Letters to the Editor 4-25-19

Closing time

Dear ER:

Thanks to reporter David Mendez’ good reporting it is apparent that Redondo Beach Councilman Nils Nehrenheim knew he had been banned from Hennessey’s establishments, but Nehrenheim entered anyway and became belligerent “Bar Hopping – Nehrenheim’s civil rights defense 86’d in Hennessey’s lawsuit,” ER April 18, 2019].

Now there is no reason why Paul Hennessey should back down or settle this lawsuit out of court. Our elected leaders must be held to account for their actions and the public should question if these individuals should be leaders at all. I wonder if the Redondo City Attorney’s Office can continue its legal defense of Nehrenheim if the defendant wants to settle out of court. I for one do not want my tax money spent to pay for the actions of an individual who is clearly out of control. If the legal judgement goes against Nehrenheim, he should resign as councilman immediately.

Paul Moses

Web comment

Seek outside help

Dear ER:

Redondo Beach Police Chief Robert Metzger provided his expert assessment regarding a proposal to explore replacing the city Fire Department. Then we found out he made assumptions without checking facts [“Redondo presses on with County Fire survey,” ER April 18, 2019]. The Chief’s financial analysis was unimpressive — a simple table with essentially no supporting information. Nine of his 18 financial assumptions are simply wrong — a multi-million dollar miscalculation.

The council discussed “what if we do this,” yet they and the staff failed to discuss “what if we don’t do this.” The Council voted to move forward with “Phase 2” of the county assessment but this will only get us a more detailed view of the LA County costs. A decision either way will affect our City for years into the future.

For these and so many other reasons I call on the City Council to hire an outside expert to provide guidance in this process.

Mel Samples

Redondo Beach

Open City Hall

Dear ER:

The Hermosa Beach City Council should vote to open City Hall on a Friday, as Manhattan Beach voted to do last week. City Hall is there to serve the community and being only open four days a week does not achieve this goal. Residents before out-of-town employees.

Tony Edwards

Hermosa Beach

BoHo Bay

Dear ER:

I like the selections for the next phase [“Mural to draw on Hermosa Beach’s bohemian roots,” ER April 18, 2019]. I raised my daughter in the shadow of Either/Or. It’s something to look forward to on my next visit home.

Virginia Lyon

Web comment

Rent’s too high

Dear ER:

The awesome old school vibes are gone now. I sure miss it [“Mural to draw on Hermosa Beach’s bohemian roots,” ER April 18, 2019]. Pricing the rents so high ran the good guys moved out. Old school rules. Looking forward to seeing the mural.

Diane Shaver

Facebook comment

Development risks

Dear ER:

Councilman Christian Horvath, Redondo Beach is in a pickle [“Redondo Beach’s lease freeze has tenants in limbo,” ER April 11, 2019] because of the City Council’s failure to exercise due diligence. Will the pickle (lease freeze) affect servicing of the 30-year life of the revenue bond approved by the City Council? In the same article, Center Cal CEO Fred Bruning said the key to any deal is that Westport Capital recoups its investment. I would think that as a developer, Westport Capital has weighed the risk (reward-loss benefit) of the project. If Westport Capital wanted to avoid risk, it should have invested in U.S. Treasuries bonds. Yes, the returns are low but the risk is also low.

George Ikeda

Redondo Beach

Yuppied out

Dear ER:

Hermosa is all yuppied out [“Mural to draw on Hermosa Beach’s bohemian roots,” ER April 18, 2019]. Remember all the surf shop, head shops, taco joints and Friday night surf films at Pier Avenue Junior High School? I met Dewey Weber a couple times, ditched school to go with a buddy to watch his board get shaped at Hap Jacobs’. Had a Unity board I really liked.

Brett Williams

Web comment

Hermosa flashback

Dear ER:

I have many fond memories of going to The Lighthouse with my parents over the years we lived in both Hermosa and Redondo. The next time I go out for a visit I will definitely head straight to Pier Avenue and have a nice flashback [“Mural to draw on Hermosa Beach’s bohemian roots,” ER April 18, 2019].

Dana Middleton

Web comment

Heritage oversight

Dear ER:

The mural sounds great, but the finished product shouldn’t leave out the Bijou, an art house movie theater that was a fundamental part of Hermosa’s creative past [“Mural to draw on Hermosa Beach’s bohemian roots,” ER April 18, 2019].

Ivan G. Goldman

Web comment

Celebrating Easter

Dear ER:

Thank you for the excellent coverage of the Easter Sunrise services of Hope Chapel and Our Lady of Guadalupe churches [“Risen Christ celebrated during Hermosa Beach Easter Sunrise services,” ER April 18, 2019]. It was a beautiful morning to be out early and enjoy the celebrations.

Dennis Duke Noir

Web comment

Reason for the season

Dear ER:

Reason 1 million for why I love the South Bay. So beautiful [“Risen Christ celebrated during Hermosa Beach Easter Sunrise services,” ER April 18, 2019].

Elizabeth Kanyer

Facebook comment

Spend the money

Dear ER:

Spend $26,000 on an LA County Fire Department study that could potentially save $6 million [“Redondo presses on with County Fire survey,” ER April 18, 2019]. Not sure why the Redondo Beach City Council even hesitated in this effort, or why a former fire chief was allowed to filibuster the council meeting for nearly 30 minutes making up all sorts of unsubstantiated reasons to stop it. We potentially could improve current service and response times, provide more advanced equipment, better training for our Fire Department personnel, and increased savings to the city in a time we are facing a budget shortfall.

Add to that, 70 percent of the Fire Department union supports the study, so that means even better motivated staff and increased compensation. Seems like a no-brainer to explore and see if it’s something than could work.

After a filibuster the council did finally vote to proceed on a 3-2 vote. When we get the study back we need to have an independent expert check the report and decide what is best for our city, not staff and department management who have already shown their bias.

Wayne Craig

Redondo Beach

 

Comments:

comments so far. Comments posted to EasyReaderNews.com may be reprinted in the Easy Reader print edition, which is published each Thursday.