Bits and Pieces 34

Terri and I attended a kick-off event for Dave Emenhiser for City Council.

I am pretty sure one of my three votes for the three seats up for change in November is locked in for Dave.

Dave was on our city's Financial Advisory Committee and now he in on our Planning Commission.

He is being supported by a wide variety of 'political types' including former Mayor Larry Clark and current Mayor Pro Tem Anthony Misetich. Former Congressman Steve Kuykendall was also in attendance, but I won't hold that against Dave.

As of this writing, there appears to be three other candidates in the running in the upcoming election.

Ken Dyda is one of our city's founders and is a former Mayor. I have offered support for his candidacy and I am quite certain he would also be a good member of our Council.

Jim Knight is also running for a seat, as he did during the last election cycle. He is very qualified and I would have no problem having him representing our residents using his skills and intelligence.

I do not know enough about Ms. Susan Brooks to make a better statement about her candidacy. She is also a former Mayor and she and the others all opposed dorms being constructed at Marymount College.

There are several rumors about others who may run for seats. There is still plenty of time for others to join in the fray.

For the record and at this point, I have made financial contributions to Mr. Ken Dyda and Mr. Dave Emenhiser and I fully expect to provide more contributions to them and others I feel would make a truly outstanding set of Council members for our city.

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Naturally, I will have lots and lots more to write about recent revelations concerning Marymount College representatives' plans for both north San Pedro and their current campus.

The more I consider their quest to redevelop their North San Pedro campus, the more I truly believe it can never happen as they envision it.

I really can see all kinds of opportunities and 'win-wins' for everyone if Dr. Brophy and the college's board move toward greatly expanding the college's footprint in downtown San Pedro.

Even if they try to have their North San Pedro campus be more of a residential area and seek to have classroom and study centers in downtown San Pedro, that would be more believable.

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I was amused by the letter to the editor from a woman living in Rolling Hills Estates telling our residents what we should do with our coastline.

I think that if this woman is so keen to tell us what to do with our coastline, perhaps we should advise her what should be done with her city's coastal areas.

Wait! Wait! What Rolling Hills Estates coastline?

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Bits and Pieces 33

The following is dated for tomorrow, but it looks real and fall into some ideas that have been discussed, lately.

I have written about Marymount's plans to add studies and probably more housing in San Pedro and I have made verbal and written comments about that not necessarily being a bad thing at all.

One way the downtown San Pedro area might find some revitalization is to become somewhat more like a real 'college town' welcoming upper division Marymount students to study and live in an area that could use some new vim and vigor.

The idea of placing 900 beds along Palos Verdes Drive North is something quite new to me and I will need some pondering seconds to consider.

Okay, I've considered. NINE HUNDRED BEDS! Are they nuts? Maybe, just maybe 500-600 tops, DEPENDING on what the final buildout at Ponte Vista is.

I do think putting the bulk of the beds and classrooms in now vacant addresses in downtown San Pedro is a better idea.

I hope that this might mean Dr. Brophy and others will lay off attempting to have on-campus housing built at the current campus. Unfortunately, I think supporters of dorms on Palos Verdes Drive East might consider having that housing for Freshmen students and a few Sophomores.

In other news, the new Goodwill store has opened. I haven't been inside it but it looks like it has space inside and doesn't appear to have racks too close together.

The first 'look' at what the new district boundaries for CD 36 have been published, yet nothing should be considered set in stone.

I'll have an illustration up on this blog, hopefully later this week. The illustrations pretty much shows what most folks expected, it appears.

Congratulations and GREAT JOB to all those middle school students who participated in "Beauty and the Beast" at Miraleste I.S. and "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" at Chadwick. We were amazed at the talent and drive the students, parents, teachers and helpers had with these two musicals.

I'm still looking to see which others are throwing their hats into the ring for a seat on our City Council, this December. I support Ken Dyda and Dave Eminhiser for two of the seats, but there are three seats up for grabs and there is no reason we can't support any number of candidates we think would be good representatives of our interests.