Like a Frog in Boiling Water: The Story of Redondo Zoning

The reason we're in much of this mess is because zoning is uneven and lopsided. Zoning is very lax when it comes to residential condo development, rather stringent when it comes to honest commercial enterprise expansion. And why are the two so separated? Why don't corner shops dot our large residential swaths of land? Why do such food deserts exist throughout much of Redondo. It's obvious in these zoning matters money talks, and condo developers know how to get around ordinances intended to curb over development. However; the costs associated with increased infrastructure demands, public safety, and sewage eventually do add up. Speaking of which what ever happened to that bond money that was supposed to go to upgrade our sewers?!

Basically, lax zoning means more traffic. More traffic means more traffic studies if a business wants to expand. And while we're on the subject of traffic; bring back the red cars!

On the Bicycle Masterplan:

"I am all for the Bicycle Masterplan, and as Mayor I will introduce a 5 year plan to re-instate the Red Cars. These wheeled trolley cars, augmented with bike racks, can connect North Redondo to South Redondo, finally knocking down the Beryl-End Wall."

Vote Coleman March 5th, 2013!

Contact/Donate/Volunteer: ericjamescoleman@gmail.com

Thank you Simone!

http://redondobeach.patch.com/blog_posts/in-support-of-mayor-eric-j-coleman

On Business:

My plan is to give zero percent property tax and waive any associated business license fees, for the first year, to any businesses willing to relocate or start up in Redondo. While surely supporting our local shops, we should also be offering every incentive for forward thinking companies to come to Redondo. Aerospace firms, green technology, dotcoms, movie studios, invention patent, medical research, robotics, ought to be given preferential treatment. Santa Monica was able to attract Google, and we'll be in rough shape if we don't get on the ball soon.

Allow me to elaborate:

Retail giants like Nordstrom, in all likelihood, are dodos, and on their way out. More and more people are shopping online. Last Cyber-Monday, the online shopping deal day following Black Friday, saw an increase of 30 percent from 2011. More and more people are also show rooming. People now have the ability to walk into a store like Best Buy, try out the features on a television, turn around, and use their iPhone to order the same TV online for slightly less minus the tax. And they do.

If Nordstrom wants to pull up its anchor and set their sales in and for Del Amo Mall, I say let them. Glaciers tend to drift. A new store will come along. Perhaps an Apple. Perhaps a company that sells something more visionary than over-priced clothing. And at the end of the day, after all the dust settles, those meek little thrift stores along the Artesia corridor, which some like to disparage as not being high end enough, will survive the coming transition. 

Most people just aren't going to buy used clothes online. 

Vote Coleman March 5th, 2013

Contact/Volunteer/Donate: ericjamescoleman@gmail.com

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

Help Support Our Cause

GET TO KNOW YOUR FUTURE MAYOR

http://news.yahoo.com/no-fun-allowed-l-beaches-ban-footballs-frisbees-212100718.html

That's right, you can't throw a frisbee on the Beach! More fun-raisers are needed, and please don't miss this one- Friday February 8th, 5pm to 8pm, at the Fun Factory:

http://news.yahoo.com/no-fun-allowed-l-beaches-ban-footballs-frisbees-212100718.html

Vote Coleman March 5th, 2013!

 

Contact/Donate/Volunteer: ericjamescoleman@gmail.com