Manhattan Village a no brainer

Dear ER:

The Manhattan Village expansion is a no brainer.

1. We want to keep the tax revenues in Manhattan Beach.

2. We want to keep jobs in Manhattan Beach

3. We want to do what’s best for Manhattan Beach.

I urge the Manhattan Beach City Council to move ahead with approving the expansion.

Warren Rohn

Manhattan Beach

Redondo waterfront a no brainer

Dear ER:

A mall on the beach? Really? Do we really want to stuff 50 acres worth of retail and parking into 15 acres on our Redondo Beach waterfront? Do we really want to contract with a developer whose experience with malls is in Utah?

Redondo Beach should stop piecemeal, band-aid solutions for its past mistakes and design a waterfront master plan that includes the AES property. The CenterCal waterfront development will be no mere nightmare for the citizens of Redondo Beach. It will require an additional 30,000 cars a day in that tiny area. We will have an overdeveloped, concrete mess resulting in empty storefronts, while blocking views and not allowing for the recreational enjoyment of our precious waterfront.

Becoming the crown jewel of the coastline will require professional market and financial analyses, which have been ignored up to this point in favor of developers with dreams of lining their own pockets at our expense.

George Kaszas

Redondo Beach

Format matters

Dear ER:

I need to tell someone how inconvenient and annoying it is to read your paper in its new broadsheet size. I know the general public does not like change, so I have given this some time, thinking maybe I would get used to it. I have always enjoyed reading your paper, but I am almost at the point of just throwing it away. It does not fit when I am at my desk, or on my kitchen island or at my dining room. If I can find a surface clear enough for the paper to fit, I cannot see the top of the paper because it is too far away. If I pull the paper down far enough to read the top (folding the bottom down) then turning the page becomes a project because the paper does not want to fold unless one flattens it out — which again requires this large space.

This morning I witnessed a man at a local restaurant trying to turn a page. It took as long as reading the article because it would not fit on the counter where he was seated. I worked in the printing business for some time. I know that if the printing was turned 90 degrees, the same amount of words could go horizontally. Whoever made this decision to change this format made a real mistake. Reading your paper today is just annoying.

Sheila Douglas

by email

Hermosa revisited

Dear ER:

I remember the last group of vocal group of people who wanted to keep Hermosa Hermosa many years ago. They were against the construction of the Pier Plaza. I still remember all the emotion-laden letters to the editor and their far-fetched claims of how the new Plaza was going to ruin Hermosa. They warned of the loss of parking spaces, the loss of business revenue, the inconvenience and expense, and anything else they could conjure up to convince others to share their beliefs. And they were so sure of themselves. They cried “Wolf!” when there were only puppies around. Fortunately, they did not prevail. The Pier Plaza was built, and, over time, not one, but all their claims were proven false. All their wolves were harmless puppies.

Today, a similar group of people are against drilling for oil in Hermosa. They, too, want to keep Hermosa Hermosa. They, too, are writing emotion-laden letters filled with any far-fetched claim they can conjure up to “prove” Hermosa will be ruined if oil drilling is allowed. They, too, are willing to exaggerate dangers and inconveniences to convince others to share their beliefs. And they, too, are so very sure of themselves. They, too, are crying “Wolf!” when there are only puppies around. Hopefully, sound reasoning will again prevail and Hermosa will be saved from being financially crippled.

John Szot

Hermosa Beach

Kentucky wisdom

Dear ER:

I was raised in Kentucky and my family was in the coal, oil and natural gas business. They all go together.  Even underground, one of the biggest challenges is pressurized gas getting into the lines and then the heat and friction causing an explosion.

That problem is magnified when you add a billion tons of water pressure (the weight from the ocean). Look at BP in the gulf.  That is what caused the top of the oil rig to explode. In Hermosa that same explosion would take out blocks around the proposed site, then spew flaming oil on the rest of Hermosa Beach. The smoke plume and toxins would cover most of Los Angeles.

The proposal says they will only have a fixed amount of time to drill all 34 wells and when time runs out they have to stop at whatever number of wells that are finished.   What do you think will happen when they start pushing to finish the wells on time?  Will corners be cut like they were in the Gulf by BP?

Kirk

By email

Oil precedent

Dear ER:

I live in the sand section of Manhattan beach and have been following the discussions in Hermosa beach about oil drilling in the community.

Previous to moving close to the beach I lived in the tree section in full view of the Chevron oil refinery. The area that is classified by the Realtors, the community, and newspapers as the least desirable areas to live in Manhattan Beach. I feel that drilling for oil will be detrimental to the south end of Manhattan beach, safety, smell, property values.

The city council should prepare a resolution to present to the city of Hermosa Beach that we are against the drilling for oil in their town. I do realize that it would only be drilling and piping out, however there have been too many accidents in this arena.

Thank You and I look forward to hearing your response.

Concerned citizen

Received by email

Hermosa height fight

Dear Editor:

The Hermosa Council’s non-publicly-noticed, sham, 50-minute study-session, held April 22, was clearly designed by City Manager Tom Bakaly to to fool the voters into giving Hermosa’s new Council brains-trust of — Carolyn Petty, Hany Fangary, and Michael DiVirgilio — the authority to raise Hermosa’s downtown bar-district’s height-limit 50 percent — to 45-feet, from the present voted 30-feet.

