Hermosa Beach

About Town

Centennial badges - Hermosa Beach police officers are wearing new badges to mark the year-long celebration of the city’s 100th birthday.  Several officers offered their input on the design of the centennial badge, which is modeled after the original Hermosa Beach “Marshall” badge from 1907. Funding for the badges came from the Hermosa Beach Woman’s Club and the Hermosa Beach Police Officers Association, and the badges were produced by the department’s normal supplier, V & V Manufacturing of the City of Industry.

Centennial cocktails - Local bars and restaurants will compete to become “Home of the Official Hermosa Centennial Cocktail” 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 22, at Sangria Restaurant on the Pier Plaza, in the first adult-oriented event to mark the city’s 100th birthday.  “The winner will maintain the title for 100 years,” said Maureen Ferguson, co-chair of the Hermosa Beach Centennial Committee.  

Judging will be based on the number of centennial drinks sold in the two-hour period, organizers said. Each business may only enter one bartender, and the entrance fee will be a $500 centennial sponsorship.  In addition, $1 for every drink sold will be donated to support upcoming centennial programs and events, and a silent auction will raise still more centennial cents.  

“We really wanted to encourage centennial participation by the bars and restaurants in Hermosa,” Ferguson said.  “Many of our events have and will focus on families,” Ferguson. “This event is geared to getting the young adult crowd involved in something centennial while raising much needed funds for all the great events still planned. I am sure the community would love to see some more fireworks this summer, and those aren’t cheap.”  

Bars signed up for the event to date include Blue 32, Sangria, Hennessey’s, Patrick Molloy’s, Dragon, Mermaid and Mediterraneo.   For information on the centennial, see www.Hermosa100.com/  or call Ferguson at 310-379-8890.  

Mad flava - The Hermosa Valley and View School nutrition program presents “Focus on Flavor,” an evening with chef Robert Bell, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 20, at Chez Melange Restaurant.  Organizers promise “a rare opportunity to learn from a master chef” in “a special interactive cooking class featuring a delicious, fresh, nutrient-rich dinner you can prepare for the entire family.”  

Class size is limited to 24 parents, and advance reservations and payment of $45 “per cook” is required. All proceeds will go to the schools’ nutrition and garden program.  The class will be taught at Chez Melange Restaurant inside the Palos Verdes Inn, 1716 Pacific Coast Hwy., Redondo Beach. For reservations, contact Kris Lauritson at 310-374-3980 or klor5@aol.com; reservations must be in no later than Feb. 15.  

Hearing postponed - A hearing has been postponed until April 3 to consider the remainder of a criminal case against two men who are suing the city, claiming false arrest, excessive force and malicious prosecution in a videotaped incident on the Pier Plaza, July 4, 2003.  Christopher Briley was acquitted on misdemeanor charges of battery on a police officer and challenging a person to fight in public. A jury deadlocked on misdemeanor charges against Briley and Justin Thomas of resisting arrest or delaying a police officer. At the April hearing, a judge will consider whether the prosecution can continue with those charges. ER

Hermosa Beach

Full paid seating for Hermosa Open?

by Robb Fulcher

The California Coastal Commission next week will discuss whether the AVP may charge admission for all spectators on the concluding three days of the Hermosa Open pro beach volleyball tournament this summer.

The commission staff has recommended that the commissioners deny the AVP request, and instead continue to allow the AVP to charge for 24 percent of the seating instead of 100 percent. The commissioners are scheduled to discuss the matter Wednesday, Feb. 14, in San Diego.

Last year the commission rejected an AVP request to charge admission for 16 of the 255 matches.

“The commission found that this proposal was inconsistent with the public access and recreation policies of the [state] Coastal Act because it did not ensure that at least 76 percent of the seating for each of the 255 matches played was free,” a commission report stated.

The Coastal Commission is charged with preserving free access to the state’s beaches.

About 7,000 spectators are expected to attend the Hermosa Open each day, the report stated. The AVP expects to occupy between three and six acres of Hermosa’s beach sand, north of the city pier.

The AVP’s application to the Coastal Commission seeks to charge admission for about 10,400 spectators seated at the event July 20 through July 22.

Admission for opening day qualifying rounds on July 19 would be free.

