Letters to the Editor – May 27, 2010
Douse the egos
Dear ER:
Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach, and Manhattan Beach are wasting millions by having their own, little, feel-good fire departments, especially considering the fact that one of the best fire departments in the country, the Los Angeles County Fire Department, serves Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills, Rolling Hills Estates, Lomita, Lawndale, Hawthorne and many other cities so professionally.
It’s for little more than egotistical reasons that the beach cities insist on having their own political-pawn fire departments.
The quality of fire and paramedic services would not degrade and probably improve were these cities to each set their specifications and contract with Los Angeles County Fire, as other fine cities do. The fire stations would still be in the same places and most all of the fire personnel would probably feel more professional, not having to put up with the political, good-ole-boy games of these beach cities. So long as we have weak-as-water, egocentric politician council members maintaining a mythology of providing better fire services with city-operated fire departments in these beach towns, the people’s tax money will continue to be wasted.
Hermosa’s council can and should set the trend by immediately exiting any local-politics merger baloney and commencing a process to contract with Los Angeles County Fire at their budget meeting in the Council Chambers, Thursday evening, 7 p.m., May 27.
Howard Longacre
Hermosa Beach
Free the dune
Dear ER
As Spring turns into Summer, we approach the reopening of the dune at Sand Dune Park, albeit with overly limited hours, a restrictive reservations system, an ugly fence and a virtual ban on parents playing with their children. In the meantime, the same vocal minority of residents who forced the city to close the dune last year is back with more distortions and misinformation.
Nearly 200 residents living within one-half mile of the park have urged the city to “Free the Dune.” Their numbers far outnumber the neighbors who want to close to dune. They’ve changed their language and now claim they want to “re-purpose” the dune, while periodically changing their reasons for closing it in the first place. These vocal few have now resorted attacking Bill Hory for working to Free the Dune. The leaders of CORE (Citizens for Outdoor Recreation & Exercise) helped raise awareness of the dune situation throughout the city through email, word of mouth and a peaceful rally attended by over 100 residents. As a result, it became clear that the vast majority of residents want the dune reopened for exercise & play for all. This is best evidenced by the 700-plus city residents who signed the Free the Dune petition through a word-of-mouth campaign.
CORE is a coalition of more than 1,000 people, including hundreds of long-time residents, board members from the Beach Cities Health District, business owners, members of the Manhattan Beach Environmental Task Force and hundreds of Manhattan Beach residents.
CORE has always advocated for use by children and their parents, allowing unrestricted use during off-peak hours and suggesting that the city adopt a low-cost annual permit at peak times only, simply to ensure accountability for the dune users in the spirit of compromise. We’ve urged the city to abandon the plans for the fence and to revisit their ban on parents spontaneously playing on the dune with their sons and daughters.
But CORE was stymied in that effort when the city ordered staff not to meet with CORE members. CORE’s stand is the same now as it was then. No to the fence, no to a reservations system, yes to exercise, yes to unrestricted use for children and their parents and yes to responsible park use by all.
Jake Rome
Co-Founder CORE
Two wheel future
Dear ER:
Hermosa Beach has recently taken strides toward creating a bike-friendly community. This commitment includes a city-wide Bike Master Plan, sharrows on Hermosa Avenue, bike racks in the Pier Avenue rebuild, and supporting the forthcoming bike valet parking plaza during Fiesta Hermosa. Coupled with such infrastructure initiatives is the need for cycling safety, equipment and protocol education.
On May 22, I hosted the 2nd annual “Cycle Saturday” at Valley Park. The workshop provided basic bike psychology, rules of the road, safety, and maintenance instruction, and coincided with National Bike Month and statewide Bike-to-Work programs held May 16 to 22.
The instruction would not have been possible without the expertise and assistance of key groups who generously offered advice, time, and materials, especially Hermosa’s own Hermosa Cyclery, Beach Cities Cycles and The Bike Shop. Special thanks to Hermosa Cyclery & Beach Cities Cycles for facilitating bike inspections; HBPD Officer Garrett McDermott and VIP staff; the Public Works Department & Commission, City Council, and the City of Hermosa Beach for its support of this project.
Extraordinary thanks to Kevin Flaherty, Certified Bicycle League Instructor; Ted Ernst, founder of the Manhattan Beach Grand Prix (1962) & U.S. Cycling Hall of Fame inductee (2006); and Todd Dipaola, South Bay Bicycle Coalition founder, for their enthusiastic commitment to and patience with this endeavor.
