Letters to the Editor: Hermosa parking, Fiesta, Healthy Living Campus
Bring back the parking
Dear ER:
After the Fiesta Hermosa Locale, I hope the city will restore the street traffic back to the pre COVID conditions, and return the badly needed parking spaces along Pier Avenue and Hermosa Avenue. It is incredibly frustrating to have empty outdoor patios taking away parking spaces when residents have to circle the block over and over and over looking for a parking spot. Hermosa is not just for the restaurants and bars. The residents need the other non-hospitality businesses, too. The restaurants have already made up any losses due to COVID, and have a net gain in income, at the expense of other businesses. It’s time to get back to normal in Hermosa Beach.
Emily Campos
Hermosa Beach
Fiesta origin story
Dear ER:
The Chamber of Commerce does some good things. But it did not create the Fiesta. In the ‘70s, my buddy Rosey Rosenthal, myself and other members of the Colony Arts and Crafts in the downtown Penny’s building, founded the Fiesta. Rosey created the logo at no charge and the craftsmen and craftswomen created judging rules for participants, among other things. Later, when our leadership faltered, the Chamber saw the Fiesta as a way to fund itself, and took over the Fiesta leadership. The residents got to enjoy browsing among artists (unfortunately, to get more money, commercial sellers were also allowed by the Chamber) and buy lifeguard hot dogs and experience live bands for free. Now the Chamber seems to think the City owes them a way to make money to fund itself. And our City Council seems to agree. This weekend the Chamber of Commerce held an event closed to the residents at large (unless they paid). It was held on City property that all the residents own. The City (we residents) lost parking revenue and ticket revenue on Hermosa Avenue and in the City-owned parking lot over the long weekend. Remember this is the same City Council that wants us to take over the maintenance costs for the city-owned sidewalks in front of our property. My neighborhood was adversely impacted by the traffic diverted from Hermosa Avenue. We had about six times the normal traffic on my street. I like the Chamber of Commerce, but this is wrong. The City Council is wrong. It needs to support the interests of the residents and not subvert the interests of the residents for a private business.
Gary Kazanjian
Hermosa Beach
Un Fair
Dear ER:
I hate to be a complainer, but it is hard to describe how disappointed I was with the new (reduced and expensive) format of the Fiesta Hermosa on Labor Day weekend. Let me be among the first to suggest it be renamed to the Fiesta Muy Caro. First, the art and other vendors were placed a good half mile or more away from Hermosa Avenue. Next, it is no longer really a street fair at all, but rather a series of paid concerts that include a food court and kiddie rides. Maybe with COVID it was hard to find many vendors (Redondo Beach’s Riviera Village had that problem the prior weekend). But in this format it was no longer at all the fun and festive event it used to be. I am hoping the upcoming Manhattan Beach Hometown Fair October will provide a real contrast and still show what a street fair really is.
Tom Rombouts
ERNews comment
Show me the need
Dear ER:
The South Bay Hospital District condemned the Prospect Avenue property with the explicit finding that an emergency hospital for the use of the three beach cities that formed the district was a public need and necessity, Following the failure of South Bay Hospital in 1984, that land should have been surplus, absent the cited cause for condemnation. The Beach Cities Health District now proposes to put a commercial, market priced RCFE (Residential Care Facility for the Elderly) on the site, competing with current, actively under construction and future private ventures. The RCFE has no finding of public need and necessity. The same is true for the entirely duplicative PACE facility (Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly) that duplicates services offered to all zip codes by another California registered facility, thereby wasting public resources.
Mark Nelson
Redondo Beach
End it
Dear ER:
Will the Beach Cities Health District reimburse Redondo for increased fire department response times resulting from the BCHD Healthy Living Campus (“Beach City Health District to vote on Healthy Living Campus EIR,” ERNews). Will the BCHD cede the Property Tax assessment granted in the past to a hospital that no longer exists? The primary operations of the BCHD will now be as lessors of real property, and not primarily providers of health services to the community. The BCHD, laudable in it’s concept, will no longer function as originally chartered. It should be reorganized and the onus on taxpayers to subsidize their operations ended.
Gene Solomon
Redondo Beach
Recall gov’s achievements
Dear ER:
Vote No on removing Governor Gavin Newsom in the Tuesday, Nov. 14 recall election. Let’s face it, COVID-19 caused most of the problems. His decision to shutter businesses and churches and outdoor activities and schools, took great courage and was essential to stop the pandemic. Covid-19 was the cause of the EDD losing about $31 billion. The fact that some people got money they shouldn’t have is unfortunate, especially since some were serving time in prison. But when you’re trying to get money to the needy as quickly as possible, mistakes are bound to happen. After this recall, I’m sure it will be corrected. Our 520-mile High-Speed Rail System will be the envy of the world. It only costs about $1.54 million per mile, but the Feds gave us about $3.9 billion. Our schools are excellent and we can be proud of our ranking of 37th in the nation. Far ahead of Idaho; and dead last New Mexico. We are definitely on the move. I feel like beating my chest! Let’s save our beloved governor,
Gary Brown
Hermosa Beach
Share the land
Dear ER:
We all are all aware and saddened by the problem of people who are experiencing
homelessness. Recently I have been thinking about the over-building and McMansion issue of many streets in the beach cities. Thinking outside the box. I wondered to myself why do people with millions of dollars purchase a decent house built in the 1970s for approx $5 million and tear it down and build a new giant house for another $5 million? Aside from the fact that I am living directly opposite one at the moment, which has been a noisy, and frustrating construction project for nearly four years, and in our 27 years here have witnessed more than five other mansions built (with three of them rarely lived in), I came up with a possible solution. There are many families looking to get off the street and get a decent, clean living space. If those of us who have a ton of money built a few apartment buildings in areas that are zoned appropriately, and we place our name on the front of each building, well now that’s a legacy building! Being from New York City, I loved all of the named apartment and office buildings. The Chanin building, A. Farrar & Son, etc. One could still purchase a wonderful house on a walk street but not bother with all the bells and whistles. You could take that $10 million and build 20 to 30 apartments and that begins solving the problem.
Roslyn Fanello
Manhattan Beach
Corrections
Contest credit
This photo by Elke Goodno earned Honorable Mention in Easy Reader’s 51st Anniversary Writing and Photography contest, last month. The photograph was incorrectly credited. Easy Reader apologies for the error.
Pandemic policy protest
In the “School board refutes parents’ protest over pandemic policies” (ER Aug. 26, 2021) Redondo Union High School student Devin Eltman was misidentified as Devin Feldman. His mother, Julie Feldman, also spoke at the Aug. 24 Redondo Union school board meeting. Feldman accused the board of “bullying her child,” not for stopping him from speaking at the three-minute time limit for public input, as reported by Easy Reader, but because of the amount of time he took to drink water without his mask on.