On following days, tickets would cost $20 for general admission, covering about 2,900 bleacher seats in a large temporary stadium and 6,500 seats around the outer courts, and $40 for reserved seating, covering about 600 seats in the stadium and 1,560 around the outer courts. General admission tickets for students would cost $10.

A three-year contract with the City of Hermosa Beach states that the city will allow the AVP to charge admission at any level granted by the Coastal Commission.

But the City Council approved the contract with a caveat that it would be renegotiated if the Coastal Commission allows the AVP to sell more tickets. In addition to items guaranteed under the contract, the city also agreed to waive $17,000 in event fees for the AVP, and agreed to cover the AVP’s transportation costs using state money.

The publicly owned AVP lost $9 million in 2005, according to an annual report the association filed in April 2006 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

“We have a history of losses and anticipate future losses and may never become profitable. AVP has operated at a loss since 2001, when current management was installed. Losses for 2005 and 2004 were $9 million and $2.9 million, respectively,” the report states, in a section enumerating risk factors for potential AVP investors.

“We cannot predict whether our current or prospective business activities will ever generate enough revenue to be profitable,” the report continues.

“Beach volleyball is a relatively new sport, so its continuing popularity cannot be assumed, unlike baseball, basketball, football, golf or auto racing,” the report states. “Public tastes change frequently, so interest in beach volleyball may decline in the future. Our ability to generate revenue and earn profits would be threatened by a loss of popular interest in the sport.”

In neighboring Manhattan Beach, city officials have agreed to back an AVP effort to get Coastal Commission clearance for 100 percent paid attendance for the venerable Manhattan Open, often called “the Wimbledon of beach volleyball.” But Manhattan officials stressed that what they want is local control of the event, and the extent of paid attendance would be a subject of later negotiation with the AVP. ER

Hermosa Beach

About Town

Ball field reopens - Clark Field, the home field for Hermosa Beach Little League, AYSO soccer and a popular adult slo-pitch league, is set to reopen Monday, Feb. 12, following a four-month renovation that includes a new irrigation system and new sod.

Park TV - “Hermosa Beach 90254,” highlighting classes, special events, excursions, performances and activities coordinated by the Hermosa Beach Community Resources Department, has begun airing on Time Warner Cable TV Channel 8.

The show runs 5 and 8 p.m. Sunday, Monday, Friday and Saturday, with an additional showing 11 p.m. Monday. It is hosted and produced by area resident Kathy McCadden.

“As commissioner for the Parks and Recreation Department, I have wanted to produce a show that would highlight the services provided to the community,” said Christine Hollander. “Our centennial year seemed to be the perfect time to kick off this show.

“Our local residents are the stars of the show” said Hollander. The first show covered a fundraiser at Fort Lots O’ Fun on the corner of Sixth and Prospect, and the city’s annual Christmas Tree Lighting and Sand Snowman Contest.

Show sponsors include the City of Hermosa Beach, Time Warner, Hermosa Arts Foundation, Hermosa Beach Kiwanis and Friends of the Parks. Additional sponsors are being sought; for information call 310-318-0247.

Chief seeks input - Police Chief Greg Savelli is asking residents to e-mail “comments, concerns and suggestions” about the city police force to GSavelli@HermosaPolice.org, saying the department is proud of its accomplishments but frustrated at times by negative news.

Savelli last August took the chief’s position and called for a “strong spirit of cooperation” between officers and residents. The department had been marked by some internal squabbles, at least one inter-department lawsuit, and a civil service dispute with a fired officer.

“The members of this department perform very difficult and easily criticized tasks every day. Most of the department’s work goes on without challenges or complaint. In fact, almost daily I receive calls and letters from community members that praise and commend the work done by the department and its members,” Savelli wrote in an open letter to residents that appeared on the city’s “E-Newsletter,” available at Hermosabch.org.

Savelli wrote that he encourages residents to offer feedback, which is used “to gauge and direct our impact on the community.”

Hearing postponed - A hearing has been postponed until April 3 to consider the remainder of a criminal case against two men who are suing the city, claiming false arrest, excessive force and malicious prosecution in a videotaped incident on the Pier Plaza, July 4, 2003.

Christopher Briley was acquitted on misdemeanor charges of battery on a police officer and challenging a person to fight in public. A jury deadlocked on misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest or delaying a police officer against Briley and Justin Thomas. At the April hearing, a judge will consider whether the prosecution can continue with those charges.

