Driving home from dinner late Thursday night, I thought I saw new bike racks installed at Avenue I and Catalina. I'm going to have to check those out when I go to the Riviera Village Farmers Market tomorrow to make sure they're not just a mirage, I thought to myself. I didn't have to wait that long to find out—early Friday morning I heard from Redondo Beach Associate Transportation Engineer Bob Boardman, the city's go-to expert on bike infrastructure. Boardman wanted me to know that the city was proud to report that the bike racks installed in the street at the northeast corner of Avenue I …

It takes a powerful incentive to get me into my car to drive through morning rush hour to hot, smoggy, industrial Irwindale on another beautiful breezy beach day here in the South Bay, but that's just what Southern California Edison provided on Thursday. I was invited to attend a special summit at SCE's Energy Eduction Center and Smart Energy Experience Facility on the future of the smart grid. SCE filed its smart grid deployment plan with the California Public Utilities Commission on July 1 and was looking to share its vision and plans with the public through what it called "an event to …

I had the most fun I’ve ever had at the 33rd annual Riviera Village Summer Festival this year, and it wasn’t just because we had drop-dead picture-perfect weather to enjoy the first weekend of summer. It’s always a great local treat to attend the festival here in my own neighborhood; it’s even better when you’re there as an official part of the festival providing a public service. In 2009, I had the pleasure of volunteering with the South Bay Environmental Services Center and introducing their LUV Neighborhood Electric Vehicles and  testing program at the festival.  That was cool, but only a …

What began as an ambitious dream in the minds of some local bicycle advocates less than two years ago is now the first complete draft of a brand new South Bay Bicycle Master Plan. Ideas, comments, analysis and suggestions have been distilled into the draft plan that you can read, review and offer your opinion on—you can download all sections of the plan on the South Bay Bicycle Coalition’s website. Or you can attend one of the community workshops and hear and see the plan presented in person on June 20 at the Josyln Center in Manhattan Beach, on June 23 at the Clark building in Hermosa Beach …

Bike-to-Work Week is almost here—have you figured out your route to the office yet? Did you use the Google Maps biking directions feature? Do you work close enough to ride your bike the whole way, or will you need a bus or train for part of the way? Every spring these questions are asked and answered during national Bike-to-Work Week, which encourages America’s workers to park their cars and give biking a chance as their commuter transportation, and every year more and more people give it a try. Seventeen percent of last year’s participants had never rode their bike to work before, according …

In my year-end roundup of 2010’s top 10 environmental news stories in Redondo Beach I included the installation of the one-millionth electric smart meter by Southern California Edison.  I was amazed by comments about the dangers supposedly coming from SCE’s new SmartConnect meters with their wireless transmission of data. The same meters now installed throughout the South Bay and on tap for all 5 million or so of Edison’s customers by the end of 2012. Claims were made of hazardous microwave radiation and extreme radio frequency levels emanating from the new smart meters, as well as thousands …

I was one of a handful of bicycle advocates who helped form the South Bay Bicycle Coalition (SBBC) in late 2009 and worked on our first order of business, applying for a grant from the L.A. County Department of Public Health's RENEW program to produce a South Bay Bicycle Master Plan. It was pretty audacious for a brand new grassroots group to ask for a quarter of million dollars to do something none of us had any experience doing before. But thanks to the visionary leadership of SBBC founder Todd Dipaola and a lot of hard work and impressive community organizing, we lined up all the grant …

In a year that saw our planet get ever closer to the tipping point of irreversible global warming I picked the right time to focus my attention locally here in the South Bay. While the polar ice caps are melting, the seas are rising and the world's weather has turned extreme, Redondo Beach actually had some good news on the environmental front. And some not so good news. Here's my look back:  City takes lead in South Bay Bicycle Master Plan: This is a big, positive story that started when the South Bay Bicycle Coalition (SBBC) secured its $240,000 grant to produce a South Bay Bicycle Master …

There were two ways I could go with my first-ever holiday wish list column on Patch.  I could have written about the best green gifts for family and friends. But that's a pretty conventional way to go, and if you Google "green holiday gifts" you'll find more than 55 million search hits—so I think that territory has already been well covered. Instead I chose the more fun option of turning you into my Santa. Dear Santa, here are the top 10 gifts I would like to find under my tree this Christmas morning. Green Christmas Lights: I've been slowly making the switch from our heirloom lights to LED (…

I have an eco-confession to make that I know will shock and disappoint people. But I've got to get this off my chest before it consumes me with green guilt. I know I should be getting our tree every year from Scotty Claus of the Living Christmas Co., but I don't.  Even this year, when the entire media world has discovered and featured the South Bay's Living Christmas Co. in print, online and on television, I still didn't order my tree from them. I love Scotty Claus, aka Scott Martin. He's one of the nicest, sharpest, most upbeat guys I've ever met.  I've known him for a couple years now, and…

