District border not a wall
Dear ER:
The primary service recipients of Beach Cities Health District, its programs, and its services have always been – and continue to be, now and in the future – the residents of Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, and Redondo Beach (“Shing light in the district, ER Letters April 3, 2025). Our mission and primary focus have always been to enhance the health of those residing in the Beach Cities.
Do residents of other cities sometimes benefit from our services? Without a doubt. Many Torrance residents are members at our Center for Health & Fitness. Residents of Torrance and other communities are frequent participants at our Summer Free Fitness sessions, alongside many Beach Cities residents. Parents from all over the South Bay take their children to AdventurePlex, our children’s play facility in Manhattan Beach.
A Superior Court filing from 1957 states the South Bay Hospital District was formed “in order to provide hospital facilities for the various residents who reside within the South Bay Hospital District.” Terms like “solely” or “exclusively” are nowhere to be found in that filing, and subsequent legislative actions have given healthcare districts great leeway in serving their constituents (The Local Health Care District Law in 1994 and the Cortese-Knox-Hertzberg Local Government Reorganization Act of 2000 are two examples.)
The Los Angeles County Local Area Formation Commission, or LAFCO, has jurisdiction over BCHD. LAFCO’s staff report from BCHD’s most recent review in 2022 points out the impracticality of a residency requirement that one neighbor wants: “The (Cortese-Knox-Hertzberg Local Government Reorganization) Act does not impose a “residency” requirement for an individual who receives services within the boundary of a special district – doing so would be both contrary to State law, and is impractical.”
We at BCHD have pointed this out multiple times, but it has fallen on deaf ears. A recent letter in the Easy Reader is just another example of the disinformation campaign against BCHD, and is based on the same argument the letter writer has made for the past four years, namely that the District is prohibited from serving residents outside the District based on a court proceeding in 1957 that authorized the District to acquire the hospital property by eminent domain.
In multiple public comments, he has cited language in the court pleadings that state the hospital site was condemned “for the benefit of the Residents who reside within the District.” He conveniently omits the language of the Court’s Final Judgment of Condemnation, which states the condemnation was ”for the construction, completion and operation of a hospital thereon in order to provide hospital services for the residents of said district and others…” (emphasis added). So, even as early as the 1950s, the District had the authority to serve non-residents.
Let me assure the citizens of the Beach Cities: Beach Cities Health District is in full compliance with the laws governing Health Care Districts and public agencies.
We at BCHD are committed to serving the residents of Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach, and will continue to “create a healthy beach community” for many years to come.
Tom Bakaly, CEO
Beach Cities Health District
Hermosa Beach Resident
Call tech support
Dear ER:
Manhattan Beach residents expect their City to do everything in its power to stop the building of high-rise apartments along the Sepulveda Corridor, in the backyards of neighbors and friends. State law and our municipal code provides the City with the discretion to do so. If the City makes a finding that a high-rise apartment project would “have a specific, adverse impact upon the health, safety or physical environment, and for which there is no feasible method to satisfactorily mitigate or avoid the specific adverse impact,” then the City can deny approval of the project. However, that finding must be “…based on objective, identifiable written public health or safety standards, policies or conditions….” To date, the City has no idea whatsoever what those “…written public health or safety standards, policies or conditions…” might be. Nada. Here is the solution to that problem:
Prior to approving the current project at 2301 N. Sepulveda Boulevard, the City should ask the State’s Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) for “technical advice” for what are the applicable “…written public health or safety standards, policies or conditions…” that can used to deny a proposed high-rise apartment project on the State’s Highway 1, Sepulveda Boulevard. It’s that simple. When considering opposing a high-rise project in the City of Pacific Beach that City Council asked for such “technical advice.” I hope our City Council directs its staff to make that request as soon as possible. After all, it is clear the building of high-rise apartments in the backyards of our residents may have several adverse impacts upon their health, safety or physical environment.
Mark Burton
Manhattan Beach
South Bay Hands Off!
