Rain mutes 40th block party in Redondo Beach
By Garth Meyer The 40th annual neighborhood block party in the 300 block of North Gertruda Avenue was largely rained out last Sunday. While a couple dozen kids did engage the waterslide and sat in the RBFD ladder truck, most of the adults stayed under pop-up tents, no bands played and no grills were lit. “The 41st is next year, hopefully it won’t rain,” said Richard Burke, a longtime resident who has been part of every one. The tradition began in 1985, to commemorate the neighborhood being designated a city historic district. At the time, many blocks in Redondo Beach were seeing houses from the early 1900s torn down and replaced. Sandy Dyan, a resident on the Gertruda block, worked on her master’s thesis at the time calling for Redondo Beach to adopt a historic preservation ordinance. “For whatever reason, this particular block was neglected, or not attacked,” Burke said. So it was eligible and was given protected status for its selection of beach bungalow-style houses from around the turn of the century. Its name is the “300 North Gertruda Historic District.” Once it was official, someone said, “Let’s have a party to celebrate,” Burke said. So the block party began, one of…
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