2011: The Year in Review

2011 in was a year of doings and undoings, actions and inaction in the Beach Cities. The Easy Reader each year takes a year-end look at the people and issues that passed through our pages. This year, in addition to the Year in Review compilations for Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, and Redondo Beach, we singled out 11 stories, including three people whose actions significantly impacted the community, the top issues that commanded each respective city’s attention, and the community leaders who passed away in 2011.

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Redondo Beach: a postal crisis, tragedy, and sardines

king harbor

Tragedy and turmoil were in the headlines in Redondo Beach this year, as an ebullient little boy named Jeremy Perez lost his life after a delivery truck accidentally ran him over on his bicycle and two families were forced to leave their homes on Knob Hill when stray voltage was discovered emanating from an electrical substation. The city also coped with millions of dead sardines in King Harbor.

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Music previews: jazz and blues for the holidays

Jazz for the holidays The best kept musical secret in the South Bay for the last two years has been the ongoing residency of the Richard Sherman Trio featuring Bili Redd at the Terranea Resort in Palos Verdes Estates. Those in the know flock to The Living Room – the large room with couches and…

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Music previews: Dokken unplugged, Guitar Shorty untethered

don dokken

Dokken acoustic Three words that usually don’t go together: Don Dokken unplugged. The legendary heavy metal icon Don Dokken is performing locally for only the second time in the last 30 years in his native South Bay stomping grounds at Brixton in Redondo Beach for a show he has dubbed his “Two Many Acoustic Jam.”…

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Chef Jack Witherspoon’s Stuffed Mushrooms

You won’t be able to resist these stuffed mushrooms. I made them for both of my Cooking Up Dreams fund-raising events, and each bite is a morsel of cheesy, garlicky, herby bread crumbs in a baked mushroom cap. This might be my all-time favorite appetizer. Makes about 35 stuffed mushrooms; serves 10 as an appetizer…

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70 grievances filed against Redondo Beach Post Office

Postal workers have been working late into the night in recent weeks. Photo from December 7, 2011. Photo by Chelsea Sektnan

Carriers at the Redondo Beach Main Post Office last week filed approximately 70 grievances against management for what union leaders are describing as a hostile workplace. Many carriers have continued to deliver mail well after dark and sometimes as late as 10 p.m. in the wake of a round of consolidations that reduced the number…

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City sues Civic Light Opera for rent

The city of Redondo Beach last week filed a lawsuit against the Civic Light Opera of the South Bay Cities, seeking $209,000 owed in back rent. The city in August evicted the CLOSB after not receiving payment for the use of the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center. City officials say that rent is owed for…

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A tree family affair

Architect Peter DeMaria’s home in Manhattan’s tree section is more quietly daring than his famed Container House On Pine Avenue in Manhattan Beach is the house that two brothers named Michelangelo and Luciano built. Granted, Michelangelo was about six years old and Luciano was not quite yet born seven years ago when the house was…

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