Vote Coleman March 5th, 2013! 

Contact/Volunteer/Donate: ericjamescoleman@gmail.com

DA-14

http://tbrnews.com/news/redondo_beach/redondo-mayor-candidates-answer-questions-from-the-beach-reporter/article_6a7846e2-76e4-11e2-bdbd-001a4bcf887a.html

Vote Coleman March 5th, 2013!

Contact/Volunteer/Donate: ericjamescoleman@gmail.com

POST AES INTERVIEW & MORE!

Here's the video AES doesn't want you to see...

No joke, this is an email from the No on Measure A people, that was forwarded to me after the above animation was put together:

Five Score and twelve years ago our forefathers brought forth onto Redondo
Beach an electrical generating station, conceived in liberty and dedicated
to the great American ideal of free enterprise and private property rights.

Now we are engaged in a great election, testing whether that great American
ideal, or any ideal so conceived can long endure.  We will meet at the AES
generating station to engage in the honored tradition of knocking on
doors.  We will come to dedicate a portion of our time that this great
American ideal might live.  It is altogether fitting and proper that we
should do this.

But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot
hallow this great American ideal.  The brave Americans living and dead who
fought and struggled for this ideal have consecrated it far above our poor
power to add or detract.  The world will little note nor long remember what
is built here, but it can never forget what our forefathers sacrificed to
keep it here.

It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished
work which they who fought have thus so nobly advanced. It is rather for us
to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us; that from our
honored past we take increased devotion; that we here highly resolve that
those who fought and died for our fundamental freedoms shall not have died
in vain; that this City, under God, shall have a re-birth of freedom; and
that electricity of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall
not perish from this earth.

Only two weeks to Election Day. See you Saturday at 9:00 am at the AES
plant.

Thank you.

- name withheld

Not too long ago there was another group of people who used property rights to justify their nefarious deeds; they were called slaveholders.

Vote Coleman March 5th, 2013!

Contact/Volunteer/Donate: ericjamescoleman@gmail.com

For Just A Few Magic Beans...

One more sacred cow and I would swear I was back in India. When it comes to City Council meetings, there are certain items not open for public discussion. Delicate issues are often shelved indefinitely or merely whispered about behind locked doors in closed session. I guess the people at City Hall wouldn't want us to have a cow.

The following are some of the unmentionable issues:

Tideland funds, monies that are meant to stay in the waterfront area, are being misdirected into the general fund. I guess the cash is always greener on the other side. Furthermore, The Harbor Patrol fits under column of Fire Department in the budget; which is why Fire Department consolidation between the Beach Cities is off the table for discussion . Merging services among the Cities, as was done with SWAT teams, would mean a reduction of middle and upper level management. But, I reckon, why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?

R.I.P Welcome Cafe

Condo developers have way too much weight when it comes to matters of zoning. Mixed-use zoning is a sham, and the commercial properties, below the residential complexes, usually lie vacant or change hands quickly. It's a backdoor condo zoning dodge. And more to the point, why aren't developers being made to build with sound sturdy sensible materials; condos that are built to last longer than 40 years. 

Why is the Chamber of Commerce even considered a legitimate organization? They are such a blatant tool of AES that they have actually been sending out mailers against candidates who let slip an unnecessary power plant in our backyard may not be the best thing for commerce in the City of Redondo Beach. The Chamber is so out of sync with real businesses in the City, they might as well be a cow on roller skates.

Okay, a few more. Why only now are we coming to conclusive results about what killed a million fish March 8^th 2011, and where is the harbor oxygenation to prevent it from happening again? Are bans and restrictions domesticating us like so much cattle? Why are we allowing predator drones to fly over our cities and isn't anyone in government paying attention to the Constitution?!

Just questions. And big, fat, mooing, sacred cows.

It's about time the cows come home. 

Vote Coleman March 5^th 2013!
contact/volunteer/donate: ericjamescoleman@gmail.com

Surprise, Surprise...

Well I didn't get the Redondo Chamber of Commerce endorsement. In fact, in the Mayoral race they endorsed everybody but me. They also endorsed Julian Stern, but I won't hold it against him. Julian Stern is a smart kid and the clearest choice for District 4 City Council. Julian understands that government needs to be transparent, details of the City budget easy to find, and campaign contributions out in the open (speaking of which, check out the large contributions made by condo developers to my opponents). If only transparency and openness were aspects of his press conference, maybe we would have been there for it.

















