Video reveals pitfalls on path to improved Pier Plaza in Hermosa Beach
Following the success of “La La Land,” officials in Hermosa Beach have been debating whether the city should more aggressively pursue opportunities to attract moviemakers. The reaction to a recently released video might make them think twice about putting Hermosa on film.
The city arranged for a videographer to document a Saturday night on Pier Plaza last month, in what officials described as an effort to depict conditions that police officers patrolling the area typically encounter. The result, unveiled to the public at last week’s City Council meeting, prompted disagreement over whether the video accurately depicted the plaza and discord over whether the video should have been made in the first place.
The video, officials say, has overshadowed looming efforts to change both conditions and the character of Hermosa Beach’s downtown.
“Whether people think a video should have been done or shouldn’t have been done, it’s out there now. The real question is, what are we going to do next?” said Chief Sharon Papa of the Hermosa Beach Police Department.
Papa presented the video to the council as part of an update from the council’s Downtown Subcommittee. Following an incident last November, in which several police officers were injured while attempting to apprehend suspects on the Plaza, the subcommittee launched a review of proposals to improve conditions in the area.
The subcommittee, composed of Mayor Justin Massey and Councilmember Stacey Armato, provided a four-part proposal for addressing safety issues in the downtown. The plan includes a variety of potential solutions, ranging from enhanced lighting on and around the plaza to scheduling more cultural events in the area. The full council did not officially vote on the recommendations but seemed generally to agree with them. (The council did vote to approve the Planning Commission’s recommendation to increase review of Conditional Use Permits for late-night establishments from two times a year to three.)
Discussion of the plan, however, was invariably filtered through the video.
The seven-minute video condenses footage captured between 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 9 and 2:30 a.m. on Sept. 10. The earlier hours include scenes of families and people dining, but conditions deteriorate as the night goes on. The video captures people urinating in public, vomiting, and drinking from open containers. It culminates with a brawl involving at least a half-dozen people.
According to City Attorney Michael Jenkins, among the city staff consulted by the downtown subcommittee, the video was created by “a professional videographer who was tasked with recording a random Saturday night on the plaza.” Although no final invoice has been received, the price for the video will be around $2700, Jenkins said in an email.
According to Papa, the unidentified filmer was not accompanied by a police officer and was not given instructions on what to capture. Papa, along with council members who have done ride-alongs with the city’s police officers on weekend nights, denied that the footage was edited in a way to make conditions appear worse, and said that the images were representative.
Many residents disagreed.
“This one is put together, I don’t care what anyone says, in some way that photographer, that cinematographer, got the idea of what they wanted to see. I don’t see any of the happy people,” said resident Ray Dussault.
Though their frequency may be debated, incidents of violence on the plaza tend to assume a high profile. In an interview this week, Papa said that just four days after the video was released, a Community Service Officer stationed downtown was attacked and injured by an intoxicated person who had been refused service by an Uber driver.
Fights and other problems depicted in the video were present when Papa arrived as chief four years ago, she said. And while many of the solutions identified, such as improved lighting, have widespread support,implementation has stalled. She attributed this in part to the departure of City Manager Tom Bakaly last year, which she said derailed progress. But, with current City Manager Sergio Gonzalez now established in office, she said the city is poised to make improvements.
“We finally have a City Council that wants to do this,” Papa said.
But along with claims that the video exaggerated issues on the plaza, some argued that law enforcement could resolve them without further constraints on bars and restaurants. Confronted with images of people drinking in plaza-adjacent lots, for example, many people at last week’s meeting suggested dispatching officers to these areas and issuing citations, creating a deterrent.
Papa said that issuing citations is rarely as quick or simple as people imagine. Pursuing one violation often leads to the discovery of others in the same stop. The result is that dispatching officers to parking lots can result in them being kept off the Plaza, where their presence can discourage fights or rowdy behavior, for extended periods of time.
Council members said that scrutiny of downtown did not stem from an anti-business attitude. Indeed, Councilmember Hany Fangary said he was motivated in part by economy-centered comments from residents and businesses.
“The residents, sometimes they don’t feel comfortable going to downtown, because of some of the things that happen in the video, and they decide to go to dinner in Manhattan or Redondo Beach instead of downtown Hermosa on a Friday or Saturday night. And retail businesses have to close earlier because they are afraid of people coming in and harassing their employees at night,” Fangary said.
Downtown restaurant owners saw things differently. In an interview, plaza restaurateur Ron Newman said that the events depicted, even if they did occur in one night, were not representative of a typical evening on the plaza. He also questioned the timing of the video’s release, noting the proximity of the election in November.
“Typically, the first thing people do when there is an election coming up is attack the bars,” Newman said.
City Manager Sergio Gonzalez said in an email that the item, like most things the council considers, had been bouncing around several tentative meeting agendas. Gonzalez said the downtown discussion was previously scheduled for the council’s Nov. 14 agenda but was moved to last week in late September, in part to ensure that relevant city staff could be present for the meeting.
Newman said that he wished the downtown subcommittee had done a better job of reaching out to business owners during the process of assembling their recommendations. He noted adjustments that area restaurants had volunteered over the summer, including the elimination of jumbo-sized alcoholic drinks. And, pointing to the success of his Tower 12 and Palmilla, argued that downtown was naturally shifting away from dark-room DJ venues toward lounges and upscale dining.
“Police and businesses and the city need to work together to keep making it better and better, rather than putting together a video. All that does is make the city look bad, instead of highlighting the progress that’s been made,” Newman said.