The acquittals came after jurors were shown video footage of the incident by a cameraman who was shooting local comedian Eric Coleman performing improvisational pieces with the Pier Plaza’s crowded party scene as a backdrop.

“The jurors were horrified by what was on that TV screen,” said Thomas Beck, the men’s attorney.

Attorney Damian Capozzola, who represented Hermosa, agreed that the video played an important role in the trail, but said the footage supported the officers.

The federal lawsuit against the city by Briley and Thomas claims that Philips knocked Briley to the ground while he was handcuffed, and Cook wrenched and broke Thomas’ forefinger. Trial could begin in the lawsuit by August, Beck said. ER

Hermosa Beach

MOMS, others get beautiful

by Robb Fulcher

Volunteers including Hermosa Beach MOMS have planted seven ficus trees and 25 flax shrubs on the greenbelt near Second Street, as Act No. 38 in the Hermosa Centennial’s “100 Acts of Beautification.”

That’s 38 acts down, 62 to go.

The 6-foot trees will grow to heights of about 25 feet and the shrubs will grow to about 6 feet in height. The plants were purchased by the Friends of the Park community group, and the city public works staff lent its expertise to the project (see photos, facing page).

“We want to polish up the city and leave Hermosa Beach in even better condition for the next 100 years,” said Michael DiVirgilio, a city public works commissioner who chairs the 100 Acts Committee.

The 100 acts include offering a “de-clutter” seminar, giving packets of Shasta Daisy seeds to residents to grow their own Hermosa flowers, and proposing an “Adopt a Bench” program.

Also counted among the 100 acts are city projects such as repaving streets and the recent installation of new toilets estimated to save the city hundreds of thousands of gallons of water each year.

For information about the Hermosa Beach Centennial, see www.Hermosa100.com or call Maureen Ferguson at 310-379-8890; for more about the 100 Acts of Beautification, call DiVirgilio at 310-940-1162. ER

Hermosa Beach

Scorpio Shoppe proprietor denies selling meth at store

by Robb Fulcher

The proprietor of the Scorpio Shoppe has denied allegations that he sold methamphetamine, following a police raid on the 21-year-old Hermosa Avenue store that specializes in vintage posters and clothing patches.

Wayne Mire, 55, of Hawthorne, was arrested Thursday evening after a half-dozen officers of the Redondo Beach Police Department’s Special Investigations Unit raided the store about 7 p.m., seizing a small amount of methamphetamine along with weight scales, Sgt. Gene Tomatani said.

Mire was booked on suspicion of possessing a controlled substance for sale, a felony, and was released on bail. Mire, son of longtime Scorpio owner Gerry Mire, 87, took over running the store about a year ago.

A store worker, Dana Holland, 23, of Manhattan Beach, was booked for allegedly possessing drug paraphernalia, a misdemeanor, and was released on her own recognizance.

Tomatani said methamphetamine was seized from a storeroom in the rear portion of Scorpio, and paraphernalia was discovered in the personal possession of Holland.

A drug-sniffing dog was used to locate the drug inside the store, which is cluttered wall-to-wall with merchandise, Tomatani said.

“We were greatly helped by our police K-9,” he said.

The bust followed a three-week investigation into information received by the Special Investigations Unit that drugs were being sold at the store, Tomatani said. A Superior Court judge approved a search warrant that officers served in the raid. The Special Investigations Unit probes allegations of narcotic-, gang- and vice-related crime.

Mire said police found less than one-tenth of a gram of methamphetamine on his person, and another small amount in the storeroom.

He said the substance in the storeroom was inside a box of antique poison bottles he had purchased, and was discovered days ago by people helping him organize his prodigious inventory for a relocation of the store.

“It was in an old prescription bottle – the kind with an easy-open top – and they said, ‘Man, that’s speed.’ And I said, “No, it’s not,’” Mire said. He said the prescription bottle remained with the antique bottles until police found it.

Mire said police also found several smoking pipes. But, he said, he had not been selling meth.

“This was not sales,” he said.

“I was not furnishing drugs to anybody,” he said. “I was not selling drugs to anybody.”

