Bits and Pieces 41

Ms. Jeanne LaCombe of the Rolling Hills Riviera HOA has been asking when the Environmental Impact Report for the Ponte Vista at San Pedro development will be published.

While I believe she was given one of those; "In ten days" stock answers, I do think it will be coming out soon and I have begun a daily watch on the City of L. A.'s Planning Department Web site, for the publication of the new EIR.

One of the links in the 'Environmental' portion of the sidebar lists "Draft EIR". I suspect that when the EIR is published, it will appear under that bullet, of the link.

It now has been about 6 years since the Western Avenue Task Force published their work which included many studies, findings, observations, and suggestions.

It is a fair representation the Task Force made when the calculations for the number of daily vehicle trips along Western Avenue, somewhere between Palos Verdes Drive North and 25th Street was established to be approximately 37,500 trips per weekday.

It is also a fair calculation that was offered that, without considerations of traffic from any new housing project at the Ponte Vista site or more students living at Marymount College's Palos Verdes North housing facility, the normal and expected increase in vehicle counts by approximately 1% per year, is a relevant number to consider.

Here is some vehicle counts approximated to be found between 2010 and 2015, along some portions of Western Avenue:

2010-39,414

2011-39,808

2012-40,206

2013-40,608

2014-41,014

2015-41,424

Please remember that those possible daily trip generation numbers do not include the expanded population at Marymount's Palos Verdes North facility nor do they include any new daily trips generated from whatever is built at Ponte Vista.

The Western Avenue Task Force's job was completed before both the first E.I.R. for Ponte Vista was studied and before the E.I.R. for The Marymount College Facilities Expansion Project (including calculations for on-campus housing) was completed.

All of this information is nothing any of you who regularly drive along Western Avenue during the morning 'rush' hours or the all-afternoon drive times really need to know, because you already knew more about the congestion that you would like to know.

Is it going to take a 'Freedom of Information Act' order to have transparency in our city's functioning and public information records?

If I had won the Lottery, I think I know who I would hire to represent me in any and all actions to garner the public transparency that has not been shown by Staff members and Management leaders on the Staff/City Manager.

I have no interest in learning the names of who makes what as far as pay and benefits go. All that must be redacted, anyway.

But I strongly feel that the residents of our city have the right to learn about what our taxes and fees are going for, all in the open and not kept secret.

The City Manager is not the boss of me and as a tax payer who pays the property taxes, fees and other costs related to the house I live in, I have a right to know how public funds are spent and managed.

I love the idea that a worker for our city decides that working instead of taking a vacation will allow that person to perhaps buy a new car or major appliance. I don't care to know what type of car or what appliance they purchase, but I think our residents need to be made aware of where their funds are going, whether they like how the funds are being spent, or not.

Since I don't receive any public funds for work I am doing or have done, my personal answer at this time is zero dollars and zero cents. I am also not eligible for Social Security and Medicare.

If our taxes go to pay contracts, fees, other taxes, pay, benefits, and any other costs that should be made public, make them public, but without the names of personnel.

I'm still processing and pondering the 'One Hour Rule' established by our City Council, several years ago. I will take and need more time to address my thoughts on that whole fiasco and why changes of some types must be made, ASAP.

Free Document Shredding, and More!

I just got some very good news about an opportunity for our city's residents.

This is from RPV Listerserver at" "rpvlistserver@rpv.com"

"Mark your calendars!

EDCO is offering RPV residents a free document-shredding event on Saturday October 1, 2011 from 9 a.m. to 12 noon at RPV City Hall parking lot, 30940 Hawthorne Blvd. This event is offered exclusively for residential customers of EDCO and UWS. To provide faster and more efficient service, it will not be open to businesses and non- residents. More detailed information will be provided in the next few weeks on EDCO's Website.

Furthermore, during the same time, day and place, EDCO will also collect obsolete or unwanted electronics from residents.

We thank you for recycling.

RPV Public Works"

If you are not a member of RPV Listserver, why aren't you a member?

If you have been a member since before the large fire in the Portuguese Bend area, you probably want to tell folks who are not members of RPV Listserver, how great that information provider was and is.

I can't think of a realistic reason for not having information provided to you via RPV Listserver.

So, if you are not a member yet, please become one so you can have greater opportunities in learning about emergencies, meetings and other opportunities like the free document shredding being offered by EDCO and UWS.

Someday,...

Someday, I think we will learn why R.P.V. City Council candidate Ms. Cynthia Smith did not attend last night's Forum. I am sure others may now why she was a 'no-show' and perhaps she is no longer interested in campaigning for a seat on our City Council.

Someday, Mr. Eric Alegria will probably make either a very good R.P.V. City Councilman or a great R.P.V. City Councilman, I truly believe.

Someday, in at least four years, I hope Mr. Alegria will take another run at a City Council seat and if I am still living in R.P.V., I hope to place a yardsign displaying my endorcement for him, when that happens.

Someday, Mr. Alegria will use his background in service with other communities ADDED to his background of work and service to the residents and business interests in R.P.V. to gain enough votes to take a seat on our Council.

