Oh, but that's right the new Future Super Pier is not a mall, it's a lifestyle center. And to think; some think-tank hacks actually got paid to think of this gobbledygook.
"The best way to take control over a people and control them utterly is to take a little of their freedom at a time, to erode rights by a thousand tiny and almost imperceptible reductions. In this way the people will not see those rights and freedoms being removed until past the point at which these changes cannot be reversed." - Adolf Hitler
BRUCE: welcome to the "Pier of the City" or is that "Heart of the Pier"? my condolences to all the business' that we have supported and enjoyed over the years, as it is obvious there is no place for them in the Council's Grand Plan to turn the pier area into the new DEATH VALLEY......... recall these morons..... uh oh, might be too late to WAKE UP REDONDO..........
COLEMAN: Build it and they will come. Heart of the Pier. Pier of the City. Too big to fail. Welcome to the new future Super Pier that NOBODY wants. It's not a mall it's a lifestyle center. A living machine. Death valley is right. Can't drink the water. Can't swim in the water. Redondo ranks 8th worst in the State for water quality. Dangerous levels of E Coli off Pier. It would have cost 2 million dollars to punch 2 holes in the Pier to oxegenate the harbor. Invisible Tourists will come from around the world to catch a glimpse of a million dead fish. No viable mass transit system to get these Tourists here. Buses still stop running at 8:30. By CenterCal's own estimates there will be 39,000 cars housed in the massive parking structure per weekend. That's 140 miles of car. But I'm sure we'll still win the Mayor's Blue Zone Challenge. Barf. Just barf. Rubber stamping. Developer rimming. Bastards.
BRUCE:i would like to ask the "illuminati" on the council this simple question: "Where is it that you think all these visitors (39,000 cars per weekend) are coming from?" are we bussing them in? well then we don't need the parking structures... Are we flying them in from the 4 corners of the world?....well then we still don't need parking for 39,000..... geeeezzzzzz..... where did you idiots get your information from..... oh, and did you forget that you were elected to represent the residents of redondo? Wake up redondo...... it's not too late to stop the madness..... let's start by removing the crazies from the council and putting them in the asylum.........
COLEMAN:Where are these tourists coming from? I thought people went on vacation to get away from malls?
Well the noise Nazis lost a battle in Tuesday's election; but don't think these hyper sensitive premature babies won't redouble their efforts to turn Hermosa Beach into some kind of perverse summer camp. If Measure B had passed the bars along Pier Avenue would have had to close their doors earlier; setting a new precedent in California. Welcome to the Sunshine State; no talking above a whisper, lights out at 10:30. Time and time again these Mickey Mouse Club brats amble their way into the South Bay, move next door to an establishment like the Lighthouse (a nightclub that used to be frequented by Jazz greats like Light Dizzy Gillespie), complain about the noise and somehow succeed in reducing a proprietor's hours. How did they not see the Nightclub when they moved in? Either these stunted transplants have been brain baked by the unceasing Southern California sun or they've finally succumbed to the urge and have guzzled ocean water wholesale. And more to the point doesn't this whole issue come down to their noise versus our noise. Everyone needs noise; we are enveloped by it constantly. There is no escape. These human cuttlefish just want it to be their noise; White noise. Perhaps the people who brought you Measure B (are you listening Lissner?) should try moving next door to Guantanamo Bay. Then maybe we'll finally be able to shut that bastard down.
This is a clip from a video we shot back in 2003, on the 4th of July, at Hermosa's Pier Avenue. The incident was the source of nearly a decade of litigation and has been featured in truTV's 'the Smoking Gun'. Anywho; someone, don't know who, posted it on www.liveleak.com and it got over 70,000 views and 1,300 comments in less than 48 hours. Enjoy. Oh yeah, and it looks like I'll be moving back to L.A. to take a job... put the National Guard on high alert.
Aside from the Mayoral Campaign Documentary, due out in late Summer, we are also performing a play about the Haymarket Riot, the subsequent trial, and the hanging of four Chicago Anarchists November 11th 2013 to mark the anniversary.
Here are the speeches delivered by Albert Parsons and August Spies May 4th 1886 before the bomb was thrown into the ranks of 176 police officers who tried to break up the peaceable assembled crowd against Mayor Carter Harrison's orders... http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archives/haymarket/greatanarchisttrial.html And here are some dastardly plots, as mentioned in the Mayoral Campaign, which the Logan Square Thespian Society had a role in...