Mire said the scales seized by police were used to weigh stones and jewelry he sells, and in addition, he sells the scales themselves.

He said police found a pipe rolled up in a woman’s shirt near the store counter and alleged that it belonged to Holland, but Mire said the pipe did not belong to her. He said Holland initially left the store when police shooed everybody out except for Mire. Then, he said, Holland returned voluntarily because she was concerned about him.

Holland declined comment on the matter, referring questions to Mire.

Mire said he was caught selling drugs 20 years ago, and served a seven and-a-half month, minimum security sentence at Wayside Honor Ranch near Castaic. He said he kept his nose clean before slipping up nine years ago, getting caught with a small amount of speed and serving a one-year sentence. He said he completed parole early and stayed on the straight and narrow, until recently.

“Somewhere within this last year, working all these long hours, trying to make this move, I smoked speed a couple of times,” he said.

Mire’s chief regret, he said, is any damage he might have done to the reputation of the business his father built.

“I am angry that I inadvertently put a stain on my father’s store,” he said.

A story in Jan. 11 editions of Easy Reader detailed the upcoming relocation of Scorpio Shoppe, a development prompted by rising rents. Mire said he plans to close his doors within 14 days, and is selling all merchandise at 20 to 50 percent discounts. ER

Hermosa Beach

Punks celebrate Hermosa centennial birthday

by Matthew Townley

Local punk bands combined Hermosa’s centennial birthday with Hermosan Heather Schoonover’s 17th birthday with an evening long jam at the Hermosa Kiwanis hall.

The music began with Negative Influence who played a clean sounding hardcore genre along the lines of 98 Mute or early Deviates, and even covered Minor Threats anthem “Minor Threat.” The next two bands were the youngsters on the bill -- The Neckties and The Imposters. The Neckties are still in junior high at Hermosa Valley but have serious talent. Their singer was one of the standouts of the night. The guitars also reminded me of The Freeze and The Descendents. The Imposters continued the onslaught of minor aged musicianship in the punk rock strain. Next, the most mature aged of the bands took the stage. Eight Equals D played a quick set and were great entertainers. Lee plays drums and was another standout musician. The singer gave a nod of appreciation to the Neckties, expressing how surprised he was when he saw how young they were.

Next up was Local Hate. The crowd began to get aggressive at this point and a few fights broke out, mostly between the girls. STDs bass player Josh, along with the STDs crew, jumped right in and squashed the problem.

Local Hate played their Nardcore music, which came out of Oxnard and North Hollywood around ’81, influenced by surfing and skating pools. That’s when the cops began to show up, car after car. The disturbance was settled and no one was arrested. Then STDs took the stage.

STDs is always a great band live and the dancing continued as they played a lengthy set of their dense, full sounding music. Drummer Joe beat the nonsense out of his kit. They sang happy birthday to Heather and to Hermosa. As they began to play again, covering Voids “Who Are You?” which happens to be a favorite song of many and another DC hardcore classic, the centennial fireworks at the pier could be viewed from outside the club. I happened to be outside smoking a cigarette with a girl I met, so I got to enjoy the show. I even got a kiss.

STDs played a few more songs and then Slave Traitors prepared to close for the night. But they only played one song before the club turned the power off at 9:45. The club was reserved until 10. Everyone who had a lighter lit up the room in hopes they would turn the power back on. No such luck, but it was a great night anyway. ER

Hermosa Beach

Attorney, youth coach is mourned

Long time Hermosa Beach Youth Basketball coach and soccer coach Bruce L. Gelb passed away last Friday from cancer. The real estate attorney was known for his integrity, compassion, patience and witty sense of humor.

Gelb was born on Oct. 20, 1951, in Scranton, Pa. A graduate of University of Pittsburgh and law graduate of Temple University, he moved to Hermosa Beach in 1978 where he married his best friend Winnie. The couple raised three children, Sarah, Stefanie and Gregory. Gelb was a man of many talents and passions. In addition to practicing law, he was a property developer, teacher, writer and film maker.

