Hermosa Beach 4th Of July 2016 Party Review

House Parties Calm On This Independence Day

The TV trucks were set up in the morning and doing live shots all day, the “command center” was in place on 2nd Street and the police even called in the calvary.

Literally.

Yet the 4th of July in Hermosa Beach, CA, was a calm as a kitten in 2016. As trouble-free as a new beach cruiser. Once the mainstay of Hermosa on the 4th, there were but a few house parties of any significance. The bars were more crowded than some houses.

The Strand, while definitely lively, was not a tangle of staggering bodies stumbling from one house party to another.  For the most part, it was pretty empty considering it was the 4th, leaving long-time residents to wonder exactly where the party has gone to that was once Hermosa.

In some places you could have rolled a bowling ball down The Strand and not hit anyone.

By late afternoon, the police from Hermosa and other departments brought in for this day and LA County Sheriff’s officers had so little to do they simply walked or rode – some of whom were actually on horseback – up and down The Strand waving to the few people that were on decks for house parties.

The news crews, which had arrived likely expecting to do a series of stories on outrageous 4th of July partying and who knows what else, sat yawning in their trucks and eventually departed with nothing outrageous to report.

Part of the reason was because the 4th of July was on a Monday and there was Friday night, all day Saturday and Sunday with a few parties and good events in the bars.

But really, Hermosa has been this way the past three to four years. The city has thrown a police force the size of the Olympics at it in order to douse the party flames and a changing culture has led people to go elsewhere, both for locals and friends of those locals who seek hot party destinations for the 4th.

The police presence has had an effect, so much so that it’s overkill right now. But another factor is the long-standing “house party mentality” has faded in favor of bars and other destinations.