Local Group Leads Effort to Revive Band Shell

In the midst of a recession and a state budget crisis, a sunny beach scene depicted on the band shell at Veterans Park is deteriorating, revealing a bland gray surface beneath. Leadership Redondo, a community volunteer group, believes it's high time to replace it.

Leadership Redondo, which consists of individuals who live and/or work in the city and aspire to become community leaders, is considering replacing the band shell that the Chamber of Commerce created for its annual Christmas pageant in 1957. It has since hosted a variety of other city events.

The band shell's extreme disintegration as a result of the salty air and ocean winds is a fairly recent development that began within the last year, said Craig Funabashi, coordinator of the Leadership Redondo program. He said that when he last visited Veterans Park in the fall the band shell looked to be in significantly better shape than it is now.

Now the mural painted by artist Ray Constantine in 2001 that decorates the sides of the band shell has crumbled beyond preservation in some areas.

City engineers have said that the shell's structure and supports are beginning to deteriorate as well.

Seth Berg, a member of the Leadership Redondo Class of 2010 and the class' unofficial spokesperson, said that the band shell was not built to last forever.

"It lasted a pretty good amount of time but it won't last another 50 years," he said.

The Leadership Redondo Class of 2010 is looking at catalogs and a variety of other materials in considering possible replacement designs for the band shell, Funabashi said. Berg said that replacing it with a new band shell is not a likely option, as the idea of using a bandshell to amplify sound is now an "archaic" concept.

"With current sound systems today you don't need a band shell," Berg said. "The bandshell would come down and there are a lot of actions we could take out there that could open that area up."

One concept that the class is considering would be to create some type of a portable, removable unit for the bandstand, Berg said.

"The initial discussion was that it would be something that would not block the view of the ocean from the park," Funabashi said. "The band shell would be almost portable, if you will, or at least be something that could be taken down when not in use. So I know that's part of the discussion the class is having. Why destroy that view?"

Although the City Council has not made any decisions, Mayor Mike Gin said that the city welcomes the collaboration with Leadership Redondo. The group has requested that the city pay for demolition, and Gin said the council would discuss that possibility soon.

Leadership Redondo plans to host a fundraising event within the next year to collect money for the project. Berg said he could not yet venture a guess as to what it would cost.

"We are in the early stages but the class is very excited about this project," he said. "We decided to do something that we could drive by in 20 years and say that it was something we did for our city."

Although there is as of yet little controversy over the matter of replacing the band shell, Funabashi said he would not be surprised to see some opposition from certain members of the community.

The city's 2010-2011 proposed capital improvement budget reserves $58,000 to remove the band shell and prepare the site for a new structure.

"It'll be very interesting as this thing hits the public," he said. "There are bound to be some members of the community who will maybe take issue with the mural and want it preserved, although I don't personally know of anyone. And I can't help but think that with the current budget crisis, there's bound to be some in our community who are going to take issue with any money the city spends."