Gelb donated selflessly to numerous community organizations and touched the lives of countless children as a youth soccer and basketball coach. His courage and strength were ever present through his five month battle with an aggressive cancer. In addition to his wife and children, he is survived by his mother Ruth and brothers Larry and Robbie. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be sent to Little Company of Mary Hospital’s “Friends of Nursing Foundation” or Congregation Tifereth Jacob Rabbi’s Fund, 1829 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266. ER

Letters to the Editor

HB to decide eatery's closure time

Next week, the Hermosa Beach City Council will decide whether Mediterraneo restaurant is to close at 2 a.m., the hour the owner would like, or midnight, the hour the Planning Commission gave him.

It will be a tough decision for council members. Most of the other restaurants on Pier Plaza enjoy the 2 p.m. closure time. If the public upholds the Planning Commission's midnight time, it would be a turning point in Hermosa. An old precedent will have been broken, and a new one set.

The hearing will be held 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall. The public can attend and speak to the item.

-- JIM LISSNER  Hermosa Beach

Sunday Letters to the Editor

HB bar plan a threat to public safety

This letter represents a plea that the Hermosa Beach Planning Commission and City Council exercise whatever influence they have to deny a permit for a 15,000-square-foot restaurant/bar at the Hermosa Pavilion. I currently own a business in Hermosa -- after 33 years in law enforcement for Los Angeles County. There was a time when I didn't think any city could have too many bars. What has happened to our little community shows me I was wrong.

The proposed monster bar at the Pavilion is not planned to meet the needs of the Hermosa drinkers. If every resident drank, we'd still have plenty of bars. It's an effort to draw drinkers and their wallets from out of the area. Make no mistake, that effort will be successful. As a former gang investigator, I found that every unsavory element imaginable between here and Riverside would find his way to the 91 freeway and drive toward the sun. That would drop them right here, about six blocks north of the proposed mega-bar.

This proposal represents a huge public safety issue ripe for a citizen's backlash. Weekend policing/patrols and 911 response times are already seriously compromised by the Pier Plaza bar scene, even when things are going smoothly. Between 1 a.m. and 2:30 a.m., I have to assume the majority of drivers here in Hermosa are drunk and trying to find their way out of town.

This bar is being planned and bankrolled by a truly interesting character, and local officials know it. He has relied on brinkmanship and foot dragging on other issues with the Pavilion, and the notion of a real, viable, restaurant is laughable. If the restaurant doesn't make him money -- which it won't -- he'll have a bigger bar. If he has entertainment, he can charge a cover, which is cash and under the radar as to reportable revenue.

In terms of planning, let's make some plans for our kids and their kids. This is not Moreno Valley. The folks who can afford to live here are bright, successful and obviously did something right with their lives, or have a trust fund. Please don't allow our elected officials to turn their backs on these people and pander to the developer and an army of horny twenty-somethings who will descend on our community. They will not be driving down here for dinner.

-- RICHARD HALLIBURTON

Hermosa Beach 

Hermosa Beach – Letters to the Editor

Audit ‘em

Dear ER:

I read with great interest last week’s letter “Drink to me thine eyes.”  I am in complete agreement with the writer’s scathing disapproval of what is happening in Hermosa Beach’s downtown bar district.  As a Hermosa Beach home owner, I am disgusted and appalled at what our fair city has become. 

All of our cops are down in the bar area.  You never see police around the rest of the city Thursday thru Sunday nights.  I hope my house isn’t being robbed because there would not be any police watching out for me.  They are all downtown stopping the fights, urinating, underage drinking, and doing their own share of checking out the chicks and admiring groupies.  It is pathetic.  Recent figures show that residential burglaries in Hermosa rose in 2004 from 137 in 2004 to 187 in 2005.  That is a whopping 36 percent.  It is no wonder, as our cops are all downtown where the fights and scenery are.

I heard recently that one homeowner who lives up the street from the pier awakened at midnight to strange noises outside his house and after looking out his window, discovered a young couple exploring their carnal knowledge on his front yard.  He turned the sprinklers on and that ended it.  He didn’t even report it to the cops.  How much of this sort of thing isn’t even added to the list of published statistics?

If I want to go downtown in my own city for a dinner on Friday night after working hard all week, I would have to wait in line behind a screaming bunch of tiny-bobs and gang bangers who live everywhere but here to get into a restaurant where the decibel level approaches the level of a jack hammer.  And then when I did get out of there with my lady without being thrown up on, leered at, and commented about, I could go home to my peaceful neighborhood…maybe.