We've had a lot of fun. And I think I've given as good as I've taken. So, gentlemen, you'll write about it, you'll interpret it; that's your right. But just think how much you're gonna be missing; you won't have Coleman to kick around any more. Eric J. Coleman 03/06/2013
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Election Day; Redondo Beach, March 5th 2013
Eric Coleman Votes "Eric Coleman" for Mayor of Redondo Beach.
A while ago, former Mayor Greg Hill took a trip to Europe and bought $3,000 worth of fine jewelry for his wife on the City credit card. No one in the back of City Hall caught the abuse. It took a resident to obtain records of the transaction and bring it before Council. Hill commented, "Now that's a watchdog for ya", before sweeping it under the rug and moving on to the next agenda item.
Not too long after that, the Treasurer of the Redondo Beach's Police Officers' Association, a Police Officer himself, was caught pilfering the till for between $50,000 to $100,000.
And now this:
Redondo Beach City issued credit cards are held by 176 employees, and over the last 2 years (July 2010 to July 2012). Just 6 employees have spent $41,000 in that time. One of them is the City Manager Bill Workman, the highest paid official in City Hall, making $223,463 a year (that's $18,621.92 a month) who spent $16, 824.88 during that same period. $1,422.46 of Bill Workman's tab was just on food and beverage. His Staff, making over $100,000 a year, also got in on the action.
02/26/2013 - After Steve Aspel and Pat Aust ganged up on Bill Brand for asking valid questions about why his contract was being extended into 2016 a week before the election, my good friend and Campaign Manager Christopher Quain, a.k.a. the Wolf, laid it all out on the table for them. Two corrections for the following videos; Six employees spent $41,000, not just Bill Workman. Also, there are 176 City credit cards in circulation, most of them with a $500 monthly cap, with exceptions for some cards. The TOTAL VALUE of those cards is $1,056,000. THE SHORT VERSION:
Roughly half of the city's budget, 41 million dollars, falls under the somewhat vague column of Public Safety.
In the last 15 years crime has dropped significantly; violent crime is down 16 percent, property crime down 50 percent, as the Chief pointed out last week.
Violent Crime & Property Crime
This is page 179 from the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report 2011.
It shows how over the span of the last 9 fiscal years basically all government departments spending has remained the same. Housing and Community Development 12 million in 2003, 12 million in 2011. Cultural Services 6 million in 2003, 6 million in 2011. Public Works 9 million 2003, 9 million 2011. And then we get to this column of Public Safety.
Public Safety funding has gone from 28 million dollars in 2003 to 41 million by 2011, an increase of over 40 percent despite the worst recession since the Great Depression, at the same time virtually all government department funding went unchanged. Now to be fair...
The interest on the city's debt did see a dramatic decrease; however, the principle on the debt doubled.
This whole issue comes down to staffing.
Almost all departments have had cuts. Housing and Community Development has gone from 44 employees to 31, a 25 percent reduction in personnel, Cultural Services has gone from 50 employees to 37, a 25 percent reduction. Public Safety 109 employees in 2002, 96 employees by 2011, a reduction of between 11 and 12 percent. The one bright spot in all this, Public Works during this same period has managed to hire 12 new people, going from 88 employees in 2002 to 100 employees in 2011 with significantly less money than this somewhat mysterious column; Public Safety.
What's also interesting is all departments have had to do more with less.
For instance Mass Transit for instance has not seen a genuine increase in funding, despite the number of bus boardings quadrupling from 90,000 in 2002 to just shy of 400,000 by 2011.
Under the Public Safety column there have been 3,135 physical arrests in 2002, 2,500 in 2011.
Now that's a 19 percent reduction in physical arrests.
So, the monies allotted to the Public Safety-Industrial Complex has gone from 28 million to 41.5 million dollars, an increase of over 40 percent... and we've been talking about privatizing ambulance services... No new police or fire stations have been built, or for that matter, no new libraries, parks, or community centers have been built. So, where is that money? Did it vanish? Top cops,? Pensions? Where is it? Where did it go? I mean the last line of the Police Mission Statement is to be fiscally responsible, right?
Also, is that really what we need? 13 more police officvers to drive around our quiet little beach community, looking for ways to justify their existence? I just hope they don't run out of ideas for ways to ticket people. I anticipate a day where scores of Redondo residents will wake up and their cars littered with tickets for not turning their wheels against the curb, much like Hermosa residents had to endure. And while I don't really expect this question to be answered, I would like it asked; are those members of the Police Officers Association, which is a Union, that are walking around door to door, campaigning for candidates, are they on the clock?
For some background and a recap of the Council meetings:
