A Sketchy Gelson’s
Dear ER:
I was heartened to learn about the effort Sketchers has made to revise their proposed development straddling the Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach border, in response to residents’ concerns. This is in stark contrast, unfortunately, to the Paragon Gelson’s development project at 8th Street and Sepulveda Boulevard in Manhattan Beach. Sketchers conducted an EIR, Paragon has not and has said it will not. Sketchers incorporated meaningful parking and traffic mitigation measures. Paragon’s solutions still do not meet the parking code and there is no traffic mitigation (i.e., deceleration lane). Sketchers has held multiple community meetings to listen to residents’ concerns. Paragon held one community meeting almost a year ago. Instead, Paragon has relied on a PR firm to craft messages intended to convey the perception that the project is a done deal. Their outreach consists of glossy mailers with carefully scripted testimonials. Most recently, they sent out a mailer with a testimonial from a real estate agent known to be a friend of the developer. These comparisons to Sketchers illustrate just how out of touch with our community Paragon is. They are divisive and try to pit neighbor against neighbor. Paragon has no respect for our community’s residents. This is evident from the fact that Paragon does not regularly maintain their site. Manhattan Beach deserves better business partners. Join Manhattan Beach Residents for Responsible Development to ensure residents’ concerns are incorporated into this project.
Eileen Neill
Manhattan Beach
Let’s really feel the Bern
Dear ER
I loved the letter in your March 10 issue praising Bernie Sanders. It was from a woman in Rolling Hills Estates. On the same day that I read that letter I passed by a brand new Audi convertible in Torrance that had a “Feel the Bern” bumper sticker on it. I would love to see what those folks would do if truly subjected to Sanders’ plans for American economics.
Maybe the woman in Rolling Hills Estates next letter would be post-marked from Fontana and the Audi owner’s next bumper sticker would be going on a ’90-something Hyundai. But, then again, maybe that sort of equal wealth redistribution would be more satisfying to them than the successes they’ve obviously achieved in life.
William Hayes
Redondo Beach
30 years too late
Dear ER:
It’s said the Redondo Beach waterfront has long lost its allure. All things loose their allure over time. Thirty years ago the CenterCal waterfront proposal would have been a success, for about decade, before it too faded. But not now. Redondo city officials want to force us to live with a mega-mall built by the sea just because “it has been 30-years in the making”.
This is like an ostrich sticking his head in the sand. Insisting that the city/taxpayers have to have a mega-mall with today’s trends going to online shopping, Uber ride sharing, Grubhub dining is like trying to resurrect a dinosaur.
Laura D. Zahn
Redondo Beach
Plan it, Redondo
Dear ER:
The days of Redondo Beach residents tolerating weak leadership that allocates funding for poor investments are gone. What we can’t afford any longer is the piecemeal, non-visionary, overdevelopment of Redondo Beach (Legado, CenterCal’s waterfront plan, etc.) promoted by Mayor Steve Aspel and other elected officials.
Redondo Beach’s General Plan is under much public scrutiny because it hasn’t been updated in decades and fosters an environment for bad development.
Last year, Council Members Bill Brand and Steve Sammarco favored using some of our City’s $2 million surplus to update the General Plan. The Hermosa City Council has directed their staff to apply for state funding for their General Plan, using state dollars to blend and braid with city dollars — making the best use out of taxpayer dollars.
Redondo Beach needs to lead, invest in quality of life for the residents, enact campaign finance policy and prioritize an update of the General Plan.
Candace Nafissi
Historical Commissioner
Redondo Beach
A sorry State
Dear ER:
I cannot be the only person who is utterly disgusted by the present state of politics, not only with the current national debacle, but also with our State and local officials. In California we have seen the respected heads of two commissions, whose charters are to protect our coasts and our air, ousted in favor of development interests. In the case of the AQMD, we have new rules adopted that were written by the very polluters they are charged with regulating. We have also learned the chancellor at UC Davis was being paid to sit on the board of a competing university as well as a company who publishes books required of students at UC Davis. I know they say we get the government we deserve but, dear God, what did we do to deserve this?
Don Moore
Redondo Beach
Coastal Act in rearview mirror
Dear ER:
I’ll never forget where I was when I heard that the California Coastal Commission Act had passed. We were coming home to Palos Verdes after a day at the beach in Malibu with our kids, family, and friends. The radio was on in the car when the news came that the Coastal Act had passed. I was overjoyed because I knew the coast would be protected forever from buildings blocking views and shutting us away from the water. By 1976 the coast in Southern California was pretty much blocked already.
Even way back on that Malibu day in 1976 we had found it hard to find a part of the beach where we could sit and where the kids could play. Most of the shoreline was solidly lined with private homes or businesses. We kept driving and driving until we finally found an open space and a spot where we were allowed to be.
Many years later I was assigned to pick up my Iowa relatives from the airport for a family funeral. I thought it would be nice to drive along the coast route from LAX to the Orange County funeral so they could enjoy the ocean views. I drove the street routes closest to the shoreline, but the only views I could share with them were occasional glimpses of sky and water between buildings.
I have always wished since then that the founders of our new state, back in the 1850s, had the vision to preserve the coast, from the nearest road or trail to the water, as a natural park for the people of California, and visitors from across the country and across the world.
But the early Californians did not do that. For the next century until today, business interests have had their way with our coast. They didn’t see the ocean. They didn’t see the sky. They didn’t see any of us. They saw only dollar signs.
The Coastal Act brought us hope that we could finally manage development effectively and fairly, so that The People of California, and the millions who come to visit, could enjoy the natural beauty and peace of the California Coast. I believed in that promise in 1976.
I ask Coastal Commission and its staff to honor that promise that we so much believed in.
Barbara Epstein
Redondo Beach
Correction
Last week’s story about the Hermosa Beach State of the City Address (“Mayor Petty finds city at a crossroads,” March 10, 2016) incorrectly stated that the city’s high credit rating saved it $800,000 when issuing a bond last year. In fact, $800,000 was the cost of servicing the bond, for which the city had originally budgeted $1 million before obtaining its high credit rating.
