Letters to the Editor: Loud bicyclists, Strand tickets and golf shots
MB school funds
Dear ER:
To set the record straight, Proposition 30 was NOT endorsed by the MBUSD School Board of Trustees, the MBEF, nor the PTA.
Regardless, even after Prop 30’s passage, California ranks 49 out of 50 states in per-pupil spending. Moreover, the current implementation of Prop 30 will further reduce MBUSD’s funding, ranking us in the bottom quartile of districts in per pupil funding.
If it were not for the supplemental funds raised by the MB Education Foundation, 72 educators’ salaries for this current school year would have not been possible.
Unfortunately, even this amount does not appear to be enough going forward to maintain the high-level education Manhattan Beach is nationally recognized for year in and year out.
As active and informed parents of three students at MBUSD, we have confidence in our elected school board as they have proven their ability to make the difficult decisions in order to prioritize the future of education of our students. Their decisions are not just about cutting budgets, but also investment choices about the future. Just one small example was the IPAD program. In the future, our children will be required to compete in the “idea economy” as the basic skills we learned as children are no longer enough to succeed in our global and connected world.
Finally, let’s not forget that a large percentage of the current and future value of all our homes benefit from our top-ranked schools, and we are grateful to the entire community of Manhattan Beach for their continuous support.
Ana and Bill Hory
Manhattan Beach
Quiet voices please
Dear ER:
To the South Bay Wheelmen who ride north on Ocean Dr. every Tuesday and Thursday morning at 6:30am: Would you be so kind as to keep your voices down as you’re riding by our bedrooms and waking us up EVERY TIME YOU RIDE BY!
Why not utilize the bike path? It’s what it’s there for.
Exhausted
Oil proposal support
Dear ER:
As a long-time resident, I have been following, with considerable interest, E&B’s proposal to drill oil from the city yard in Hermosa Beach. I am impressed with the professionalism and candor of the representatives I have met, especially E&B President, Steve Layton. This company and these individuals are committed to excellence and are willing to spend the time and money to achieve just that.
It is my understanding that the state-of-the-art safety systems that are an integral part of the current proposed drilling project are far superior and much more advanced compared to the technology that would have been used by McPherson to drill over twenty years ago. From what I can see, E&B is going above and beyond in every aspect of the project to ensure safe and successful drilling. This is evident in their plan for a four-second shut-off valve and a closed loop system that will protect our environment and the people of Hermosa Beach.
I encourage everyone to take a look at E&B’s plan and learn more about the project. When the Environmental Impact Report is completed, and if it shows no negative result from accessing previously developed oil resources in Hermosa Beach, why should we turn our backs on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring much needed revenue to our city and our schools?
John G. Carlson
Hermosa Beach
Oil proposal opposition
Dear ER:
E&B Natural Resources wants the people of Hermosa Beach to reverse the city’s ban on oil drilling and allow E&B to essentially pump millions of gallons of water endlessly under Hermosa Beach through perhaps four or more “waste-water injection wells.” This is part of their “new technology” that E&B in smoke-and-mirrors language is now proselytizing to be bringing Hermosa Beach some $400 million in a 10-year period.
When you take your car in for service it may be placed on what’s known as a hydraulic lift to give access the car’s undercarriage. By pumping hydraulic fluid through a small pipe at relatively low pressure into a larger piston, a force is created to effortlessly lift a 4,000 pound vehicle. Likewise, E&B’s proposed water injection process will have a similar effect under the entire city.
What E&B is not telling Hermosa men, women, and children in their newspaper “Did You Know” campaign advertisements, is that they essentially will be playing “Russian Roulette” with Hermosa’s environment 3,000 feet under the entire city, and for that matter, perhaps under portions of Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach, too. They’re going to be, as a by-product, creating a hydraulic lift on the entire city with their need to push remaining oil and gas around, under the city and towards their 30 or more drilled oil wells. The method really isn’t “new technology.” It’s insane technology when performed under densely-populated million-dollar residential neighborhoods.
This hydraulic pressure can also restart or exasperate dormant oil flows from the many natural oil seeps in the ocean’s floor. So expect tar balls and oil to be a nasty regular new occurrence on the beach, feet, clothes, and surfboards from E&B’s water-injection process. Also assume significant potential for the land to sink. That’s called subsidence.
Worrisome is the ever-present “blowout” potential from using water-injection pressurization. The people will obviously need to insist that, upfront, there be a minimum $5 billion assured indemnification bonding to cover potential damage to homes and the city from such a blowout, as even an idiot understands that the oil company operating at that time will instantly evaporate when such blowout occurs.
Howard Longacre
Hermosa Beach
Extended hours?
