Devil in the details
Dear ER:
There should be a distinction between short term vacation rentals and a family home whose owner wants to rent their place out when they’re away on vacation (“Where goes the neighborhood,” ER March 20, 2025). We’ve got the Los Angeles Olympics coming in 2028. It would be wonderful to capitalize on some of that tourism by offering vacation rentals for under 30 days.
Liz Tyndorf
Hermosa Beach
Sez who
Dear ER:
Why is it illegal to home share? Because five people on the city council voted that way 10 years ago. I don’t recall residents having a vote on the matter. In fact, hundreds of residents spoke in favor of reasonable regulations and they were ultimately stonewalled.
Joshua Friedrich
Hermosa Beach
Pros, cons and compromise
Dear ER:
The recent Builders Remedy project in Hermosa Beach has ignited intense frustration among residents, with much of the debate centered on who is to blame (“Where goes the neighborhood,” ER March 20, 2025). While accountability is important, it’s just as crucial to focus on the deeper issue—how we got here in the first place. At the heart of the conflict is a fundamental divide: homeowners striving to protect their property values and non-homeowners struggling to find an affordable way into the community. Hermosa Beach has an opportunity to take a proactive approach—one that embraces well-planned mixed-use development in commercial zones as a way to create a thriving, balanced, and more inclusive community that benefits both groups.
Homeowners’ Perspective: Hermosa Beach homeowners generally favor rising property values, which increase the value of their equity. Non-Homeowners’ Perspective: Young professionals, renters, and those looking to enter the housing market prefer lower prices. Many young people are priced out of homeownership, limiting opportunities for them to live and work in the area.
Incorporating mixed-use developments in downtown Hermosa Beach and other commercial areas can provide a middle ground by increasing housing supply while enhancing the community’s vibrancy.
By embracing smart incentives for housing and mixed-use projects in commercial zones, Hermosa Beach can address its affordability challenges while preserving the qualities that make it a desirable place to live.
Ed Hart
Hermosa Beach
Beach Cities stand together
Dear ER:
Redondo Residents need your support from the Hermosa Beach City Council. The proposed Metro Green Line extension route along the Right of Way behind homes in Redondo Beach will be devasting. It will result in over 220 commuter trains a day behind homes sharing a rail route with an industrial freight line, as well as four underground high-pressure fuel pipelines. That’s why Redondo residents and city council members spoke at the last Hermosa Beach Council meeting on March 25 to ask for help to oppose this route.
We were therefore shocked the Hermosa City council pulled discussion of Right of Way off that night’s agenda and will wait to address it only after the environmental impact report is released.
Back in 2015, when Measure O (oil drilling in Hermosa Beach) proponents came to my office meeting in Hermosa Beach, they spoke about how great oil drilling would be for the city. Everyone in the room, which was mostly composed of Redondo residents said no way. We didn’t need to wait for an environmental report to help support our neighbors. The best route for the proposed Metro Extension is along Hawthorne Blvd.It increase ridership by estimates of over 40%. Please help protect our neighborhoods and reject the route along the Right of Way Hermosa Beach City Council.
Wayne Craig
Redondo Beach
Beach Cities stand,
but not too tall
Dear ER:
Devastating. Distraught. Demoralizing. These are just some of the feelings of our neighbors who live on Oak Avenue in Manhattan Beach when they learned that the Manhattan Beach might approve the building of a 7-story, high rise apartment in their backyard (2301 N. Sepulveda Blvd). The environmental and financial consequences will be dire. Yes, high rise residential buildings of seven stories, eight stories and even 18 stories may be built on State Highway 1, on the westside of Sepulveda Boulevard. Don’t think it can’t happen in your neighborhood someday with the State wanting to upzone in every neighborhood. It’s time for residents to unite.
Manhattan Beach Mayor Amy Howorth and her new City Council have recently taken two steps in the right direction when they amended our Zoning Code to identify to two specific purposes of residential districts. 1. To protect adjoining single family residential districts from excessive loss of sun, light, quiet, and privacy from proximity to multifamily development, and 2. To ensure adequate light, air, privacy, and open space for each dwelling, and protect the residents from the harmful effects of excessive noise, population density, traffic congestion, and other environmental effects.
However, more needs to be done. Most importantly, the City needs to persuade the State to amend our Housing Element and move the Residential Overlay District to Rosecrans Avenue to where high-rise, mixed-use development will not have specific, adverse impacts to any of our residential neighborhoods.
Mark Burton
Manhattan Beach
Shining light in the district
Dear ER:
Beach Cities Health District care manager Charlotte Barnett is a shining example of the type of services provider voters approved when they approved formation of the district. Care management is one of only two BCHD programs that requires you to be a “resident who resides within the District”. That is the language the Hospital District provided to the Superior Court regarding its service area and benefits. All other services except Blue Zones Restaurant reviews and advertising are district taxpayer funded but wide open to any comer from outside the District. I am so glad that Lisa P’s 88-year old mother is able to age in place and receive services from BCHD (“Elder care thanks,” ER Letters, March 27, 2025). Our taxpayer funding and assets are meant exactly for her mother. Let this be a shining example of what the residents of the District must require from the wayward BCHD Board and executives.
Mark Nelson
Redondo Beach
Editor’s update
“In May, 2024, Easy Reader published a story about E-bike usage in the South Bay. The story attributed statements to an individual who had been involved in an incident on May 3, 2024 with a group of teenage e-bikers. That individual has apologized to the family of one of the teenage e-bikers rider, and holds himself fully responsible for his actions. He does not attribute blame to the teenager involved.”