Our bad actually. Evidently there are two Perry Parks. Here's his press conference compliments of the Redondo Patch:

http://redondobeach.patch.com/articles/chamber-endorses-high-school-student-for-city-council#video-13197690



Now, you might ask, who endorses the Chamber of Commerce? I mean, where do they get all this money for all their projects? Projects like the January 14th debates for the general public, which were held in the middle of the day on a Monday, where sitting City Council members were thrown lob ball questions that allowed for easy self-congratulation, i.e. "What would you do about keeping the LA Air Force Base?" Oh yeah, and don't forget the recent debates between AES's President Eric PenderGRAFT and the co-authors of Measure A: Bill Brand & Jim Light. Yeah, the one where about a hundred and fifty people were turned away and no audio or video recording was permitted. So much for transparency in government. The Chamber of Commerce is all about preserving the status-quo. Rome is burning and all they can do is send the arsonist a thank you card. Another thing, one of the biggest contributors to the Chamber is AES. So I suppose if Measure A doesn't pass and that powerplant begins pumping filth into our air again, maybe then the Chamber of Commerce can change its name to the Gas Chamber of Commerce.

The Status Quo Needs to Go.

Vote Coleman March 5th, 2013.
Contact/Volunteer/Donate: ericjamescoleman@gmail.com

Miguel Mas's attempted interview of Eric Pendergraft:

 

Recently there's been a lot of talk about Measure A being a 'taking'. Let's discuss what they have been taking from us for years. AES has been taking our waterfront, our skyline, and even our health. AES has also been taking advantage of tax loopholes grandfathered in by Edison. And now they want to give us a retooled powerplant in our backyard, which will spew 5 to 15 times more particulate matter into our air. Something else they want to give us is 38 acres of 'mixed use' zoning on the property with no guarantee that land won't slowly be sold off to condo developers. The plant is unnecessary to the grid and to the residents of Redondo. Measure A settles the issue; rezoning the land 60% open space and 40% commercial, with a fund from the commercial area set up to pay for upkeep on the open space. AES will still own the land. This decision will effect our quality of life for decades if not a century yet to come.

Don't let the door hit you on the AES, on your way out.

Yes on Measure A

Vote Coleman March 5th, 2013!

Contact/Volunteer/Donate: ericjamescoleman@gmail.com

A Treehouse Divided Against Itself Can Not Stand.

In areas, Redondo Beach is overrun with near-sighted condo development. These towering strucco structures, built to last 20 or 30 years, reduce their neighbors'sunlight and seem to crop up at an unsustainable rate. Yet, when a small business wants to expand into the space a door over, they can face a staggering amount of paperwork, fees, and down time. Being shuffled back and forth from one government office to the next, can often be more laborious than knocking down the wall between the two spaces.  As I said in the Easy Reader's Meet the Redondo Mayoral Candidates; "you have to pull a permit even to build a treehouse."

Here's the article:

http://www.easyreadernews.com/64219/meet-the-redondo-mayoral-candidates/

I suppose money talks in these zoning matters; and seems, like many ordinances, to be selectively enforced. Remember 'the Heart of the City' deal that fell through? The people were rightly suspicious of such a large scale redevelopment. The arrogance alone of proclaiming one harbor section of Redondo as the 'Heart' of the City is enough to turn one's ear. What's Riviera Village then, the spleen? Artesia an artery? Wilderness Park a lung? Defense Row a pancreas? North Redondo chopped liver? The infrastructure was to be torn up and three thousand condo units were to be installed along Catalina Avenue. And they almost got away with it. The land grab might have silently passed in the night if it wasn't for the public being alerted to a planning commission report which claimed that traffic would decrease after the addition of three thousand condo units. Two of the three City Council members running for Mayor of Redondo Beach sat on that commission and had the audacity to issue that report. One of them, Matt Kilroy, is now unapologetically against Measure A; the measure to rezone and decommission the unneeded AES powerplant. And who was one of the entities behind this botched 'Heart of the City' land grab? None other that AES. Now I understand that Matt Kilroy stands for the people... the people of Delaware and their large uncaring corporations.

http://articles.latimes.com/2002/apr/29/local/me-heart29

Measure DD came out of this debacle and now we need to make the next step and get rid of the powerplant and especially AES. Time to pull back the curtain Redondo.

Hey AES thanks for the post card, but why did you bill us for the stamp?

Vote Coleman March 5th, 2013 

contact/volunteer/donate: ericjamescoleman@gmail.com

Special Thanks to William Watson for his drawing, Simone Stephens for her copy editing, Sky Coleman for imagination, and Quain for making sure this post is up to code.