What makes any city special? The people who live there, of course.
Yet the focus of some members on the current Hermosa Beach city council suggests that the environment, green activism, and all-around nanny-state micromanaging should be the order of the day in Hermosa Beach.
Granted, I do not like cigarette smoke, but why should city leaders go out of their way to ban smoking in all public places, then advertise their anti-tobacco activism all over the world?
Banning Styrofoam does not make a city great, but it can sure grate on the residents. What's wrong with take out if the packaging takes a little longer to biodegrade? Hermosa Beach residents are old enough and wise enough on their own to tell their local merchants to use better packaging.
There are many things that make Hermosa Beach wonderful, and they have nothing to do with green micromanaging.
I love walking down Pier Avenue and visiting the local shops. Los Angeles County runs a library next to City Hall, too, which is a great place to get work done after a long walk along the beach.
And speaking of which, the beach is great, even and beautiful. Even if visitors and residents celebrate their freedom with a little too much license on July 4th, residents feel safe in Hermosa Beach. They never have to worry about getting killed or robbed, although weekend revelers tend to party a little too hard on the weekends.
(Of course, with so little crime and so few fires, one has to wonder why city leaders receive six-figure salaries and the city's public sector unions make so much noise about pension reforms?)
And who can forget The Beach Reporter, a welcome local paper which lets everyone have their say. Whether reporting on local news, or announcing the achievements of Beach Cities residents hear and abroad, local readers can count on The Beach Reporter to give everyone an eye into what makes Hermosa Beach great: the people who live there.
Hermosa Beach even has its own school district, a little institution which is making a big impact here and now, as well as for the future. Unique as well as inspiring Hermosa View and Hermosa Valley are enrolling more students even while other districts are facing bankruptcy or losing students. The school board now has to decide whether to renovate Valley North or just demolish the school and start over.
Instead of caring about the green, or even worse wasting green to protect the same, Hermosa Beach city leaders should spend their $100,000 on keeping their city clean and respecting the needs of the very element which makes the city great: the people who live there.
