Letters to the Editor 9-27-18
Confused in Redondo
Dear ER:
I’m confused. Some of the same people accusing Mayor Brand of “not compromising with CenterCal” also criticize him for meeting with “real estate developers” and “construction companies,” in the same letter. Sounds to me like the mayor is just trying to get things done.
Ross Yosnow
Redondo Beach
Save Hermosa Plaza
Dear ER:
Taxpayer-funded council-member community meetings, intended for people to give feedback to elected officials, instead have developers of the proposed Hermosa Strand and Pier Hotel promoting their project. It’s no wonder why people think city officials claim “this is a done deal.”
Fear no longer! Nothing could be further from the truth! The Project’s Environmental Review (EIR) is out for comments.
The EIR has two major flaws and you can make a difference:
- The developer decided to not pursue an initiative to give them a higher height limit, so they instead are seeking to ask City Council to give them the existing Beach Drive and 13th Court rights-of-way. This gift of public land is wrong and not needed to finance a development. The right-of-ways can be used to extend ocean views and public plazas to promote quaint businesses on walk streets. These rights-of-way, similar to those on many walk streets, existed long before the land was sold. These rights-of-way are used daily by thousands as an alternate to the Strand.
- The proposal blocks existing public plaza views of the ocean protected by the Coastal Act. The project needs to be set back from the property line edge or revised to accommodate this view.
I’m sure with such changes made, we would have a scaled-down project that the community can be proud of. View the EIR at hermosabch.org or at a volunteer table. Attend Planning Commission info meeting Oct. 1. Email comments to hotelEIR@hermosabch.org before Oct 15. (facebook.com/SaveHermosaPlaza)
Dean Francois,
Hermosa Beach
Homeless by choice
Dear ER:
It is everywhere, and back in the day Manhattan Beach did not allow any of these “urban campers” [“Anti-camping ordinances aimed at homeless under scrutiny,” ER Sept. 20, 2018].
We weren’t even allowed to park overnight. We are enabling unmotivated, drug-crazed people. Stop feeling sorry for these people, they are mostly homeless by choice. I know of five people right now who come from upper middle class families who continue to live on the street by choice, even though their parents have gotten them apartments.
Rebecca O’Reilly Boyle
Facebook comment
Roots of the crisis
Dear ER:
The City of LA and City Attorney Mike Feuer need to hold the incorporated cities throughout LA County responsible for their fair share of the homeless crisis in our region [“Anti-camping ordinances aimed at homeless under scrutiny,” ER Sept. 20, 2018].
Simply pushing the homeless out, without compensating the cities being dumped on, will turn out not only to be illegal but costly in the long run. This nonsense about taking your problem and making it someone else’s is hypocritical at best.
Bob Milling
Facebook comment
Protecting residents
Dear ER:
I don’t wonder why Manhattan Beach passed this ordinance [“Anti-camping ordinances aimed at homeless under scrutiny,” ER Sept. 20, 2018]. I doubt their residents want the nice public spaces the city cultivated to be overrun by vagrants and the criminality that invariably comes with them.
My question is why the City of Los Angeles government isn’t acting as forcefully to protect its own residents from the same problems. Do we deserve to live in a less safe or secure community? Consistent enforcement across all jurisdictions will help bring this problem to resolution sooner, because it will strip the ability for one jurisdiction to use enforcement to shift its homeless population onto another jurisdiction.
Robert Campbell
Facebook post
House them here
Dear ER:
The subject matter here is: Manhattan Beach build your own facility to house the homeless [“Anti-camping ordinances aimed at homeless under scrutiny,” ER Sept. 20, 2018]. Don’t try to farm them out to other facilities in the South Bay, Long Beach or the city of Los Angeles!
Yes, I’m sure we all share the same homeless from time to time, just don’t use the excuse to send them elsewhere like your neighboring beach cities have done.
Leslie Jones
Facebook comment
Spend the money
Dear ER:
This is an absolute embarrassment. I propose that our Government take the money out of the military budget to pay for getting every single one of these men and women the help they need until they are all off the streets. This would include all the medical help, substance abuse programs, housing, job training, food, etc.
Bill McLaughlin
Facebook post
Black smoke worries
Dear ER:
It’s just black smoke from us burning some extra petroleum products, nothing to worry about” [“Chevron burns concerns N. Manhattan residents,” ER Sept. 20, 2018]. Um, that’s exactly what we worry about.
Angela Dodson
Facebook comment
Enough already
Dear ER:
The refinery has permit permission to do this on a limited basis every month, but the residents of Visitors-Aren’t-Welcome Beach will never fail to find something to complain about.
Rob Jaimes
Facebook comment
The straight poop
Dear ER:
Re- Scott Berrum’s letter [“Listeria Hysteria,” Letters, ER Sept. 20, 2018]:
Yes dog poo can be picked up and most owners do that. However, you cannot pick up dog urine!
As we know dogs instinctively pee where other dogs have gone. It’s a dog thing! That turns into disgustingly ugly smelly stains, difficult to remove if not addressed immediately.
In the warmer months the stench can be overwhelming and the stains a dreadful sight. These are not complaints, they are everyday observations.
We need a solution. One thought (some owners already do this) owners walk on the Esplanade
holding their leash with the dog walking on the other side of the wall.
