Gin Touts City's Performance After Two Tough Years

When Redondo Beach Mayor Mike Gin made his annual State of the City address Tuesday, he didn’t say he was thinking about running for Jane Harman’s 36^th Congressional District seat. But he is thinking about it, and plans to announce a decision next week, he said last night.

It could be an interesting decision, because City Attorney Mike Webb announced last week that he is running for Harman’s seat.

Webb was among 250 in the audience as Gin rattled off the city’s accomplishments during the last year in his sixth State of the City address to mostly civic and business leaders inside the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

“Last year was probably the most challenging year, from a financial perspective, that I think any of us have seen in modern times,” Gin said. To get through it, city departments took 6-percent cuts across the board for the second year in a row, trimming $8 million from the city's $64-million budget.

Property tax revenue declined last year, but sales tax revenue increased, and the city's focus on revitalizing the harbor areas resulted in the passage of Measure G, Gin said.

An additional 120,000 square feet of retail space is under construction south of the Galleria, including a Sprouts and Panera Bread. Using federal funds, the city was able to complete several infrastructure projects last year, including resurfacing portions of Aviation and Palos Verdes boulevards and continuing the Esplanade improvement project.

Gin touted the Alta Vista Diversion and Reuse Project to improve ocean water quality. 

Using Homeland Security grants, the city is purchasing two additional automated license plate readers t0 be installed atop police cruisers to spot stolen vehicles and drivers wanted on warrants, Gin said. As an officer drives through town, the reader is constantly scanning license plates and alerting the officer if a driver has been involved in two or more offenses for driving under the influence, he said.

On the entertainment front, Gin noted that part of an episode of TV's Modern Family was filmed at the South Bay Galleria, although the name “South Bay” was removed for the shoot, he said.

This year is the 20^th anniversary of the Wyland Whaling Wall mural on the side of the AES power plant. Gin said the artist Wyland will be refurbishing the gray whale mural soon. “It’s going to be beautiful,” the mayor said.

And sometimes good things just happen, especially when one is hospitable. When 20 Chinese students visited Redondo Beach families last summer, they donated more than 1,000 books on Chinese history to the city before they left.

Gin gave the Mayor’s Lifetime Community Service Award to Les and Maryann Guthrie, who own the Marina Cove Ltd. In King Harbor, for their service to the city.

The title of Gin’s address was "Moving Forward: More Vitality, More Community, More to Sea.”