Odds and Ends 7

I can't thank all you enough for having some of you actually fall for my Odds and Ends 6.5. April 1 has always been my favorite "holiday" and yesterday was quite a grand day.

The Skateboard Park between two houses being built near 20Th and Walker brought out the most folks who believed such a thing might actually be built!

The gray animal in the top photo is a wallaby, which is related closely to the kangaroo. The center photo is a cassowary bird. The bottom photo which I identified as a "dog" is a tasmanian devil and an animal you wouldn't want to try and pet.
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The surgery I am having on Thursday is not to move my eyes in my skull, those two surgeries happened in 1995 to correct the problem known as exotropia of the ocular sinister. For most of my life, my eyes pointed in different directions. Now they both appear to see the same thing.

I get a brand new right hip! I have been waiting somewhat impatiently for this surgery since the first surgery, a core decompression osteotomy failed late last year.

I will be offline for about a week, so I needed to get my Odds and Ends in today.
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The following is an anonymous comment on my www.pontevista.blogspot.com blog and it is on the April 1 post which I tried to make as absurd as my post, yesterday, on this blog
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Nice job! Keep up the great work!

P.S. I work at SPHS and I wanted to leave a FYI that I believe our school is crowded with over 3000+ students. 10 years or so ago we were at or near 22-2300+ and the vibe on campus was probably a little more calmer and more conducive for achievement. I wanted to give this information out because I believe another HS will be needed at some point in our area
[I live here too]. It's not about class size but the actual dynamics of passing periods, nutrition, lunch, etc...

As a citizen/taxpayer I believe I see the big picture of our society and the need for education for the young. I hope we all don't get too NIMBY. We need to figure out a safe, reasonable way to address this current/future issue of OUR community.

All the best and have a great day!
10:12 AM
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"It's not about class size but the actual dynamics of passing periods, nutrition, lunch, etc... "

This sentence I found particularly interesting because it is another suggestion that we spend approximately $88 Million Dollars to attempt to relieve "dynamics" rather than provide a better classroom education to students.
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April is going to be an active month for Neighborhoods Organized and Involved to Support Education (NOISE). The first batch of 750 yard signs will come in and be distributed throughout many neighborhoods in San Pedro. The list of residents requesting signs grows every day.

I hope everyone concerned is working on, or has already submitted their comments to the Notice of Preparation and Initial Study for the proposed campus. If you still need to view the documents, you can find access to the documents on earlier posts to this blog.

Several organizations will be submitting comments of letters of opposition to building a large campus on the Upper Reservation of Fort MacArthur, and NOISE has written a letter and will be submitting further comments in the near future.

You are all welcome to Email me, using the address at the top of this blog, to state what NOISE members feel are important concerns that environmental studies need to take more careful looks at and provide the best monitoring possible.

NOISE is still planning a public meeting in the next several weeks and we will get information to you as soon as a date, time and place has been formalized.

You can always reach NOISE at nohighschool15@cox.net
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There are apparently, traffic counters on Alma Street as I write this post. You may use this information as you see fit. These counts may be dealing with the Traffic and Transportation section of the Draft Environmental Impact Report for the proposed school, now fully in the study stages.

Be on the lookout for traffic counters on many other streets in the area, including Gaffey, 30Th, 36Th, 37Th, Paseo del Mar, and the streets from Emily to Roxbury, between 36Th and Paseo del Mar.

Look for all kinds of study equipment on the proposed site and in surrounding areas.
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We may be getting closer to the third meeting conducted by the Facilities Services Division of LAUSD to talk about and take more comments about the project plans for South Region High School 15. After the Feb, 2008 meeting, I thought I heard Rod Hamilton state that the third and final meeting of its kind will be held in "mid-April" if I heard correctly.
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Moving on to Ponte Vista at San Pedro issues, nothing new has been reported to me as far as what the Department of Planning is considering for the project.

It will be just my luck that I will be "under" when the Planning Department states what they believe could and should be built at Ponte Vista.

Hopefully, folks will keep me informed if anything breaks in the next week.
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The Los Angeles County Sanitation District is considering building a third tunnel between its waste treatment plant off of the Harbor Freeway and the Pacific Ocean.

You can learn more about the project by visiting: http://www.clearwaterprogram.org/clearwater/

If the decision is made to build a third tunnel, there will need to be a shaft dug and driven to provide access for the digging machine and other access to the tunnel's site.

There are now many sites being considered for where the placement of the shaft might be.
One of the possible sites is where Eastview Park now stands on Westmont, east of Western Avenue.

Eastview Park is within the City of Rancho Palos Verdes which leases the land from the L.A. County Sanitation District, which actually owns the land.

If a third tunnel follows nearly the same routes as the two existing, at capacity, tunnels and pipes, a shaft may be close enough at Eastview Park to be used.

Also IF a third tunnel is actually approved for construction, the construction will begin in around 2012 and last about eight years.
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Vista del Oro Neighbors Against Condos is waiting final City Council approval of a restriction being placed on the three lots currently zoned C1-1XL, on the site of the former McCowan's Market in San Pedro.

All is going smoothly, however, the "Skate Park" mentioned in Odds and Ends 6.5 brought out the most number of folks who actually believed it was going to happen. Ah what a fine day, yesterday was!
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I don't know how many people realize that real development is going on all around OUR community.

Please consider that Vue topped out in its height this past week. Centre Street Lofts still seems to be selling. We have 8Th Street Lofts, the Bank Lofts, LaSalle Lofts, Seaport Luxury Homes, Kaiser Point cruise ship terminal, Trapac, China Shipping, the renewed work on the Port of L.A. projects along the main channel, the Clear Water Project, Terranea, the Marymount College Expansion project, The Point Fermin Outdoor Education Center redevelopment, Ocean Fails/Donald Frump Irrational Golf Coarse, and many smaller projects all going on in OUR community. The CRA redevelopment of Pacific Avenue is also a very big undertaking.

Three projects I left out of the list are Ponte Vista, McCowan's site redevelopment, and South Region High School No. 15. The three projects appear to be the only over development of areas that need or needed to be checked. It looks more than encouraging that OUR community will see only six beautiful single-family, detached houses built at the McCowan's site redevelopment.

That leaves two, just two projects that are both too large for the area they are planned to be in and not compatible in OUR community.

With the high school issue, there are alternatives that haven't even been explored yet and need to have careful studies done on all alternatives.

With Ponte Vista, Bob's plans are simply too large to be built in OUR community.
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It is simply unfair, unjust, and not true that members of R Neighborhoods Are 1 are against development. As you can view the partial list included in this post, there are many developments welcomed by R Neighborhoods Are 1 members. We are also NOT truly "ranting elitists" as Bob claims many of us are. As you can see by my list, I am just mentioning three developments that do not fit into OUR community and one of them is being successfully challenged.

So, in all of OUR community, it looks like just two sites need to continue to be challenged, I strongly feel.
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