Perhaps Mr. Alegria is going to really make some positive differences for the benefit of all of us by first becoming a member of a committee or commission in Rancho Palos Verdes, just like most of the other candidates have years of experience on.

I liked some of what I saw and heard from Mr. Alegria at last night's Forum, but there are hundreds of 'little birdy tweetings' that also suggest he may be a great Council member in the future, he needs much more experiences here in the city he wishes to become a Council member of, this December.

Being a registered Democrat, I am pleased to see Mr. Alegria gaining one of the two endorsements given out by The Los Angeles County Democratic Committee and I hope he receives another endorsement in 4 or 6 years, when I believe, he will have 'earned his R.P.V. cred' by service to and for our community.

I wish just about almost the very best for Mr. Eric Alegria, his wife and family and to all who support him for a City Council seat.

Someday, I hope to be able to remove the "just about almost" from that previous sentence and offer Mr. Alegria my full support for his candidacy for a seat on our City Council.

It Is BACK!

Last week, the President of the Rolling Hills Riviera HOA was informed that the new Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the Ponte Vista at San Pedro project would be out in '10 days'.

This document replaces the EIR produced for the project site during "The Bob Years" when developer Robert H. (Bob) Bisno attempted to suggest he knew better about what needs to go onto the 61.53 acre site of the old Navy Housing along Western Avenue in northwest San Pedro.

Bob's gone bankrupt...again. His personal home was foreclosed on and his business in Century City basically asked him to leave.

The new EIR already has earned some controversy with its new Traffic and Transportation Study, by some very informed residents and now-recognized experts in the field of everything Western Avenue in the area between Palos Verdes Drive North and Paseo del Mar.

I am expecting the EIR to include three 'Alternatives' for the development, with the third being the mandated "No Project" Alternative that is the study of keeping the site with its current residential zoning of "R1", along with open space zoning consistent with the dwelling zoning.

With just about everything regarding my writing about Ponte Vista at San Pedro, I will be ramping up my first blog, www.pontevista.blogspot.com where readers can go to learn about the new concepts and about support and opposition to the alternatives offered in the new EIR.

For most of my 'regular' readers who live on the east and southern areas of our city, Ponte Vista might be a big deal in terms of overwhelming traffic congestion and other problems associated with a new large development going up in an area that has been built out for years.

For readers of this blog who may be R.P.V. residents and who, at least, occasionally drive through the intersection of Western Avenue and Palos Verdes Drive North, this might be a medium to big deal for you, too.

Whether the issues regarding Ponte Vista at San Pedro come up at any of the remaining debates and forum for the upcoming election, is something I don't know about.

I do applaud several of the candidates for the three seats on our Council who have offered opinions about Ponte Vista at San Pedro and how a over development with at least 1,135 condominium units directly across the street from homes and a very large business in Rancho Palos Verdes might mean.

Stay tuned to this blog or my Ponte Vista blog, for more information.

Thank you.

My Third Vote Goes To....????? :(

I attended and recorded the Candidates' Forum sponsored by the Long Point Homeowner Associations on Wednesday night.

After carefully listening to the seven candidates who attended, I am not only no closer to deciding which candidate I will give my third vote to, I am growing ever closer to not formally endorsing a third candidate.

I will offer that I do believe that former Mayor Ken Dyda and former Mayor Susan Brooks offer some good points and their records of service provide for some comfort that either one of them would be effective members of our City Council.

Some candidates did better than others during the forum and I guess there are some residents who attended who my opine that one of the candidates 'won' the forum, but I can't really opine that one candidate did much better than most of the others.

When I finish producing a technically unedited DVD of the Forum I will offer to each candidate and Councilman Campbell, I will offer more opinions about some of the issues answered about and some other opinions about some of the candidates.

Pondering The Tanks

This post concerns the very large Liquefied Petroleum Gas/Butane tanks located along Gaffey Street, in San Pedro, California.

There are many resources where folks can and should learn more about their history and the potential problems that might arise should anything happen to those tanks.

The South Bay Daily Breeze recently ran two articles about the tanks and efforts to have them removed or moved, yet still they are standing.

First, some history and statistics:

The twin tanks, holding up to approximately 12.6 Million Gallons each, were constructed for and used by the Petrolane Company, beginning in 1973.

For many years the tanks were part of the 'Amerigas' entity.

Today the tanks are operated using "Rancho LPG" and "Plains LPG" as identifiers.

Whenever you look at the tanks, you are looking at the largest Liquefied Petroleum Gas storage facility in the United States of America.

A study indicated that should small explosions at either or both of the tanks set off a very large fire, the radiant heat generated from the fires would be nearly as equivalent to the power of the heat generated by between 35 and 40 'Hiroshima'-size nuclear bombs.

The distance of travel of fire and/or other damage caused by a 'worst case' scenario at the location would be up to and possibly greater than 6.8 miles from the site of the occurrence.

Do I have your attention yet?

A recent study, partially funded by the Northwest San Pedro Neighborhood Council indicated that although the 'worst-case' scenario was highly unlikely, I just want to remind folks that they are very willing and able to 'Google' the words "Fukushima" along with "tsunami" and you just may find that 'highly unlikely' is not what it meant just last year.

