Hermosa: Weighing Costs of Downtown Plan

Residents asked Hermosa (Beach) officials what return will come from pouring millions of taxpayer dollars into intensifying downtown Hermosa use. Last Valentine’s evening, the City Council informed Hermosans what the plan is, without giving one scintilla of information as to the return they can expect.

Downtown property owners who benefit most will pay nothing! Additional parking meters will be installed on Pier Avenue, which will discourage current shoppers, and the meter rate will be doubled to $1 per hour (four times the rate in downtown Manhattan Beach).

Seven million dollars of taxpayer money will be spent to intensify 24-hour activity by putting in parking garages and some kind of synthetic street-scape. This money will come from the selling of city bonds and the use of other taxpayer dollars guaranteed ultimately by the General Fund (the residents of the city).

That’s the “lack of business plan� your City Council proposes!

Remember the debate over contracting with the (Los Angeles County) Sheriff’s Department to replace city police? Contracting out city functions to save money will be a foregone conclusion as Hermosa adopts this spend-now, pay-later and pray-for-the-best plan.

Meanwhile, the large residential community, upper Pier Avenue and the Pacific Coast Highway commercial business areas, which provide the vast revenues to the city, continue to be neglected.

These are the very areas that endure the additional crowds, traffic, noise, pollution and expenses of a downtown that will never pay its true cost.

HOWARD LONGACRE

Hermosa Beach