I am not a fear monger; In fact, a retired health practitioner. I do not need help, the Esplanade does.
Christine Norris
Redondo Beach
Giancoli for Health District
Dear ER:
Recently, Beach Cities Health District (BCHD) announced plans to revamp their campus to make it more accessible, more open, and with an increased number of programs designed for our aging population, here in the beach cities.
Concurrently, there is an election for a new board member to BCHD’s Board of Directors. This person will be tasked not only with creating and approving new and innovative programs for this population, they will make numerous decisions for a multimillion dollar construction project. That’s a tall order.
Fortunately for the residents in the South Bay, there is Andrea N. Giancoli. She is a registered dietitian, with a graduate degree in public health. Giancoli has been serving for several years on the Hermosa Beach Public Works Commission overseeing large, multi-year capital improvement projects. She has volunteered to be in the Access Hermosa City Working Group to advocate for increased and equitable accessibility for all residents.
Andrea Giancoli will do the same for Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach, as she’s done for Hermosa, when elected to BCHD Board of Directors. She is also a nationally recognized nutrition and wellness authority with exposure in national media print, online, and broadcast media outlets. One could not ask for a better choice in a candidate!
Please join me, and many others, in thanking Giancoli for her service. Vote for Andrea N. Giancoli to Beach Cities Health District Board of Directors on Tuesday, Nov. 6.
Erika Adkins
Redondo Beach
Community thank-you
Dear ER:
On behalf of the Hermosa Beach Kiwanis Club Taste at the Beach event we would like to thank all the donors to our silent auction, all the restaurants, wineries and breweries for their generous participation in our event.
We would like to thank Chevron for their help with our sponsorship.
We would especially like to thank all the people who attended the event for their generosity.
We’re always looking for new members, so we encourage the community to join us at our lunch or dinner meetings.
Hermosa Beach Kiwanis Club
Dunce caps for all
Dear ER:
Upon peeling back the Sept. 20 issue of the Easy Reader [“Redondo takes light touch on tobacco ban”] my delicate constitution was met with such egregious effrontery that I feared my valve would seal shut, never to reopen again.
Evidently, Bill Brand and his brood of banners seek to outlaw smoking in public. Good. But why stop there? I’d like to see the Fair Hamlet of Redondo go further to truly fall in lock step with the rest of the state. What I propose is a competition to see who can ban the most.
C’mon gang we can do better than the Islamic Republic of Hermosa Beach! Why not ban the word ‘cigarette’ or ‘vape?’ It offends my ears, as it should yours. Vegetables of the nightshade variety containing nicotine — tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, and cauliflower — are in need of swift and vigorous removal from our supermarket shelves!
Moreover, if particulate matter traveling up the snotty nose holes of those Mickey Mouse Club brats at the High School is the issue, then, let’s ban cars along P.C.H.! Which would be great since I have an aversion to driving!
I just hope that scoundrel Eric Coleman doesn’t come out of retirement to do battle with those of a medieval mindset, for you would surely be smote by His silver tongue.
Yours in Anger,
“Ignatius J. Reilly”
Redondo Beach
Electric bikes to the rescue
Dear ER:
The beach cities must update their municipal codes to permit the use of e-bikes on The Strand and dedicated bike lanes. My husband and I are retired seniors and he depends on his e-bike to assist him in climbing steep inclines between our house near Mira Costa High School and the beach. We travel the Strand weekly between the Hermosa Beach Pier and Torrance Beach and have never witnessed any abuse by the increasingly frequent numbers of e-bike riders we see along The Strand and bike lanes on N. Harbor Drive. Yes, ticket those who speed and ride recklessly, whatever type of bike they ride, but please apply some common sense and stop making us worry about receiving a citation whenever we go to get some exercise.
Nora Pouliot
Manhattan Beach
Salute or sign off
Dear ER:
Hermosa Beach Parks and Rec commissioner Robert Rosenfeld is a poor example of a “Public Servant,” motivated by ego and greed, at the taxpayers’ expense [“Hermosa commissioner’s pledge skip prompts dispute on liberties, patriotism,” ER Sept. 20, 2018]. He should of taken his oratory out on the street corner and not to “our” commission meetings. Yes, he should be removed from the commission. Also, This should of been voted on by the full commission, the City Council and then the electorate. It’s insane that one non-patriot could do this.
Dennis Duke Noor
Hermosa Beach
Respect ourselves
Dear ER:
The Pledge of Allegiance is all about respect. The beauty of what our flag represents allows for many freedoms, including the freedom to say that one does not want to recite the Pledge of Allegiance [“Hermosa commissioner’s pledge skip prompts dispute on liberties, patriotism,” ER Sept. 20, 2018]. This is fine for Hermosa Beach Parks and Rec Commissioner Robert Rosenfeld to invoke his freedom to free speech but he chose the wrong venue. He is free to rant and rave on a street corner, but not while he is representing the populace as a city commissioner. Saying that the pledge has become “rote and seems to dilute the significance” sounds like backpedaling to me. But, rote or not, it is our country’s accepted tradition on how we respect our flag and nation. These are my personal feelings, in addition to my opinion that Rosenfeld should be removed from the commission if he continues to disrespect our flag while in his public position.
Derek Levy
Hemosa Beach