Do I have to go to a neighboring city to eat on weekends?  Have we ever asked the ABC Board to audit those Pier bars to see if they are even paying their fair shared of city taxes?

Anonymous

Hermosa Beach

Hermosa Beach – Letters to the Editor

Drink to me with thine ayes

Dear ER:

The downtown drinking district continues to generate numerous quality of life issues and a negative image for our community.  Destruction is not limited to vandalism spilling into our neighborhoods. 

On May 25, 2006 during a candidates’ forum a resident spoke of violence (drunken brawl) that occurred in front of their home.  The victim’s scream awakened residents in the early morning hours, as the assault was in process.  I was especially distressing to witness because the victim was a woman.

The atmosphere of public intoxication, which is encouraged pay no dividends.

How unfortunate, families and children who desire to visit the beautiful beachfront and pier have to pass a throng of bars.

Hermosa’s permissive drinking policies in the downtown bar district is having a debilitating effect on our community.  The erosion of public safety touches the lives of every resident and property owner. 

Remedial action in the bar district is essential and will require significant policy changes.  The answer is not to saddle residents with more costs to support a highly undesirable section of town.

Name withheld by request

Hermosa Beach

     Hermosa Beach News

Man is killed in late night traffic crash

by Robb Fulcher

A 36-year-old Hermosa man was killed when the 'pickup truck he was driving went out of control on Sepulveda Boulevard and smashed into a metal wall outside Hotel Hermosa shortly before 1 a.m. last Wednesday, police said.

Only minutes before, the man had plowed into parked cars on two Hermosa streets, police said. He then drove the 2001 Toyota Tundra into Manhattan and was making his way south on Sepulveda where he struck some concrete trashcans on the northwest corner of the intersection with Artesia Boulevard, police said.

The pickup also struck the concrete median and knocked over a traffic light pole. The vehicle skidded sideways across part of the intersection, flipped over and went the rest of the way upside down, a passing motorist told police.

The pickup struck the wall and came to a stop upside down. The driver, who was alone in the vehicle, was taken to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center where he died from his injuries about 6:15 a.m., Manhattan Beach Police Sgt. Bryan Klatt said.

The Los Angeles County Coroner's Office identified the man as Lance Juracka.

Hermosa police first began getting calls when the pickup hit a parked vehicle near 16th Street and Hermosa Avenue, Sgt. Tom Thompson said. As police rushed to find the motorist they got further calls saying the pickup had bashed into a parked car at about 22nd Street and Manhattan Avenue. A witness to the second crash said the parked car was pushed 50 feet down the roadway.

"All three crashes happened within six minutes of each other," Thompson said.

"We were getting calls left and right."  Some of the initial callers reported that the pickup was heading south, unintentionally throwing off police a little. Just the same, officers arrived at Artesia and Sepulveda/Pacific Coast Highway about the time the pickup got there, Thompson said. Long streaks of paint were seen at two of the crash sites, and police said the pickup appeared to be equipped for painting jobs. ER

On Local Government

The saddest rule of government

by Bob Pinzler

One of the maxims told to me about government when I was first elected to office was a simple, sad, and frustrating one: “You don’t get a crosswalk until a kid gets killed.”

The accident that occurred on PCH two weeks ago, killing a teenage boy trying to cross the street, was tragic not just because it was likely preventable. It is tragic because the need for a signaled crosswalk at that intersection has been known for years.

But, before you start blaming the city for the lack of movement on this issue, it is important to note that very often the driving force in keeping structures like a traffic signal from being installed are the people who live in the neighborhood. In this specific case, neighbors have long been concerned that a light at that intersection would make it easier for people to go around the crowded intersection at PCH and Pier, thus bringing more traffic to their streets.

No question about it, traffic in the South Bay has become a nightmare. During rush hours, a driver can be backed up long enough to miss green light after green light. Little is more frustrating than being in one of those jams. However, so long as we try to live within our present infrastructure while adding more people in to use it, traffic will get nothing but worse.

No easy answer or, for that matter, not even a difficult solution is on the horizon. Public transportation in this area will never reach the point that people will leave their cars in large enough numbers to make a significant difference. In addition, secondary highways, the official title of streets such as PCH, can only be widened so much, especially in areas where merchants are reliant on street parking for the success of their businesses. But still the people come.

