Keep on biking
Dear ER:
These bike lanes are awesome (Hermosa Beach trades car lanes for bike lanes,” ER Feb. 18, 2021). I now bike to get my groceries at Trader Joe’s and ride down through downtown. I have discovered new businesses. Riding through on a bicycle will increase slow traffic for businesses. Good job Hermosa. Keep the lanes.
Chris Maloney
Hermosa Beach
Fish smell in the harbor
Dear ER:
Why does Redondo Beach City Attorney Mike Webb keep bragging about how well the Building a Better Redondo lawsuit is going when it’s going nowhere and the private attorneys he hired to fight it keep billing more hours (“Building a Better Redondo prevails,” ER Feb. 25, 2021).? Why is a substantial section of our multi-million-dollar waterfront a slum? We should either let businesses build it up into a thriving tax-positive area or tear it down and let the gulls have it. Watching it deteriorate is painful. Why don’t the mayor and city council release a report on how much this lawsuit has cost us thus far? The report should also make note of Webb’s salary. Something’s rotten in Redondo.
Ivan Goldman
Redondo Beach
Stuck in court
Dear ER:
The Redondo Beach harbor is deteriorating because certain of the former Council (Horvath, Emdee, Barbee, and Aspel) refused to address substantive problems with the CenterCal’s compliance with local and state laws (“Building a Better Redondo prevails,” ER Feb. 25, 2021). They knowingly passed an EIR that violated CEQA and a project that violated our own LCP, zoning and the California Coastal Act. It is telling that they refused to even acknowledge the issues when an independent judge and all 11 Coastal Commissioners could find so many obvious issues with the project and the EIR. Their refusal to provide that check and balance to ensure compliance squanders work that started nine years ago. To add insult to injury, that same Council passed a commitment to lease to CenterCal needlessly and prematurely. That commitment served as the basis for CenterCal’s $15 million lawsuit that has been preventing any forward movement in the harbor. Had that Council not passed the commitment to lease, we’d be moving forward today.
Jim Light
Redondo Beach
Advise, don’t consent
Dear ER:
Why does the Manhattan Beach City Council subcommittee continue to meet with only select, invited guests, with no public posting of their meetings, no opportunity for input from the general public, and with no published meeting agendas or meeting minutes (“Manhattan Avenue Closure ends,” ER Feb. 25, 2021)? Why was this Council subcommittee so uniquely granted complete authority for decision making, rather than directed to serve as an advisory body to the full, elected City Council?
When the pandemic started, our dedicated City Council met multiple times per week to address pandemic related needs in the necessary, timely fashion. If timeliness is still the issue, the entire Council has thankfully shown the ability and willingness to meet as often as necessary during this uniquely demanding time. This subcommittee’s ruling to convert outdoor dining areas carefully managed by restaurateurs to ‘city parklets’ left wholly unmanaged by the city brought easily anticipated problems that served to further threaten public health and safety, even bringing public criticism from our LA County Department of Public Health. This subcommittee’s ruling to completely close off a few blocks of a primary downtown street to traffic and parking also brought easily anticipated problems, for residents and businesses alike, that far outweighed any benefits to a very select few businesses. Our city councils are elected bodies of five voting members for very good reason. As regularly proven, it’s plenty enough of a challenge to get five councilmembers to make well founded decisions. This council’s precedent setting decision to empower just two councilmembers with the full authority of those five not only flies in the face of our local form of governance, but clearly serves as a significantly greater invitation to bad public decision making. With public health and safety already threatened by a continuing pandemic, there has never been a time when such an inappropriate and precedent setting change in public decision making has been more unwelcome, not to mention more risky to the public health and safety of our community. Our City Council must immediately remove the precedent setting, rulemaking authority of this subcommittee, and redirect its two members to serve as any other council subcommittee — as an advisory body to our full, elected, representative City Council.
Gerry O’Connor
Manhattan Beach
Non on our dime
Dear ER:
The Beach Cities Health District is 100 percent funded by Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach taxpayers. BCHD has probably spent 20 percent of our $14 million in annual taxpayer money on non residents in the past 12 months (“Teachers to receive vaccinations at BCHD’s AdventurePlex,” ERNews.com). It is the Los Angeles County Public Health Departments job to pay to test and vaccinate Los Angeles County residents. BCHD’s job is to test and vaccinate Hermosa, Manhattan and Redondo residents, not non residents. If there are not reimbursement agreements in place with the County and those school districts outside of the three Beach Cities, it’s time to take this to a civil grand jury for investigation. Hermosa doesn’t pave the streets in Palos Verdes. Why should it vaccinate teachers outside the BCHD district?
Mark Nelson
Redondo Beach
Bruce’s Park’s fine
Dear ER:
Last week, Christopher O’Brien complained about the state of the park at Bruce’s Beach, and promoted his idea for a large-scale development on the property. Really, a multi-story hotel (and inevitable multi-story private parking structure) located between Highland and Manhattan Avenues in the middle of a residential zone? Doesn’t O’Brien realize that Bruce’s Beach represents the last public beachfront green space in all of Manhattan Beach? Does he not realize that although the beach is beautiful, not everyone enjoys walking, sitting, and playing on sand, especially when it gets very hot during the summer? Does he not realize that much of Manhattan Beach was originally built on steep sand dunes, and not much can be done about that now. (I agree that basketball courts are not the best use of the property, but surely some creative planners could design something more welcoming and attractive — perhaps a small outdoor stage or amphitheater for local performing artists)? What O’Brien does not realize is that the park at Bruce’s Beach provides a much needed haven for quiet reflection and enjoying gorgeous sunset views, and its legacy and history serve as a reminder that we need to continue building a socially and environmentally just and equitable society. Now that’s something the late, great Ray Charles would sing about.
Brian Hittelman
Redondo Beach
Break the cycle
Dear ER:
Growing up in the South Bay as a Chilean/Latino American, I experienced a lot of hassle and racism from my fellow classmates when I attended Palos Verdes High School (“Localism at the Manhattan pier triggers racial reckoning,” ER Feb. 25, 2021). In my experience, surfing localism has been such a drag. It seems to me that if you are not white, you are not welcome to surf these areas. To me personally, it has been a huge discouragement. Until now. Truth has been spoken through @blacksand.surf, and by t Easy Reader. I believe @blacksand.surf is changing the barriers of this hateful “Only Locals” mentality that has surrounded the South Bay for a very long time. Without social media, and awareness from the article written in EasyReader, I don’t think any of this would be possible. This South Bay Racism and this Locals Only mentality needs to stop. You guys are breaking this invisible barrier that has overshadowed the South Bay for decades.
EasyReaderNews.com
