The people of Knob Hill vs. Southern California Edison
A jury has ordered Southern California Edison to pay $4 million to a Redondo Beach resident exposed to stray voltage. But the neighborhood’s fight against the utility giant has just begun. Three of the 28 families involved in a legal fight against Southern California Edison over stray voltage at Knob Hill in Redondo Beach. Photo First of a series In 1962, Southern California Edison constructed a tract of all-electric houses along the 800 and 900 blocks of Knob Hill in Redondo Beach. Utilities weren’t generally in the business of home building, but Edison and other electric companies were selling something more than houses – a brightly lit, highly electrified future. The “Live Better Electrically” campaign was launched in 1957 at the apex of the post-war boom and resulted in the construction of an estimated one million “Gold Medallion” homes. In order to earn a gold medallion, each home required an electric washer, dryer, waste disposal, refrigerator, and electric heating. The medallion itself, a small brass orb that showed a man, woman, and child holding hands surrounded by an electric field and the “Live Better Electrically” motto, was affixed to a home’s entrance and was…
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