Additionally proposed is the ludicrous idea of closing off of pieces of Beach Drive through the downtown for private developers’ benefit. And additionally, authority to build still another 30- to 45-foot tall, giant, view-blocking parking structure to service late-night bar-hoppers.

Is there no end of attempts by the City to “place 10-pounds of manure into a 5-pound sack”?

Hermosa’s Council and their net $350,000/year city manager seem incapable of escaping a never-ending focus on anything other than the City’s dinky downtown.

During the same meeting, Petty and DiVirgilio went gaga over approving yet another new, high-impacting, 10,000-attendee commercial event in the downtown, which incredibly requires the closure of the large parking lot south of the bars-Plaza and Bank of America, for an entire summer weekend, right in the middle of August. This approval being made in the same meeting that these two intellectual-giants went gaga over the another overpaid, tax-money-wasting consultant who ludicrously called for the construction of a parking structure on the same parking lot being closed in August.

Howard Longacre

Hermosa Beach

 

Hermosa not so friendly

Dear ER:

I spend a good amount of time in Hermosa Beach, playing volleyball, eating lunch afterwards and enjoying breakfast on my days there. But car owners beware. Hermosa has stepped-up parking enforcement in ways guaranteed to annoy you. I’ve parked for years in the Vons parking structure in an attempt to protect my car from door dings. I’ve always made sure to park in a dead mans zone. This method of parking is now a ticketable offense. I got the ticket, saw the instructions to appeal and decided to do so.The process is interesting.Filing an appeal in writing that includes a photo,getting a ruling that I was still in violation, then getting an administrative hearing to appeal in person and then ultimately getting my appeal denied took about a year.

I thought my calm and logical arguments would result in a dismissal, in the end it didn’t. So, parkers beware, you’ve got to stay in the lines or you’ll get ticketed. It’s obviously a money grab. In the end all this does is make me want to eat in Riviera Village and avoid Hermosa’s unfriendly behavior.

 D. Adkins

Redondo Beach

WRAM ram

Dear ER:

I was shocked when I received my bill from California Water Service and was told that I had to pay a WRAM (Water Revenue Adjustment Mechanism) surcharge because my water usage was lower than expected. I would have received a WRAM credit on my bill if my usage had been higher than expected. I immediately turned on a faucet and let the water run. We are being exhorted to cut back water usage in this time of drought, and I thought I was doing my part.

Gary Kazanjian

Hermosa Beach

 

Mad men

E & B Natural Resources Ad

Nice try, E&B. Your full page ads in local newspapers says that by voting yes to oil drilling in Hermosa Beach, residents will have peace of mind because we could then underground our power lines. What? Power lines haven’t kept me up at night, but oil drilling certainly will. Informed Hermosans know the real issues, which include such dangerous, nerve racking consequences of oil drilling as air and water pollution, which could cause cancer, asthma and neurological disorders, heavy truck traffic and noise all day and night. These are just a few of the worries, yet you divert us from them.

Why? Oh yes, the money. According to your ad, it would be the money, but there is no guarantee of the revenue to be generated and Hermosans owe you money regardless, whether we vote yes or no. It seems we’re on the losing end, although the foresight of our city council has insured we will not go bankrupt.

Advertisers usually study the demographics they target. Have you considered all the people living in the South Bay? I encourage our neighbors to read our Environmental Impact Report, because they have a stake in this too. Sorry, E&B. You don’t belong here.

Peggy Cohen

Hermosa Beach

Future bet

Dear ER:

The oil issue in Hermosa Beach really comes down to a cost benefit analysis. The pro-oil folks are wooed by the potential for large sums of money, thanks to E&B Resources’ tremendous marketing efforts and talk of “new technology.” I, on the other hand, am persuaded by local headlines of methane explosions and noxious odors causing nosebleeds and migraines. Yes, the money E&B throws around is attractive but no amount of money would be able to restore Hermosa Beach to the wonderful little place it is currently if any one of the “unavoidable and unmitigable” risks outlined in the draft EIR comes to be. The pro-oil folks seem comforted by the amount of regulation in place to keep E & B on the up and up. But a quick history lesson reveals that regulations cannot prevent negligence or bad management. Equinox Oil, E&B’s former incarnation, had a blowout in Louisiana that bankrupted the company. The BP explosion occurred within the same stringent regulatory framework. Perhaps most alarming, according to the draft EIR (4.6-20), E&B’s very own proposal does not comply with the Los Angeles County Fire Code or with the the Chemical Process Safety Guidelines. For me the equation is simple, the risks of doing business with E&B Oil far outweigh the benefits.

Monique Ehsan

Hermosa Beach, CA

 

Put up or quit

Dear ER:

I’m compelled to send 3 comments in response to last weeks’ letters to the editor:

1)   Letter writer Sam Abrams brilliantly cut to the chase (money).  I can’t wait to hear E&B’s response to Abram’s suggestion that they posting a $1 billion+ irrevocable bond to guarantee the safety of oil drilling, which E&B is so absolutely sure of. It’s called ‘putting your money where your mouth is’.

2)    Has everyone been following the oil production problems, including illnesses, happening right now in both Wilmington and University Park?

Maureen Anderson,

Hermosa Beach

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