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.
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