Hermosa Beach Measure B: One Bad Idea

 
First, they came for the Styrofoam. Then they came for the cigarettes: they said that no one should be able to smoke in a public place. And the nanny-state micromanaging in Hermosa Beach has not stopped there.



Now busybodies want to close down the night life of Hermosa Beach.



Measure B is all about quiet nights, claims proponent Jim Lissner, in a letter to Easy Reader:



Measure B proposes a fairer balance between the business community and the residential community through a modest reduction in the late night hours of downtown businesses.



Then the writer adds:



The idea for Measure B came not from me [Jim Lissner] but from our council members.



This strange claim is debunked immediately on the first page of this week's (October 3, 2013) edition of Easy Reader:



Hermosa Beach Says No to Measure B:



Mayor, Patrick "Kit" Bobko

Mayor Pro Tmepore, Michael DiVirgilio

Councilmember Peter Tucker

Councilmember Howard Fishman

Councilmember Jeff Duclos



The Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce



The Los Angeles County Lifeguard Association



Measure B is one big boo-boo.



Hermosa Beach has 19,000 residents. The tax coffers cannot depend on the residents' commerce alone. The city revenues depend on visitors and tourists bringing their business. The argument that bars and restaurants (or any other establishment) should close two hours earlier during the work-week and one hour earlier during the weekend does not consider unintended consequences.



If someone is looking for a good time, a chance to live a little and enjoy the night-life, they are not going to go a bar that closes at 11pm and then go somewhere else for the next few hours. They will simply go to "somewhere else" altogether, and that will be a restaurant or a bar in another city. Businesses will not just lose two hours of business on the weekend, they will lose customers for the entire night, the weekend, for good.



Don't forget The Comedy and Magic Club. The world-famous laugh-haunt brings not just business, but Jay Leno (plus a two-drink minimum who wants to see the guy). Comedy doesn't work too well when people have to go home at 11pm.



Fewer customers, less profit, fewer businesses, lower tax revenues. That's a big mistake for Hermosa Beach.



Measure B is not just anti-business, however, but anti-school.



Wait, charges Mr. Lissner. . .



The School district gets its money from the State [sic], and the library gets is money from the County [sic].



Well, Governor Brown and his liberal Democratic caucus have seen fit with the new Local Control Funding Formula (a hot topic of debate with current Hermosa Beach School Board candidates) to cut per pupil spending to its lowest level for high-performing schools like Hermosa Beach City School District.



HBCSD is getting some of the lowest funding not just in Los Angeles County, but in the entire state. Unfair and unacceptable. Hermosa kids are getting less money from the state, yet the school district's enrollment is climbing, and the district needs money and space for the kids.



Where does the supplemenatly revenue come from? The businesses, the parents who do business in the city, and donations from the community, all of which flow into the Hermosa Beach Education Foundation. In other words, good business in the night-time has enabled donations in the day-time for the public schools.



As for the library -- LA County is operating on a shoe-string as it is. Do we really want to tempt fate by pushing away tax revenue from the city and risk leaving an underfunded library? Manhattan Beach is rebuilding their library -- why not Hermosa Beach, too?



If people want peace and quiet, then they can buy earplugs. If people want a quieter night life, then perhaps the city should assign the meter maids to work for their money and patrol the streets on the weekend.



Measure B is a bad idea: anti-business, anti-school, anti-Hermosa Beach.





Vote No on Measure B November 5th