Big thinking
Dear ER:
Anyone who believes the alarmist whackiness that an oil well represents a “kill zone” should leave Los Angeles pronto (“Oil’s slippery slope,” ER Letters Nov. 19, 2015). There are over 3,000 operating wells pumping over 15 million barrels a day all over LA. But then again the LaBrea Tar Pits is actually a kill zone, isn’t it? I wonder if the letter writer’s “kill zone” theory is predicated on a dinosaur intellect?
Robert Benz
Hermosa Beach
Carted away
Dear ER:
The Haggen supermarket at 2115 Artesia Blvd is closed with no replacement announced.
A vast area of Redondo Beach is being left without supermarkets. The nearest ones are in Torrance and Hermosa Beach. It creates a great inconvenience for the residents of the area, especially non-drivers, not to mention the inevitable increase in traffic.
Is there anybody in the Redondo Beach City Council who cares about this situation?
Yakov Sheydin
Redondo Beach
ABC – D
Dear ER:
Glad these Alcohol Beverage Control agents spent thousands of our tax dollars on this botched joke of a raid (“Ex-bartender settles drug case, looks to move on with his life,” ER Nov. 19, 2015). Well done. Keep that war on drugs going.
Jamie Brown
Website comment
Missed direction
Dear ER:
Had the city changed mixed use zoning as recommended in 2009 by the Citizens Traffic and Growth Management Committee the Legado development would not be an issue (“Legado developer at ‘wits end,’” ER Nov. 19, 2015). Unfortunately, the Redondo Beach council is pro-developer and refused to act to lower the allowed density. Now their inaction has cost this company a lot of time and money, residents a lot of time and anguish, and exposes the city to a potential lawsuit.
Jim Light
Redondo Beach
Let it be
Dear ER:
Why does anything have to be built on this property (“Legado project denied by Redondo Planning Commission,” ER Nov. 19, 2015)? Restore the buildings that are already there. The Palos Verdes Inn hotel is still closed since the fire back in June. Legado should at least repair it so the employees who are now out of work can get there jobs back.
Suzanne McCune
Website comment
The promised waterfront
Dear ER:
I’ve been a resident of Redondo for 32 years and I honestly started thinking that we were never going to improve the waterfront in my lifetime. Now we have the chance and I can’t believe that people are trying to get in the way. We’ve done everything we’re supposed to as a community to ensure that it fits within our vision and benefits us. We as voters approved Measure G in 2010, which set the guidelines for development in the area and our City set up a contract with CenterCal that gets them to invest millions in the waterfront, particularly in our crumbling infrastructure, taking the burden off of us, since we don’t have the money anyway.
I’m tired of waiting, and I know lots of other residents agree. We have found a project that works. The recently released Draft Environmental Impact Report proves this with hardly any environmental impacts and so many benefits. Let’s support The Waterfront and not miss this important and historic opportunity for our community.
Steve Goldstein
Redondo Beach
An Olympic dream
Dear ER:
Redondo Beach is missing the boat on the waterfront (“CenterCal releases ‘virtual tour’ of Redondo Beach Waterfront project” ERNews.com Nov. 16, 2015). The South Bay became known as a “waterman’s nursery” when George Freeth was invited to demonstrate surfing in Redondo Beach. The South Bay subsequently developed a large number of U.S. Olympic swimmers due to the ocean and pools in this area. Redondo Beach should develop a competitive swimming venue at the Seaside Lagoon. The city already has the hotels and eateries. It could have year round swim training in one pool, including physical therapy and rehab of injuries in another pool and youth swim lessons along with a fun lazy river or slide for the children in the summer. La Mirada has such a facility. We need one in our beach cities. This would actually bring in people for something other than vacations all year round. It could bring in major events, perhaps even the Olympics.
Shannon Davey
Hermosa Beach
Video critique
Dear ER:
I live across the street from the proposed CenterCal Waterfront Redondo development area. (“CenterCal releases ‘virtual tour’ of Redondo Beach Waterfront project” ERNews.com Nov. 16, 2015). Every day in summer and any sunny day the rest of the year, the waterfront is packed. On Saturday afternoons, Catalina Ave. near the pier is gridlocked and there is no parking anywhere near the current waterfront. I ride my bike on the bike path that goes through the pier parking structure, and I can see that the parking structure is full. I travel along the bike path in front of Veterans Park and it is wall to wall people. Families come from all over Southern California with their picnics and shade canopies and spend the day at the beach and on the pier.
After watching CenterCal’s video, a few things stood out.
First, they are talking about bringing people to the pier area. When I looked closely, I could see that they want to replace the people who enjoy the area now with wealthy white people. They did not show the current crowds that come to the pier from places like Riverside, Alhambra, Carson, and Lakewood. They do not show a culturally or an economically diverse crowd.
Second, I see a massive wall of buildings blocking views and breezes from the ocean. They put little pocket parks and curved walkways in their plan. But the main thing this development means to Redondo Beach residents is more construction blocking views and access to the water.
Third, why would anyone besides the builders want another hotel here? They are building the huge new Shade Hotel, which already blocks ocean views as you drive along Harbor Drive. It would have been nice if, after completely messing up the traffic flow on Harbor Drive, they had let us keep the view of the harbor and boats. Instead we have a view of a three or four story concrete block wall, as we sit in our cars going nowhere. We already have Crowne Plaza, The Redondo, The Portofino and another Shade in the immediate harbor area. Then we have many smaller hotels along Pacific Coast Highway, such as the Ramada Express and Holiday Inn Express. It’s another example of developers building something that isn’t needed or wanted and creating traffic flow problems,
When this project is combined with that atrocity that Legado is trying to develop at the Plush Horse site, South Redondo Beach will be ruined. We might as all live next door to the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica. Bye bye beach town!
Niecia Staggs
Redondo Beach
Park for waves
Dear ER:
I don’t see anything reflecting back on the heritage I remember (“CenterCal releases ‘virtual tour’ of Redondo Beach Waterfront project” ERNews.com Nov. 16, 2015). Fishing off the pier? When I was young and went to the pier folks lined up fishing off the whole length of the pier. The video shows no one fishing except one person who is overhead casting, which has always been prohibited.Why not put in a fishery breeding program and an educational program about the bay? There are so many folks who know Redondo for surfing. George Freeth introduced surfing to the West Coast in Redondo. Put in a surfing reef or wave park. There are new technologies to make waves that could be put where the salt water lagoon is currently located. I don’t want to sound cranky but it does look like a way to use a wonderful location with a lot of history.
Shawn Moore
Website comment
