Posts by Mark McDermott
Urban Land Institute releases official Smoky Hollow study [El Segundo]
The long-awaited Smoky Hollow area study was recently released by the Urban Land Institute, and after thousands of hours of investigation and discussions by a team of planning experts with a combined 245 years of economic development experience, the 28-page report’s findings can be boiled down to this: if El Segundo builds it, Silicon Beach…
Read MoreRicky Berens, who beat Michael Phelps, heads to London looking for gold
Ricky Berens received the greatest tweet of his life on July 2. He was in Omaha, Nebraska, where the Olympic trials for swimming had just ended, and he was a bit dejected. Berens, who lives in Manhattan Beach, was a likely selection to swim on the U.S. men’s relay teams. But he’d finished third in…
Read MoreRichmond Street Fresh & Easy deal in trouble
A deal that would have brought a Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to downtown El Segundo has fallen apart, leaving a likely vacancy in the Richmond Street storefront that formerly housed Cooke’s Market. Mark Neumann, the head of locally-based 612 Twin Holdings LLC, told the City Council on Tuesday night that Fresh & Easy had…
Read MoreRocking fundraiser to benefit slain bouncer’s 11-year-old son, family
By all accounts, Terie Colecchi would not have wanted his life remembered with some fancy dress-up affair. And so when Mike Blotzer decided to do something to celebrate the life of his friend – as well as raise some money for an 11-year-old boy left tragically fatherless after Colechhi’s death last week –…
Read MoreFirstman’s return!
The holler of Joe Firstman is a well-known thing on the beaches and byways of El Porto. The singer-songwriter first came to fame as a fresh-faced kid straight out of Carolina touring the country’s biggest stages with Willie Nelson, Jewel, and Sheryl Crow. He became locally famous when he escaped the Hollywood high life and…
Read MoreDistrict 33: less local representation?
Regardless of the outcome of Tuesday’s primary election for the 33rd Congressional District, the political landscape of the South Bay has already drastically changed. This election is the first in which the South Bay, formerly part of District 36, is part of the newly-drawn District 33. District 36 included Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, Torrance, El…
Read MoreThe good movie movement: a former planning director works to bring foreign and independent films to the South Bay
A wave of unusual, good movies are hopefully about to come to the South Bay in no small part because of the angry poets of Wisconsin 29 years ago. The seeds were planted when a fresh-faced kid named Randy Berler – who is currently preparing to bring some of the world’s finest movies to the…
Read MoreRevivalist David Shaw plays the Café Boogaloo
Pouring concrete is good sweaty work. At the end of a day, a body knows it has been used, and a trail of hardening ground has been left to show for it. David Shaw grew up pouring concrete in Ohio and was fine with the notion that he’d spend his life doing construction. He always…
Read More“Hysteria” is hysterical! [MOVIE REVIEW]
Surprising at every turn, blushingly embarrassing even for the cynical, with too many laugh-out-loud moments to recount, “Hysteria” is, ostensibly, about the invention of the vibrator intended for personal use. This is a film for anyone who has ever used a hand held shower head for “deep cleaning” to alleviate stress, and you know you’re…
Read MoreTaste of Spring sprung
Growing Great, the locally-based non-profit organization that has grown into a national model for teaching children nutrition and gardening, hosts a “foodie” fundraiser this Saturday featuring celebrity chefs David LeFevre, Neal Fraser, and Benjamin Ford. The event, which also honors Growing Great food “champions” Secil Atalie (from Arnett Farms of local farmers’ market fame), Kelly…
Read MoreFor the sake of the song
The scene is repeated at open mic nights at bars, clubs, and coffeehouses, everywhere. An aspiring singer arrives, often alone, guitar case in hand. The guitar case holds more than an instrument. It is also a vessel of sorts containing hopes and sometimes frail dreams.
Read MoreThe Acoustic Ninja returns to Hermosa Beach with The Elephant King
Tracy Bundy is known as a master guitarist. The so-called “acoustic ninja” has been cutting his unique swath for a decade now, creating an almost mythical body of work, transforming our conception of the music one man us able to produce with a guitar. He is more than a guitarist, but rather a purveyor in…
Read MoreThe Voice’s voices sing at Saint Rocke
Two years ago, Justin Hopkins made a decision. After years on the road as a touring musician, he was calling it quits – not to music, but to the music industry as he’d thus far lived it. He’d just become a father and was loving life in the South Bay, so he decided to stay…
Read MoreA sailor’s last sail
Theo Mavromatis always felt most at home on the sea. Mavromatis had come to America from the harbor town of Alexandroupolos, Greece, where he’d been drawn to the sea since he was a child. Later, among family and friends, he would fondly recall his early attempts at sailing. “As a teenager, he’d made a simple…
Read MoreRBUSD awards Knob Hill bid
The Redondo Beach Unified School District Board of Education on Tuesday night awarded a bid to lease its property at 320 Knob Hill to Fountain Square Development West, a developer and operator of assisted living communities for senior citizens. The school board voted unanimously to award the bid to Fountain Square, whose offer of $614,250…
Read MoreThe Blue Zone makeover: a family’s story
The dozen or so people who gathered in a basement room at the Beach Cities Health District one night late in August didn’t look like a gathering of particularly unhealthy people. And that, in the end, may have been the point of the Blue Zones Makeover experience. National Geographic explorer and bestselling author Dan Buettner…
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