MANHATTAN BEACH YEAR IN REVIEW 2025: Three shining stars dimmed, housing crisis hits, and MB becomes Pali South
by Mark McDermott Three unfathomable losses overshadowed everything else that happened in Manhattan Beach in 2025. Ford Savela, Braun Levi, and Ryan James were all 18 years old, all brilliant, promising, and kind young men who were beacons of hope, joy, and inspiration for everybody who knew them. Savela and Levi died only a few months apart, only two blocks apart, on Sepulveda Boulevard, each the victim of a reckless driver. James, a singular force who’d lived determinedly strong and free in the face of the lifelong challenge of epilepsy, lost his life to a seizure only weeks into his freshman year at UCLA. Their loss made other news seem relatively trivial, although a lot happened in Manhattan Beach over the course of the year. The town was deeply affected by the Palisades fire because so many people who lost their homes chose to relocate here, so much so that Manhattan Beach earned the name “Pali South,” a migration that impacted local real estate and schools. Meanwhile, policy hit pavement as the dictates of state laws intended to address California’s housing crisis began coming to fruition in Manhattan Beach, with over 1,000 new housing units entering the city’s planning…
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