Category: Dave Johnson

There will be an In-Water Boat Show in Marina del Rey this year. But there won’t be any dredging this year of the Marina del Rey entry channel. BOAT SHOW — The West-chester/LAX-Marina del Rey Chamber of Commerce will sponsor the Boat Show and it will be produced by Duncan McIntosh. Boat Show dates will be Thursday through Sunday, May 18th to 21st. McIntosh is scheduled to speak to members of the chamber Marina Affairs Committee at 8 a.m. Tuesday, April 4th, at Tony P’s Dockside Grill, 4455 Admiralty Way. So, after the chamber committee meeting, we should know more about the Boat Show. CHANNEL DREDGING — The south side of the entrance channel to the Marina has begun shoaling again. Usually, it is the north side of the entry channel that gets filled with sand and other sediment, causing dangers to boaters coming in and out of the Marina. But this time, it is the south side that has been hit with sediment that has sneaked through the rock breakwater. County officials were at one time talking about $1.4 million or so for a dredging job. But now the word from the U.S. Corps of Engineers — which is responsible for navigation in the Marina entrance channel — is that it will take about $14 million or so to get the job done. It will take a lot...

The northern entrance to Marina del Rey is almost half filled with silt and sand again. Sheriff’s officials are putting out buoys, warning boaters of the dangers. Interestingly, the shoaling almost drops straight down at the channel water edges, leaving some 15 feet of the water for boaters entering and leaving the Marina, members of the Westchester-LAX/Marina del Rey Marina Affairs Committee were told by Marina del Rey Sheriff’s Station officers last week. Look for more talk about a dredging project at the site down the road. A figure of $12 million for such a project is being tossed about. CAROLE STEVENS RESIGNS — County Small Craft Harbor Commissioner Carole Stevens resigned last week from the commission, officially leaving only two members on the five-member commission. Stevens had been recuperating in a Culver City hospital until last week when she was released and taken by family members to the East Coast, to be nearer her family. Her medical condition had deteriorated to a point where “she couldn’t be alone anymore” in her Marina apartment, we were told. We will miss Carole. As a longtime Marina resident, she was an active participant in the Marina lifestyle, taking part in a long string of community activities. As we were reminded last week, “You couldn’t go to a community event without running into Carole.” She especially enjoyed the outdoor summer concerts in...

While other folks are focusing on the President’s State of the Union address, that new Supreme Court justice and the situation over there in Iraq, we are concentrating on the real story of the week — Groundhog Day. This story has real impact, especially to those of us who have already had enough winter, thank you. We look for help wherever we can find it. Even from our local Los Angeles Councilman Bill Rosen-dahl. Rosendahl gets involved in such things. You’ll recall that just weeks ago he was ranting and raving about all the wind we were having and how it was knocking out the power allegedly supplied by the City of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP). Bill was blaming those guys and gals over at the DWP for the fact that our power went out three times within 45 minutes — raising real havoc with our digital clocks. Councilman Bill wanted some official response from the DWP, assuring that we wouldn’t have any more big wind storms so we can keep our power on — if only to ensure that we don’t miss a one of Councilman Bill’s daily e-mails that are mostly about, well, Councilman Bill. We don’t have much time. Groundhog Day is Thursday, February 2nd, and if we don’t get a Los Angeles City Council motion from Councilman Bill ensuring that we...

The County Marina del Rey Design Control Board will take public input at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, January 26th, in the Burton Chace Park on county plans to redevelop the Marina Beach — Mothers Beach — area. A day earlier in downtown Los Angeles the County Regional Planning Commission will consider plans to demolish the existing 202-unit Del Rey Shores complex at 4201 Via Marina in the Marina and replace the demolished units with a 544-apartment complex. In February, the Westchester/ LAX-Marina del Rey Chamber of Commerce Marina Affairs Committee will hear a report from developers on the proposed redevelopment of the Harbor House Restaurant-Edie’s Diner-county parking lot site east of Palawan Way at Admiralty Way. Depending on whom you talk to, the project is considered part of the Mothers Beach redo. The February chamber meeting is open to chamber members only and their guests. So what happens to all these proposed projects? They will work themselves through the system, which includes a public hearing before the County Marina Design Control Board. And then they will go to the County Small Craft Harbor Commission, where — at least for the moment — they will sit, waiting for the county commission to try to gather at least three members who can come to a commission meeting and form a quorum. At least this week, that’s not possible. There was — and...

Mothers Beach — officially called the Marina Beach — in Marina del Rey has had a rather sad reputation. The beach sits at the end of Basin D, a cul-de-sac of water that doesn’t get much — if any — tidal flushing action enjoyed by other Marina water basins. For decades, the beach has been a favorite with birds, many that came seeking a crumb or two left behind by beach visitors. Marina officials were embarrassed when county staffers from downtown measuring pollution counts at beaches up and down the coast found Mothers Beach the worst of the worst. Things got worse when Heal the Bay cranked up its beach monitoring program and especially its well covered “report card” of pollution at local beaches. Mothers Beach too often got an F rating from Heal the Bay, which was well publicized in the media throughout the region. County officials tried a whole parade of alternatives, attempting to mitigate the pollution of Mothers Beach. Thin wires were strung above the beach to keep the birds away. That didn’t work. A small aerator was placed in the water, to stir up the water and, hopefully, disseminate the pollutants. That didn’t do much either. As Heal the Bay and others kept pounding away that Mothers Beach waters were among the worst in the county, Sunset Magazine and other “family oriented” publications discovered Mothers...