Waterfront ‘rescuer’ bows out, Boyd ends car show after 25 years

(Editor’s note: this article has been re-posted after recent stories were erased due to a problem with the Easy Reader web server).

 

by Garth Meyer

“Cruise at the Beach Legacy Car Show” has closed its two-and-a-half-decade run in Redondo Beach.

Before the final event, Dec. 13, founder and organizer Darryl Boyd announced it is done. The weekly summer series became a subject of strife, according to Boyd, with new neighbor California Surf Club, coinciding with the City asking Boyd for permit fees for the first time in the show’s history, which were set to take effect next year.

Boyd contends it is not the permits, he could afford them if he had to. It is the way he’s been treated in the past five years, after bringing the event back from the pandemic.

In the background, Boyd has been in a face-off this year with Redondo Beach Mayor Jim Light about safety concerns regarding a street median near his house.

The problems started, though, he said, on the waterfront asphalt.

“Cruise at the Beach Legacy Car Show” was a tribute to the days when Harbor Drive loop-turned in front of today’s Captain Kidd’s, making an ideal cruising strip in a time when Detroit made cars identifiable from a beach town away, not to mention Germany and Japan; 1960s and ‘70s vehicles which teenagers could work on, no computer diagnostics required. The music coming out of 8-tracks, then cassettes was so striking, much of it would be played 50 years into the future.

But it all fell apart in the neon light, or the glow from the KONA Aloha Garden at California Surf Club, which opened in May, just as Boyd was about to begin the 25th season of the car show.

It was a season he did not even want to do.

He ultimately decided to for another year. He had an agreement with the city that he could leave his trailer in the parking lot through the summer, which held P.A. equipment, tables, and tents, while he was doing the shows, extending to events at Halloween, Thanksgiving and the Christmas gathering this past weekend. 

Boyd contends the trailer agreement was fought by city representatives, and also that he had to get an attorney before the city backed off and let him finish out the year, under the previous, no-permit-required-plus-free-parking deal for participating vehicles. 

Boyd previously stored equipment at Ruby’s. Then, without that, he brought down the trailer instead.

“I support the car show. I think it’s great,” said Allen Sanford, California Surf Club co-owner and BeachLife Festival co-founder. “The California Surf Club loves car shows. Everything that brings people down to the waterfront. I did not kibosh it at all. We are surprised by the misdirected vitriol. We support any individual that wants better for the City of Redondo Beach, who is not content with the status quo, and who wants to contribute to a collective vision of what the waterfront could and should be. We hope they work it out. It’s an empty lot. It’s never full.”

But as the summer went on Boyd said he had enough. 

“Darryl’s been operating without a permit,” said Mayor Light. “The city was a little lax (in previous years), and people were saying why does he get an unfair deal? Why does he get to have sound without a permit, why can he operate a food truck without a permit?”

After this summer, city staff asked Boyd to move out the trailer. He replied he had a longstanding agreement  – with the city contractor who runs the parking lot – to leave the trailer in place through the three fall shows.

“So the city said it would honor that agreement through the end of the year,” Light said. “After that, he would need to get a permit.”

“We’ve had some people come forward with interest in running it,” the mayor continued. “… I fully expect there will be a car show next summer. Darryl is welcome to apply. If we get multiple applicants, he might have to compete for it. The city welcomes a car show there. I used to go to the show before Mr. Boyd started his tirades about the hedge on his street and then about the Surf Club and (its) North Grill.  We actually fought the CenterCal project to preserve space for events like the car show and Super Bowl 10K.”

“When nothing was going on down there, I saved it,” Boyd said.

He cites a change in the past two to three years, after the pandemic cancellations.

“It was an unwelcome vibe. When Ruby’s was open, it was different. Why do I want to be in a place where the vibes are terrible. It’s painful, it’s hard labor,” Boyd said. “I’m not going to watch our crowd being treated that way. The treatment is one thing, the pain I go through to do it, is another. This is a piece of Redondo Beach history that I preserved. We’re seeing the gentrification of Redondo Beach happening. It’s my choice; what I started with the Boyd family is going to end with me and my family,” he said, referring to his father and grandfather’s history with cars, hot-rodding and dirt-track racing.

Is Boyd opposed to permits being required for events at the waterfront?

“Who in their right mind would do that [pay] and go in the hole?” Boyd said. “(The car show) has been a gift to the city. They don’t get what was given to them. Commerce and a free event that the community has come to love. They got a gift from me, for 25 years.”

 

Chris Bredesen

Chris Bredesen, co-owner of Captain Kidd’s, was involved in bringing Cruise at the Beach back after the pandemic shutdowns. Boyd went to him because there was no more Ruby’s to go to as a sponsor. It closed in 2020.