Bikes are a clean, compact and healthful transportation alternative, and these benefits are far more pleasurable when pedestrians, cars and cyclists work together. We hope to expand cycling infrastructure and workshops in Hermosa Beach to promote experienced, knowledgeable and confident riders of all ages.
Please join us next year during National Bike Month (May), and patronize our three retailers who generously contributed services and staff.
Kimberlee MacMullan
Public Works Commissioner
Munns the word
Dear ER:
Columnist Harry Munns fails to mention many of the indicators of the public’s will with respect to [King Harbor] overdevelopment (“Harbor lights, Vocal Minority,” ER May 13, 2010)
Perhaps he did not realize that the City conducted a survey on whether residents wanted to vote on zoning changes and the overwhelming majority stated “yes” – very reflective of the vote for DD. Additionally, there are at least two previous, city surveys that show overdevelopment and traffic were the top concerns of residents.
Munns fails to account for the impacts of the city’s deceitful counter measure EE, which looked good but had no teeth. Even former Councilman Pinzler stated EE would allow people to vote on zoning changes that were never likely to occur. The intent of EE, apparently, was to confuse voters and draw them away from DD in the hopes that neither measure would pass. I base this conclusion on the fact that most of the Council were also listed as supporters of “Save Redondo,” an organization that opposed any resident voting on zoning changes. Our Council played both sides of the fence in a desperate attempt to stop what they knew to be inevitable. What would the vote have been without the decoy measure?
Another indicator of the public will was the vote on what to do with the AES site. The City stacked the ballot language to make mixed use and condos look like Nirvana compared to the costs of a park at the site. Yet the people overwhelmingly picked a park.
While Munns is accurate in saying that the two referendums related to the Heart of the City was never put to a vote, he failed to mention that the Council clearly understood the vote would override their approval of the HOC plan.
And as to his attack on Councilman Bill Brand – Brand ran against three candidates who were all pro-development. The fact that he won without a run-off election should be a clear indication of the will of the people with respect to overdevelopment.
I think if Munns objectively looked at the preponderance of evidence since the Heart of the City, he would draw a much different conclusion.
And if he doesn’t like Measure DD, he can stand at grocery stores every weekend of six months, collect 6000 signatures, and qualify an initiative vote to repeal it.
Jim Light
buildingabetterredondo.blog.com
Redondo Beach
Pre bought candidates
Dear Letters:
Local voters have had their mailboxes filled to capacity with 53rd Assembly mailers. Voters have a chance to weigh in.
The state of California has a massive problem with unfunded pension obligations. The state and local government needs to eliminate defined benefit plans that exceed 50 percent of worker’s salaries. Many police, fire and prison guard employees now retire at 50 years old and collect 90 percent of their last working year salary immediately. These benefits continue for the rest of their lives. Many public employee retirees receive over $100,000 per year.
Voter should examine the endorsement page of these flyers and look at the candidates website and look for PORAC(state police union/association), Fire Union/Association endorsements and know that those candidates will not solve our state budget crisis. We need to end the grip these unions have on our legislators.
If you want to stop the Sacramento public employees stranglehold on California taxpayers, avoid candidates with public and private union endorsements. Their future votes are already accounted for and pension reform will never happen. One June 8, voice your displeasure over these groups’ unnecessary control of our elected.
Art Logan
Hermosa Beach,
Class clash on the courts
Dear ER:
I’m a Manhattan Beach native and have never moved away from this city. This’ll be my 17th 6-man attendance. I’ve played in the tourney twice. It took me several hours to peel my jaw off of the floor when I read City Council’s proposed changes, which, at the time, include costume bans. I was wiping the rust off of my pitchfork to ready it in preparation it protest – it would have been a violation of our first amendment rights. I see now that the council members came to their senses and chose not to band the costumes. But do they have the right to ban coolers? Tents? Isn’t it a public beach?
I understand the alcohol ban. But what I can’t understand is: why won’t the city fence off the area (or areas away from the courts perhaps) and offer a city-sponsored beer garden, like they do at the Hometown Fair? People could drink, the city could make some cash, and the registration fees could be reduced.