Dear ER:
Will our State legislature extend drinking hours to 4 a.m. as proposed in Senate Bill 635 by State Senator Mark Leno? Considering the influence the liquor industry has over our legislators in Sacramento, probably so. What can you do about it? You can phone your State legislators, and in Hermosa Beach, you can support the local Quiet Nights ballot initiative, now being circulated for signatures to qualify for the November election. Information is available at www.QuietNights.org.
Jim Lissner
Hermosa Beach
Bad golf swing
Dear ER:
I am writing to encourage all local residents to get up to speed on the plan the City of El Segundo is considering to replace the current community-based driving range with a Top Golf entertainment venue. Everyone should review topgolf.com and savethelakeselsegundo.com, form their own opinions, and then express them through letters like this to the local media as well as emailing allcouncilandclerks@elsegundo.org and City Manager gcarpenter@elsegundo.org. The city is very soon expected to make its final decision, which will impact this facility for 20-30 years or more, so everyone needs to make their voices known now!
Current golfers and patrons at the Lakes appear to be uniformly against this proposal. Their golf-related concerns have been well documented so I do not want to restate them here. Golfers are a small portion of the population and all such decisions need to properly consider the community as a whole. I want to explain why displacing the current range with Top Golf is fundamentally a much larger community issue that goes well beyond golf, and why I encourage all residents to stand up and vigorously oppose this proposal.
The city has openly stated that it has significant financial challenges, so it must therefore consider a radical change to the Lakes, simply because this may generate more revenue. Any such decision would set a very dangerous precedent for the future and should therefore concern everyone because no part of the city’s recreational system would any longer be sacred.
We all support cities being financially responsible and looking at all reasonable ways to balance their budgets, but we also expect them to look at all other avenues first and not just go straight to a part of the community that was long ago committed to recreation and effectively sell it off with the sole consideration being “the highest bidder.” Many in the community question if the Top Golf model, which relies heavily on food, alcohol, music and other entertainment aspects, is even consistent with Chevron’s original gift to the city of the land with a specific designation for recreation. If the city is considering privatizing and fundamentally altering the Lakes, which is currently generating a healthy positive cash flow to the city, to an out of state concern for generations to come, then are the soccer or baseball fields (which are net cash outflows) next on the chopping block?
The city has only looked at one option so far in Top Golf. It needs to pull back and look at any and all options, which can increase financial performance, yet not discard the key recreational aspects that make the Lakes so beloved in the community.
Lew Murez
Manhattan Beach
Common Strand sense
Dear ER:
In response to the “Strand Tickets” letter… I grew up riding my bike on The Strand before there was a bike path. Once the bike path opened, it was simply understood that the BIKE PATH was for bikes. The Strand remained what it was from the beginning, a place to walk along the beach. To the best of my knowledge, nothing about this arrangement has changed, only the people have. Basic common sense dictates that some things are self evident. I don’t see signs on the freeway stating that pedestrians aren’t allowed. “I only walked a short distance in the fast lane” doesn’t cut it. It’s the freeway…
As to not carrying ID while biking, in the event that a person is involved in an accident that leaves them injured and unable to communicate, one of the first things either the police or fire department is going to do is search for the injured person’s identification in order to provide timely aid and family notification. Surely this is just an exercise in plain good judgment, not a huge inconvenience. The police have a challenging job at best, so be a help and not a hindrance.
Manhattan Beach homeowner
Apathy and voter turnout
Dear ER:
The corruption in Bell is “American as apple pie.” It is typical in low socio-economic communities in SoutheastLos AngelesCounty and in cities as Manhattan Beach with wealthy, highly educated populations.
The commonality is lack of citizen oversight. As emphasized in a recent Daily Breeze editorial (“Bell corruption closer than we want to know”), “You’ll never know unless you pay attention to what your ‘electeds’ are up to.” (March 26)
Why the lack of “attention”? In Manhattan Beach, as across the nation, elected officials, by limiting public engagement, fail to see their role as servants not masters thereby generating public apathy and disengagement.
For example, Manhattan Beach residents can only sadly claim, “We’re no worse than Los Angeles,” because, recently, in both cities, only 21 percent of registered voters turned out on Election Day. Indeed, the turnout in our seven municipal elections between 2001-2013 has been only 19.1, 21.5, 29.5, 22.5, 24.03, 21.41, and 21.84 percent.
Voter apathy is a clear indicator that prior Manhattan Beach City Councils have consistently discouraged public engagement thereby failing to gain the attention and commitment of our residents to care about public policymaking. The current Manhattan Beach City Council needs to acknowledge these past failures and demonstrate by action, not only words, that it will “walk the talk” to gain that attention, commitment, and caring.
Further, “We the People” (U.S. Constitution) must insist that in delegating authority to our elected officials, do not give up our right to decide what is good for the people.
Edward C. Caprielian
Manhattan Beach