We've had a handful of electric vehicles (EVs) driving on our South Bay streets for years now. Hermosa Beach's Dency Nelson has been driving his RAV4-EV daily since January of 2002. Lately we've seen more Tesla Roadsters in our Beach Cities neighborhoods as well as the half-dozen low speed electric vehicles known as "LUV" (Local Use Vehicles) cars from the South Bay Cities Council of Governments program. But now that both Nissan and GM are delivering their new production plug-in cars this month, the South Bay Cities Council of Governments and the Air Quality Management District want our …

It's not every day a casual cyclist like me gets to ride with an international bicycle star like Dan Burden, but that's what happened Wednesday when I was one of seven who pedaled our way through the streets of Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach on a beautiful, sunny afternoon. Dan's not famous for winning Tour races like Lance Armstrong, or for radical BMX ramp jumps and tricks.  He is renown as the No. 1 go-to authority on bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure and programs.  He's a recognized expert on livability, sustainability and the concept of "smart growth" as the …

When I wrote about the MTA's community hearings on the extension of the Green Line train service in Redondo Beach, I covered the strong, emotional response the residents of the Ruxton Lane and Condon Avenue neighborhoods had about the light rail option. While I sympathized with their concerns I couldn't get over their insistence that the light rail lines be built down Hawthorne Boulevard instead of using the right-of-way the MTA already owns next to the freight train tracks behind their homes. It seemed like such a disconnect to me at the time. But now I realize that I was the one who had the…

I am so digging the About Town column my talented "Heck Yeah, Redondo" Patch colleague, Eric Czuleger, has been laying on Redondo the past few weeks.  The kid's got a gift, and his work is a smile that I always enjoy. But when I read his piece, "Coffee Cartel, Home of Heck Yeah, Redondo" I knew I was going to have to weigh in with my own unsolicited opinion, since I am the Mr. Coffee of my generation and the King of Caffeine of the entire South Bay. El Exigente ain't got nothing on me. No one loves, needs or consumes coffee like yours truly, and I've been doing it to it for 40 years now. My …

It's hard to believe that school has already been in session for almost two months now and that the kids in my neighborhood are already looking forward to their upcoming holiday break in the action. Having recently returned from my 35th high school reunion in New Jersey, I can't help but think about how different it was in the '60's and '70's when I was a student. Michelle Veale Bordon drove home one of the biggest changes in her "Ditch the Minivan and Take a Walk Instead" column, which I've been thinking about ever since it was published a couple months ago. The column focuses on her …

When I bought my first bike as an adult back in 1991 the salesman at the bike shop asked me what kind of helmet I wanted. "Oh, I don't need a helmet," I told him. "The bicycle and other accessories are already costing me enough." The salesman smiled and nodded and said, "Sure, no problem.  What did you say you do?" "I'm a writer and a creative director," I proudly told him. "Oh, so you use this," he said pointing at his cranium. "To make a living." It only took me about a millisecond to get it and say, "Show me where those helmets are." I relate this ancient tale of enlightenment to explain …

Ed Begley Jr. is one of my environmental heroes and his show "Living With Ed" has had a major eco-impact on the way my wife and I live our own lives. But when I spoke with Ed last night at the Rethink Green fundraiser for Environmental Charter High School he told me that two of his big environmental heroes are friends of mine who live right here in the South Bay. "Dency Nelson is my hero," said Begley when I mentioned our mutual friend who has long been the South Bay's green leader and environmental conscience.  The two first met when they were working on the 70s classic soap opera spoof, "…

It's Los Angeles Lakers basketball season once again, which turns my thinking towards light rail mass transportation. The Chick Hearn Blue Line Station on Pico Boulevard is just a block away from Staples Center in downtown L.A. and if our nearest Green Line station wasn't a 20-30 minute drive from my Hollywood Riviera home I'd be taking the train to every game—despite my harrowing experience during the finals in June. So when I heard that the MTA was holding hearings here in Redondo Beach to talk about plans to extend the line down to South Redondo and into Torrance, I wanted to be there to …

When the Beach Cities Health District's Board of Directors voted to approve the contract to have Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach become a Blue Zone Vitality City, they did more than approve an agreement to partner with a company from Minnesota on a health improvement program. I think they changed the destiny of our beach cities from this point forward.  And man, oh man do we need a reboot right about now. Let's be honest. Times are tough and they've been that way for a few years now. Lots of our friends and family members are out of work, or if they have work they have less …

After the success of last year's "Amazing Waving Human Tideline" in Manhattan Beach, which drew 1,300 enthusiastic participants, expectations for this year's 10-10-10 "Get To Work" global work parties event was high—both locally and nationally. The human tideline showed in October 2009 just how much of our South Bay beaches we stand to lose due to rising sea levels caused by global warming. That event was part of the International Day of Climate Action designed to influence world leaders, such as President Barack Obama, who were soon on their way to the Copenhagen climate treaty talks. …