Into the Tropic of Cancer

How a wandering surfer’s search for waves resulted in one the world’s great musical festivals in a Baja Pueblo by Mark McDermott A few years ago, a van swung onto Manuel Márquez de León, a street that runs through the downtown “Centro” district of Todos Santos, a pueblo in Baja California Sur, Mexico. The vehicle…

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Community gathers to celebrate the life of Pat Dietz

Editor’s note: Pat Dietz, the iconic co-founder of Dietz Brothers Music in Manhattan Beach, passed away June 28 after being injured while saving his grandson from an out-of-control car in Torrance two days earlier. Due to the nature of his death, the family had to delay his burial and memorial until a cause of death…

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Greenberg appointed to the MBUSD school board

by Mark McDermott  Bruce Greenberg was appointed to the Manhattan Beach Unified School District at a special meeting Wednesday afternoon. Greenberg will fill the vacancy left by Jason Boxer, who resigned in January.  The board chose an appointment process over a special election due to its cost, which the LA County Registrar estimated at $879,000.…

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Manhattan Beach Mayor Stern launches Kindness Initiative

by Mark McDermott  On the morning of May 22, 2020, Maureen McBride opened up her boutique in downtown Manhattan Beach, Tabula Rasa Essentials, for the first time in ten weeks.  Those ten weeks had been rough. McBride had endured many sleepless nights. The world had been turned upside down. The pandemic had launched its ravaging…

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The invisible rope

    by Mark McDermott and Ryan McDonald  A rope went up on the beach below Bruce’s Lodge on June 23, 1912, the very first Sunday the resort that welcomed Black beachgoers to Manhattan Beach was in operation. Though the man responsible for roping off of the beach was one of the city’s founders, George…

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Governor Newsom signs Bruce’s Beach bill into law

  by Mark McDermott and Gavin Heaney Video by Jefferson Graham, Photos by Kevin Cody Governor Gavin Newsom came to Manhattan Beach Thursday morning and signed S.B. 796 into law, paving the way for Los Angeles County to return beachfront land which was historically Bruce’s Beach to the descendants of the family who lost the…

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Manhattan Beach considers using Redondo Beach’s homeless court

  by Mark McDermott  The Manhattan Beach City Council continues to grapple with a conundrum as it tries to address the city’s homeless population.  The council has been interested in Redondo Beach’s innovative “homeless court” program, which. since it’s implementation late last year. has worked with 50 people among its homeless population of 176, and…

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Beach Cities surge in COVID-19 cases among unvaccinated continues 

  by Mark McDermott  The Beach Cities, despite their relatively high vaccination rates, are experiencing a surge of COVID-19 infections, resulting from the combination of the extremely contagious Delta variant and lingering unvaccinated populations.  The last week saw increases in new COVID-19 cases in Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, and Redondo Beach that brought each city…

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BUDGET 2021-22: City emerges from pandemic with strong finances

by Mark McDermott  Perhaps no event rang truer to recently retired City Controller Henry Mitzner’s most famed City Hall axiom than the adopted 2021-22 fiscal year budget, which projects the City of Manhattan Beach emerging from an economically devastating time with its economic health somehow better than ever.  “When it’s bad out there, it’s good…

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Juneteenth has special resonance at  Bruce’s Beach 

by Nadia Bidarian and Mark McDermott  A Bob Marley medley performance, a drum circle led by percussionist Curtis Byrd, speeches by Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn and State Senator Steven Bradford, and three food trucks were among the highlights of the Juneteenth celebration at Bruce’s Beach Park on Saturday. Though Juneteenth celebrates the freeing…

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