(ER Facebook, April 3, 2025)
Dear ER:
I am so glad these photos of the Hands Off! demonstration are of happy people handling this miserable situation like adults in protesting the horrors of this sociopath’s second presidency (“Hands Off! Protests, “ER Facebook). Images of his supporters protesting are so filled with anger and hate. Thank you photographer Chris Miller for capturing the spirit of the Hands Off! protest.
Jason Beeching
ERFB comment
Dear ER:
So let me get this straight (“Hands Off! Protests, “ER Facebook). People are protesting in favor of stopping exposure of money laundering, fraud, and waste of their own money? These are also the same sheep who fell hook, line, and sinker for the COVID-19 government psyop and every other sham presented to them. It’s like watching sheep protect the wolves preying upon them.
Jeff Croucier
ERFB comment
RB, HB Councils row over ROW
(ER April 3, 2025)
Dear ER:
I live in north Redondo and would love an extended rail line. It would make getting to and from the airport so convenient.
Nate Wooding
ERFB comment
Dear ER:
The plaintive wailing about a lack of public transit goes on forever while insular communities retreat into their NIMBY shells and throw up obstacles wherever they can. LA metro is a shamefully incomplete system. The K line stops short of connecting with the C line. The C line ends in the wastelands of north Redondo Beach and neither of them extends to the airport. Other cities like Seattle, Portland, Denver, Chicago, and finally NYC and San Francisco have rail service to their airports (except to New York LaGuardia).
Bob Brewer
ERFB comment
Dear ER
The Metro train belongs on Hawthorne Boulevard. Not in the middle of these quaint neighborhoods, where families live. Would you want this along the back of your property?
Valerie Lefranc Lee
ERFB comment
Dear ER:
Those tracks were there long before those whining about trains. If you don’t want a train running through your backyard don’t move into a place with trains running through the backyards. Super simple concept.
Mark Gehley
ERFB comment
Dear ER:
How about metro propose a train through Hermosa and seeing how they like it?
Valerie Lefranc Lee
ERFB comment
Dear ER:
We have to get out of our cars folks! That’s what’s killing us!
Sylvia Cameron
ERFB comment
Short term v. long term rentals
Dear ER:
What’s wrong with people making money in property they own as long as the laws are followed and neighbors respected.
Jerry Patrick Wood
ERFB comment
Dear ER:
I’ve been renting out 30-plus day furnished rentals since 2003. My mother did this type of rental on and off starting in the early 1960s. It’s not just short-term or month-to-month renters who cause problems. Issues can arise with any type of lease. This is why good management is important and the city must have regulations in place to mitigate issues. I know of cases where tenants with year-long leases hosted loud keg parties over and over, flowing on to The Strand, Despite complaints from neighbors, nothing was done. I also know of a local resident who repeatedly made erroneous complaints about short-term rentals, but later became a broker for STRs in Manhattan Beach. Banning all short-term rentals isn’t the solution. Instead, we need clear, well-enforced management rules and city regulations.
After all, not all families can afford two or three hotel rooms, but might be able to stay together in a three to four bedroom home. As long as renters are following the rules, keeping noise levels down, and being respectful to the neighbors, the property owner should have the freedom to choose their tenants, whether it’s a long-term resident or a visiting family.
Suzanne Littrell
ERFB comment
Dear ER:
Short Term Rentals decrease our housing supply, drive up rents for our essential workers… We’re already in an affordable housing crisis…the Airbnbs are making it worse.
Ronson Chu
ERFB comment
Dear ER:
Why is it illegal to home share? Because five people on a city council voted that way 10 years ago. I don’t recall residents having a vote on the matter. In fact, hundreds of Hermosa residents spoke in favor of reasonable regulations for STRs.
Josh Fredricks
ERFB comment
Dear ER:
I’m personally for banning under 30 days, but how are we going to win this lawsuit when MB just lost its lawsuit? How much money are we about to waste?
Christine Andersen Shultz
ERFB comment