But, how foolish of me to think that the city really cares about banning alcohol because of “crime,” “fights,” and “riots.” Have they not seen the Hermosa pier on the weekends? 20,000 drunk d-bags there on a year-round basis with minimal fights and no riots. Instead, the 6-Man changes come on the heels of the city caving into the pressure of non-native residents who are forcing the closure of our beloved Sand Dune Park, too. This is about non-native, rich snobs who have moved into our glorious beach community and turned this into an issue of “Hi, I’m a rich snob and my tax dollars pay your salary, so you better do what I tell you to do or else I’ll vote you out. And I don’t like fun and awesomeness, I just want to impose my snooty joy kill ways on everyone, so please, get all of these young people away from my house, even though I purchased it knowing full well that I live next to all sorts of things, including bars and a public beach that will be frequented by lots of people on a year-round basis.”
These snobs are trying to turn our beach community, with its unique culture and traditions, into a sea-side Beverly Hills. What next, will they try to impose a ban on the Hometown Fair too?
M. Jennings
Web comment
Fair trade
Dear ER:
Hermosa Beach should not intervene in business transfers by imposing an early closing when the business has a 1:30 closing and the business has never violated its conditional use permit. Business owners’ rights must be protected. Evidence showed Il Boccaccio had the fewest number of calls for city services of all licensed establishments on Pier Ave. Councilmembers Howard Fishman and Pete Tucker justly decided not to appeal the ABC decision.
If the license had been for a new business the Council could have voted for earlier closing hours. But that is not the case when an existing business license is transferred. Instead of giving into pressure from Jim Lissner, a vocal critic of downtown Hermosa Beach, they analyzed the true facts and voted to follow the same protocol that they did in the transfer of Café Boogaloo and Underground Pub. The city revenues are down in this economy and restaurants and bars are calmer than before the economic slowdown. The city should not be wasting money on legal fees for an ABC board appeal.
Andrea Jacobson
Web comment
Eye on safety
Dear ER:
Bob Pinzler’s article about antiterrorism, especially about the common citizen being watchful makes sense (“On Local Government,” E.R. May 13, 2010). I find this highly enlightening, placing the common person as a potential hero in the struggle for America’s defense against terrorists. The citizen now has a part, together with the police and the military, with the nation’s shield, protecting our neighborhoods and our loved ones. Pinzler however, points out the Achilles’ heel in our nation’s security: that is the turf warfare among law enforcement groups. This is the inane idea of refusing to share vital information necessary to deter terrorists from carrying out their premeditated murderous acts. This turf mentality needs to go if everybody wants a secure America. It is time to look at terrorism from a three dimensional perspective– not from a flat perspective.
Max Martinez-Schaller
Redondo Beach
Sweet Soroptimist
Dear ER:
Soroptimist International of Manhattan Beach wishes to thank the bakeries who contributed to our fun and successful Spring Tea and Cupcake Affaire: Baby Cakes, Beckers, Cake Bakeshop, Cupcakes Couture, Jennifer Farley, Gotta Have S’More, Lido Bakery, Little Laura’s Sweets, Matisse Restaurant and Catering, and Susie Cakes. Thank you for your generosity in participating and providing such delicious cupcakes.
We also owe a debt of gratitude to the many people who donated prizes, including Manhattan Village Shopping Center, Civic Light Opera of the South Bay, Ayres Hotel, Paul Martin’s American Bistro, South Bay Galleria, Adventure Plex, Aimee’s, Armani 55, Buying Time, By Andi B, Café Pierre, Cantina Real, Coffee Bean, DuWop Cosmetics, Equinox, Erin Collins, Illusions Day Spa, Manhattan Fine Wines, Montage Skin and Body Studio, Paul’s Photo, Rumba Salon, See’s Candy, Tin Roof Bistro, and Wild Birds Unlimited.
The following sponsors helped underwrite our expenses: Bank of Manhattan, Block Consulting Actuaries, and Exxon/Mobil.
Finally, we wish to thank all the people who attended to shop at the boutique, enjoy the delicious tea luncheon, and share the day, as we raised funds to support our many programs for women and girls.
Our club raises funds for local and international distribution. Our signature program, the Women’s Opportunity Award, has disbursed about $25 million to help tens of thousands of women achieve their dreams of a better life for themselves and their families since 1972.
Kelly Fogarty
Manhattan, Beach