A California Beach City Resident’s Observations About A Small Town Meeting
By The PubClub.com Blogger
I attended my first State Of The City address recently and because I’m a trained reporter, decided to jot down a few notes from it.
Let me state that I am not into politics or city affairs and have attended exactly two City Council meetings in my life – one when I had to as a journalism student at the University of Alabama (which further cemented my plan to cover sports and not city affairs) and secondly when I went in support of a local bar owner.
So I’m not accustomed to these things.
The city where I attended the state address (sounds kind of confusing doesn’t it!?) is where I live, Hermosa Beach, CA. This is really much more of a town than a city. Actually, at a little more than one square mile, it’s more of a village than even a town.
In a way it felt like walking into someone else’s family reunion where you don’t know anyone. The meeting – free and open to the public – was full of familiar faces for those who knew those familiar faces. This was definitely not my crowd.
But I was pleasantly surprised to see – true to the culture and lifestyle of Hermosa Beach – that there was a bar.
So this is what I learned about Hermosa Beach, California, at my first State Of The City presentation.
One thing that I did know, by the way, was that Hermosa Beach has one of the nicest places to hold such a meeting, the Beach House hotel right on The Strand, a mere dozen or so steps from the sand.
I LEARNED THAT…
• Local singer and songwriter Jeremy Buck sure can write a song when you ask him to for special occasions.
• The price of a glass of wine at these things is outrageous. Nine bucks! Fortunately the beer was a more reasonable $6. And the snack spread was good.
• The mayor of Hermosa Beach, Carolyn Petty, is not only a woman, she’s a borderline babe.
• The city replaced 13 old and crumbling pylons on the pier last year. (Really, how did that one escape me at the time; you would think that would be quite noticeable.)
• The sewer system is 90 years old. Ewwww! A rehab project is planned.
• HB has a $35 million budget. Did I hear that right – $35 million for a small beach town!? Of the revenue, 90% comes from parking tickets. Okay not really. It only seems that way sometimes.
• A new hotel called H2O just broke ground on 14th St. When I heard the name H2O, I had an immediate flashback to that former great bar in the neighboring town, Manhattan Beach. Sketchers is also proposing to expand its corporate office in Hermosa.
• Everyone associated with the city went to Palmilla – presumably for drinks – after the meeting, which did not (unfortunately) include me.
Overall, it was fairly interesting and by speaking in an excited tone rather than a dull and monotonous manner, the mayor managed to talk about things like finances and sewers without putting everyone to sleep.
And that was not easy task to say the least.
Leave a Reply