Letters to the Editor 3-16-23

Time management

Dear ER:

At the last Hermosa Beach city council meeting, Councilmember Mike Detoy made the astute observation that the Employee Parking Permit issue was too complicated to be discussed at 12:30 a.m. Wednesday (“Slow walking parking permits,” ER March 2, 2023). At the same meeting earlier, a three hour discussion took place prior to a vote regarding residential parking permits. This should never happen. It appears that the council needs a lesson on how to run an efficient meeting. Of course, this starts with having a reasonable number of items on the council agenda. The public is there for a reason. Their time is important too. It’s not prudent to drag things out until most of the public goes home, or chooses to speak ahead of time and misses a real-time response. There should be a reasonable end time for every meeting. I’d say 10 pm. Excessive bloviating shouldn’t happen. Stay on topic, this is the mayor’s responsibility. Only schedule what can reasonably be accomplished, and reschedule everything else. Have more than one meeting if need be. You’ll have more people take part in the political process, and that should be the goal. 

Gary Brown

Hermosa Beach

 

E-bike sense

Dear ER:

I salute Hermosa Cyclery’s policy on e-bikes (“Best of the Beach 2023 Winners,” ER March 9, 2023). Other e-bike dealers near the Strand don’t advise their customers that they are illegal on the Strand. Or, if they do, they are quick to point out that the law is not enforced so their customers can ride them there if they desire. People are going to be hurt riding e-bikes illegally.

Robert Aronoff

Hermosa Beach.

 

Low bridging HighRose

Dear ER:

Manhattan Beach was served a new lawsuit by the nonprofit Manhattan Beach Community group, Chill The Build (CTB), on March 6, 2023. The suit addresses the Proposed HighRose/Verandas project. CTB isn’t looking for a $52 million  payout like others who have been reported on by the Easy Reader, but they are seeking compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and other health and safety requirements. Many community members have expressed concerns about these issues to the City Council in many meetings and letters, so it’s appreciated to see legal experts stepping in to help resolve the conflict and witnessing democracy at work and serving the underdog. If you wish to see a copy of the lawsuit that was filed, you can find it on ChillTheBuild.com. It looks like the HighRose housing project might not be a done deal yet. If community members want to support CTB efforts, donations can be made on their website and they will keep fighting for residents.

Rick Ralph

Manhattan Beach

 

Hawthorne ‘highway’

Dear ER:

Hawthorne Boulevard is already a right of way for commuters and auto traffic (“Opposite slides of the track,” ER March 2, 2023). Building the Green Line tracks above this familiar traffic corridor is a no brainer. It’s far away from residences and close to businesses. The alternative, behind people’s homes? Trains every five to 10 minutes? Welcome to a lack of caring and attention to the home environment, and neighborhoods. People won’t even be able to carry on conversations in their own homes, let alone with neighbors along on their tree-lined streets. 

Bev Morse

Redondo Beach

 

Blue Zone the Green Line

Dear ER

Now is the time for the residents of North Redondo Beach to get a return on the millions of dollars taxpayers have invested in Blue Zones through the Beach Cities Health District BCHD. Undeniably, (try any Google search) Blue Zones is about stress management and reduction. Blue Zones touts that chronic stress is the “silent killer.” Blue Zones stopped a road widening project with the argument that it would cause noise that would cause stress in one of its first demonstration projects. Is there any doubt at all that the Green Line running 24/7/365 within 50 to 100 feet of many homes would generate noise and therefore chronic stress? Even Metro admits that the noise and vibration would be “significant and unavoidable.” That’s CEQA-speak for “we’re willing to exchange your health for our project”. March 27 is the deadline for public comments on the Green Line’s draft environmental impact report. We need to support our neighbors by filing comments against sacrificing the health and well-being of our neighbors for generations with chronic stress and noise that can be avoided by using a different route. A brief set of comments is available that you can file with Metro at https://bit.ly/DEIR-Defects-1 

According to BCHD’s star program Blue Zones, “Exposure to stress in early life can alter the normal development and physiology … resulting in … lifelong health risks in offspring.” The Green Line project is not some mere inconvenience. Blue Zones shows that it will sacrifice the current residents and generations to come by forever altering their development and increasing their risks of poor health. We must implore the health district to provide an immediate return-on-investment from Blue Zones and file comments against Metro’s extension of the Green Line through North Redondo Beach neighborhoods before March 27. Don’t wait, file comments now.

Mark Nelson

Redondo Beach

 

Hospital history

Dear ER:

There aren’t very many people who remember the story of the South Bay Hospital District. The hospital district was formed to build and run a hospital for the residents, not the entire area. So voters bought land, paid for the hospital, and paid all the bills and workers from the 1950s until 1984. The hospital lost money all through the 1970s and had to be shut down in 1984 or go broke. Fortunately a private company rented the hospital, cleaned house and kept some of the services running as a private hospital until 1998. Beach Cities is just South Bay Hospital with a name change in 1994. Even though they no longer had the public hospital, the board of directors decided to keep the taxpayer money and land and do whatever they wanted. The health district no longer meets a single one of the requirements that voters approved when they approved the hospital. It doesn’t own or operate a public hospital and it’s become a commercial business that works outside the voters’ cities. I understand that the district wants to get bigger and bigger, since that’s what government agencies do. What I will never understand is why the district continued to exist when so many of us protested in the 1990s to either keep the hospital running or shut it down. They seem to have created some sort of private company that no longer works for the residents.

R A Loeffler

Hermosa Beach

 

Spot remembered

Dear ER:

I cannot tell you how much I will miss The Spot (“Vegetarian restaurant in Hermosa closes after four decades,” ER March 2, 2023). The food and service has always been amazing. I have too many fond memories from The Spot to mention. I wish Tonya and her family as much joy in their lives as the restaurant brought to its patrons and then some.

Charlen Wong 

ERNews comment

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