Posts by Mark McDermott
Redondo Beach honors war dead with Memorial Day tribute
Several hundred people attended the annual Memorial Day tribute at Veteran’s Park on Monday. The ceremony, which included a keynote address by Mayor Mike Gin and remarks from special guest Col. Arnold Streland from the Los Angeles Air Force Base, concluded with members from each branch of military service laying poppies along the memorial. Lt.…
Read MoreProposed Redondo Beach budget balanced with pay cuts
City Manager Bill Workman this week introduced his proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year, a budget that for the third consecutive year depends on employee wage concessions in order to meet a gaping deficit. Workman’s proposed budget addresses a $3.8 million deficit largely through a proposed $2.8 million in savings that would be realized…
Read MoreSolar panels pulled from Redondo school cafeteria plan
Redondo Union High School’s new cafeteria will be less green after the Board of Education on Tuesday night voted to change plans and remove solar panels from a proposed rooftop deck, a move that reduced the project’s price tag from $450,000 to roughly $200,000. Board member Anita Avrick initiated a discussion over keeping the deck…
Read MoreAntique store robbed at gunpoint
Police are looking for anybody who may have witnessed an armed robbery or its aftermath at a Redondo Beach antique store last Friday afternoon. The robbery occurred at about 3:15 p.m. at Vicki’s Antiques and Fine Art, a store located on the 1200 block of S. Pacific Coast Highway in Redondo Beach. According to police…
Read MoreRedondo Union High pool plan draws ire
A newly launched non-profit swim organization intended to bolster Redondo Beach’s youth water sports programs has been awarded a contract that will give it significant control over the use of the new Redondo Union High School aquatics center. Beach Cities Swimming, headed by former Hermosa Beach councilman Michael Keegan and his brother Earl Keegan, will…
Read MoreDanny’s songs: Danny Hamilton and music as a means of survival
On May 2, 1991, two eighth grade boys embarked on a small adventure. They had decided to bicycle from their homes in Torrance to a shop on Pacific Coast Highway called the Psychic Eye. They were hoping to find a fortune teller. Fate intervened. A truck bore down full steam on one of the boys,…
Read MoreBorn to barrelhouse: Pianist Ron Tanski was built for boogie-woogie
Ron Tanski’s career as a blues piano player began on Christmas at the age of five. Two things happened that holiday season: his mother got a piano, and Tanski got a record player. He immediately scoured the house for records to play and found a stash of old 45s. He started playing one after another,…
Read MorePier sunset? Tony’s on the Pier struggles to survive Redondo’s attempt to revitalize its waterfront
Against long odds, Tony’s on the Pier has always survived. The restaurant weathered the storms that have periodically wracked the Redondo Beach waterfront and persevered through the economic vicissitudes of an area that has seen dozens of other businesses come and go since a fisherman named Tony Trutanich came ashore and set up shop in…
Read MoreSeaside Lagoon’s future looking safer
Redondo Beach City Council Tuesday night unanimously approved a plan in which city staff and the regulatory agency that oversees the Seaside Lagoon will work together to find the sources of the water quality problems that have dogged the facility’s ocean outflow. The “special study work plan” is immediately significant in that it formally ensures…
Read MoreTacos unhinged: Hot’s Kitchen is the most uninhibited taco join on the planet
Hot’s Kitchen is the most uninhibited taco joint I’ve found on the planet Most restaurants are works in progress, either by accident or design. There are a few places that figure out what they want to serve and freeze the menu. Most have a slow but continuous cycle of experimentation to make sure they are…
Read MoreRedondo Beach USD schools roll double 10s
Three Redondo Beach Unified School District elementary schools earned coveted ‘10-10’ rankings in comparison both to all California public schools and those with similar demographics, according to Academic Performance Index reports released by the California Department of Education last week. Alta Vista, Beryl Heights, and Jefferson elementary schools each scored at the top of both…
Read MoreThe Modern Sounds of the Knitters
The legendary country side project of the punk band X makes a rare appearance Myth has it that the Knitters were among the first bands, back in the 1930s, to make the transition from being a simple hillbilly string band to what would later be more formally known as bluegrass music. The band’s lead singer,…
Read MoreFirefighters put out fire in Strand home
Manhattan Beach Firefighters extinguished a blaze at a Strand home Friday after painters working on the house may have accidentally sparked a flame while grinding paint. “It looks like they may have hit a nail and caused some sparks to go into the interior wall,” said Manhattan Battalion Chief Frank Chiella. Nobody was injured. MBFD…
Read MoreCBS Radio’s JACK FM backs out of Redondo July 3 fest
CBS Radio’s JACK FM has informed Redondo Beach that it no longer intends to expand the city’s 4th of July this year by adding a day of music at the Seaside Lagoon on July 3. The radio station does, however, plan to participate in 4th of July festivities with an eye towards holding other events…
Read MoreSixteen candidates vie for Jane Harman’s seat in Congress in the jungle primary
Sixteen candidates vie for Jane Harman’s seat in Congress in one of the first tests of the state’s new ‘open’ primary system A political bombshell exploded in the early morning hours of Monday, February 7. Jane Harman, an influential U.S. Congresswoman who only three months earlier had earned her ninth term representing District 36 in…
Read MoreGin, Webb face off in race for Congress
Mike Gin and Mike Webb have been friends and political supporters of each other for a long time. Both are Republicans. Both have served the city of Redondo Beach in various capacities for two decades. Gin began as a Preservation and then a Planning commissioner, subsequently served two terms on the City Council. He is…
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