to me like keeping and or building a new sports fishing pier is state mandated, not a developer being nice.
Laura D. Zahn
Redondo Beach