“It was a very local, smooth event. Then (the pandemic) happened, it stopped for a couple years,” Bredesen said. “The next couple years, just a nice event. Everybody was respectful, a great show.”

Any noise issue?

“Trust me, other events do much more noise than that. We love those shows, they bring people down. The sales increase. It’s good, it’s a bummer that they’re done.”

Bredesen took part in Cruise at the Beach through the King Harbor Association, which helped Boyd with some hard costs, such as paying for bands, and portable restrooms. The Association acted as a sponsor. 

“It’s not fair for that guy to go out of pocket for an event like that,” Bredesen said. “It’s a non-problem event. The numbers don’t lie; he brought people in (to the restaurants).”

Bredesen also co-owns Riviera Mexican Cantina, which opened on the waterfront in spring 2024.

 

 

Boyd said the new permits would add up to $2,500 per show, including the required insurance.

But he maintains the permits were not the sole issue.

Mayor Light points out that in January, In-N-Out Burger will hold a classic car cruise at Seaside Lagoon. It and other events have had to get permits.

On Saturday, Boyd paid tribute to his grandfather at the final Cruise at the Beach. 

“Car culture is as much a Southern California tradition as surfing,” he said.

Boyd has been critical of the mayor and city council representatives about a Prospect Avenue median in front of his Redondo Beach house that he says is dangerous.

“It’s beyond car shows. It’s become a personal thing because I’m holding the mayor’s feet to the fire,” he said.

 

City waterfront director Greg Kapovich

When the car shows started, Ruby’s was fairly new, and On the Rocks was still open in the adjacent building, both of which went vacant for years before being reconstructed and combined to create California Surf Club.

“When I approached Ruby’s about starting a show, they were excited, and wanted it right away,” Boyd said. 

The permit now being asked of him is called a Harbor Access Permit.

“We wanted to formalize the process,” said Greg Kapovich, Redondo Beach waterfront and economic development director. “We’re in a different state down there now, all our buildings are occupied, there’s a need for the parking lot.”

The permit’s flat rate is $426, plus the hourly cost of however many parking spots it takes up.

“It’s not a money-maker,” Kapovich said. “If an event’s using shared space that affects other businesses, that’s when it comes into play. We’re trying to balance the needs of everybody.”

To apply, you submit a letter, a site plan and “we look at it on a case-by-case basis,” Kapovich said. “But it’s universal, it’s applicable to everybody.”

The original arrangement for Boyd and Cruise at the Beach was coordinated by the parking lot management company. 

“We’ve got to formalize this,” Kapovich said. “We can’t give an event quite that much wiggle room without (review/oversight). Our parking lot management company, we allowed them to dictate terms…” 

“That’s me,” Kapovich said when asked who made the decision to change the permit policy. 

“We want to recover lost revenue, $2 per hour per stall,” he said.

The new system is set to start Jan. 1. 

“We honored (Boyd’s) past agreement, but after the new year this is applicable to everyone,” Kapovich said. “There’s no longer anyone grandfathered in.”

He added that the new process has drawn interest for summer 2026.

“We’re getting quite a few inquiries from people wanting to put on car shows,” he said. “Including people from Darryl’s car group.”

Boyd, a 38-year Redondo resident, first cruised Harbor Drive in 1977, coming in from his childhood home in Lawndale. His father and grandfather passed away two years after the “Cruise at the Beach” car shows began

Darryl gave a concluding speech at the final show, Dec. 13, before the newly expanded King Harbor Holiday Boat Parade.

He thanked a group who helped put on the events for the last two years: Jim Newell, Paul Medina, Bill Kidman, Rob DeCrezsendo, Dagberto Rodriquez and Zack Macabulos.

“… And of course (in the late ‘70s) I was getting into trouble down here in the Beach Cities with the muscle car, street machine, and rock & roll crowd. This kid from Lawndale and his friends spent summer days in Manhattan and Hermosa Beach. But summer nights were right here, cruising Hermosa Avenue to Harbor Drive. Imagine the days when bands like Journey, Van Halen, Dokken, The Ramones, Black Flag and so many more were playing right across the street. The old triangle shopping center was the home of rock & roll clubs like the Smokestack, later called the Fleetwood, and the Sweetwater. Mix that music scene with our car culture and it was magic. Hang out and party in the old gravel parking lot right here. And maybe later you were off to race for pink slips at Santa Fe Avenue or Pershing Drive. It was exciting, it was rock & roll, it was life in the fast lane, it was epic, it was a culture and a lifestyle. It was historic. It was the best of times and it will never happen again.”

Later, Boyd had one more comment.

“And city leaders could have put differences aside for a day and just come by and acknowledge the 25 years,” he said. “And none of them did.” ER