The 'Discussion Paper' dated March 7, 2011 is online but the first page of that report states that it is "Not for Public Distribution". So, if you wish to read it, go right ahead.

I am very pleased that at least three candidates for our City Council have indicated their interest and concerns over the issues of the tanks remaining where so many of us do not want them to be.

There have been lawsuits filed and promises made, but still the tanks stand.

I have been resolved for years that, should even a major explosion/fire occur, not even a 'worst-case scenario', that my wife and I, should we be at home or nearby at the time, will be killed quickly after the first small explosion happens.

You see, if or when those tanks fail, they are not the only petroleum storage or refining structures nearby. Just look to the north and east of the twin monsters, what do you see?

The history regarding the tanks also includes the Port of Los Angeles not renewing the ability to use the underground pipelines for those tanks to transport products.

The history also includes calls for moving the tanks or replacing them with new tanks on 'Pier 500' which is supposed to be the tanker ship berths in the outer harbor area.

Do you smell new lawsuits, yet?

A very intelligent and wise resident of Rancho Palos Verdes believes that our residents and business owners have standing to sue the Port of Los Angeles because of failure to mitigate environmental hazards for those of us living in Rancho Palos Verdes.

That gentleman, along with several others, worked very hard to begin a process that eventually was found worthy enough by the Natural Resources Defense Council and their legal department, that brought suit against the Port of Los Angeles, and do you know what?

The Plaintiffs WON!

That lawsuit was more centered on the TRE-PAC expansion but it might have provided an illustration as to what others can do, to deal with the pollution and hazards directly caused by the operation within the Port of Los Angeles and the nearby petroleum refining and storage facilities.

Might it take a lawsuit filed on behalf of the residents of Rancho Palos Verdes by our own City Council to begin the ball rolling?

What are the opinions of our eight candidates for the three seats opening up?

Would the new Council work to seek outside assistance from the Natural Resources Defense Council or other groups beneficial to the environment we live in, to work to get the tanks removed or relocated? I think all voters need to know where these candidates stand on whether and how much they support the environment of the residents and visitors of our city.

I think our residents and government need to work more closely with the residents and local governors of the San Pedro area to bring together a large coalition of residents and business owners who will have the will and the might to deal with the company operating the tanks.

I know residents of Rancho Palos Verdes and our city government cannot 'go it alone' and many of us have relied on efforts of those living in San Pedro, to work to better the lives of all of us.

We, the residents of the eastern side of the city of Rancho Palos Verdes need those tanks gone!

The business owners and workers of our area, many also residents of the area, must see those tanks gone, too!

There is no doubt and there is no one who can deny that the tanks pose a real and present danger to our residents and businesses in Rancho Palos Verdes.

THEY MUST GO!

With the best makeup of Council members possible in our city, beginning this December, perhaps our city will move forward to help make that happen.

Mr. Jerry Duhovic's 'Issues' Page

Rancho Palos Verdes City Council Candidate Mr. Jerry Duhovic has published his 'Issues' page on his site:

http://www.jerryduhovic.com/index.shtml

The URL for Mr. Duhovic's 'Issues' page is:

http://www.jerryduhovic.com/issues.shtml

Of the six remaining candidates I have not offered any endorsement of and for, I found Jerry's one I hope everyone reads.

I am still not to the point of endorsing any other candidate for a Council seat, other than Mr. Dave Emenhiser and Mr. Jim Knight, but I am intrigued with Jerry's candidacy, somewhat.

I do have some major concerns though, especially with whom he has had his name associated with and which groups might be supporting his candidacy.

I will write that feel that Jerry's site is more informative than the sites of several of the other candidates I was dealing with.

Would Jerry Duhovic fit in well with Dave Emenhiser, Jim Knight, Brian Campbell and Anthony Misetich? That is quite the question I need to ponder on.

I do know of some goings on that may be 'under the radar' and we will see about that.

I think having Jerry growing us where he grew up is an advantage to those of us living on the east side of Rancho Palos Verdes.

Perhaps I'll write a post about the twin LPG tanks that Jerry wrote about. I'll provide Jerry and our residents more information than they probably want to know and possibly we will see some of us leaving the area, in quite the hurry.

When the Environmental Impact Report comes out for the Ponte Vista at San Pedro development Mr. Duhovic also wrote about, I will be hitting the keyboard for

www.pontevista.blogspot.com and I think it will help our entire Council work as hard as our current Council members and our city staff has worked to make sure our residents are not as impacted as they could have been had prior Councils and our staff not helped to run Bob out of town on a rusty rail.

This is the Labor Day weekend, the traditional starting point of many campaigns for office seekers in November elections.

Where is Ms. Cynthia Smith's Web site?

If Ms. Smith is still in the election, the ballot will state she is a "College Office Administrator", according to the Certified List of Qualified Candidates. Ms. Smith is the only candidate to apparently not have a Candidate Statement, according to the List.

Please learn all you can about each candidate, if you wish and I strongly hope you learn as much as you can about the candidates you decide to vote for.