Many of the highways and local roads in our area carry more than twice the traffic they were designed for, especially during peak-use hours. It is expected to get worse, causing more driver frustration. That brings us back to our stoplight on PCH. The primary rationale for installing one must be safety, particularly since adding one more light to PCH will do little to help, or hinder, traffic flow.

The problem is not exclusively ours. In another South Bay city, residents on two sides of a major street are fighting over a traffic light that CalTrans has said is necessary to reduce traffic accidents. The two sides of the street are in different cities. One says the light is needed. The other is concerned that, by introducing a traffic light, more “cut-through” traffic will occur in their neighborhood. In the meantime, while this impasse is going on, people are being injured and property is being damaged.

We are stuck in a problem without a good solution. In those cases, we need to do what we can until someone … anyone … comes up with something new.

Hermosa Beach News

Teen was fun-loving, precocious, adventurous

by Robb Fulcher

A 15-year-old Hermosan who was struck and killed in an intersection last week was a sweet-natured, precocious, adventurous young man who loved surfing and rock climbing, family members said.

Ian Wright “was walking at nine months, and rock climbing at nine months and one day,” his mother Ellen Wright said.

The teenager also was a “voracious reader” who loved history and mythology, and fantasy offerings such as “The Lord of the Rings.”

Wright had been attending ninth grade at Village Glen School for autistic students in Culver City and was on track for advanced placement courses that would help him get into college.

He had Asperger Syndrome or AS, which the National Institutes of Health describes as an “autism spectrum disorder” often causing some impairment of communication skills.

Wright’s mother said AS is sometimes called “high-functioning autism.” Her son was good at taking in information but sometimes found it difficult to grasp “subtlety and nuance,” and faced challenges in communicating what he knew.

His AS sometimes appeared in social interactions as well.

“He would walk up to a perfect stranger in a grocery store and ask if he knew about [the Egyptian god] Osiris,” Wright’s mother said.

Wright was an organ donor, and after his death organs were removed for donation, his mother said.

Fatal accident

Wright died Friday night, one day after he was struck about 5 p.m. as he crossed Pacific Coast Highway at 16th Street, one of Hermosa’s most dangerous intersections, on a “Razr” scooter, police said.

Wright was crossing the six-lane highway going from east to west, within the painted crosswalk, and had cleared all but the final lane when he was struck by a southbound 2002 Mitsubishi Lancer driven by a 25-year-old West Covina woman, police said.

City police officers and Fire Department paramedics treated Wright at the scene and rushed him to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

The Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office listed head injuries as the cause of death. Police said Wright was not wearing a helmet and tried to cross PCH when it was unsafe to do so.

New stoplights

Workers had begun installing traffic lights at the intersection this week, paid for by the developer of the refurbished Hermosa Pavilion mall that stands at the intersection. City Manager Steve Burrell said developer Gene Shook offered to pay for the traffic signal in 2003, and worked with Caltrans to get it installed.

As the installation neared, a number of people living east of the intersection told the City Council that the signal might contribute to traffic problems in their neighborhood. The council continued to back the installation, but promised that city officials would take steps to fix any unintended problems if they occur.

Hermosa Beach Police Sgt. Tom Thompson said he expects the traffic light to ease the safety issues at the busy PCH intersection. He pointed to a another troublesome intersection at PCH and Fifth Street where left-turn signals were added to the traffic lights about six months ago, making it safer to cross the street.

“We engineered the problem away and the same thing will happen at 16th Street, we believe,” Thompson said.

He said the 16th Street intersection had become more troublesome after a 24 Hour Fitness facility opened in the Hermosa Pavilion, and people began parking along the east side of PCH and crossing to and from the mall, sometimes at the crosswalk and sometimes not.

Most years pass in Hermosa without a traffic death. The last time a pedestrian was killed was several years ago at PCH and Pier Avenue, in an accident caused by the pedestrian, Thompson said.

In addition to Wright’s mother, who works as director of aviation technology at LAX, he is survived by his father Bill Wright, owner of Wright Productions independent film and video production company and part-time master at Dive N’ Surf, and his sister Katie, a senior at Mira Costa High School.

A funeral service was scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday at American Martyrs Church in Manhattan Beach. Wright’s remains were to be cremated and scattered at sea. ER