Let it be

June 25, 2020

Dear ER:

BCHD has been misrepresenting the need to retrofit its 514 N. Prospect Avenue  building for seismic use. In Community Work Group meetings, after repeated questioning, the BCHD consultant was clear, there is no obligation to retrofit the building except for use as an emergency hospital. South Bay Hospital District and BCHD failed with the 514 building as a public and a private hospital, so a return to emergency hospital use is out of the question. With regard to BCHD CEO Tom Bakaly’s usual talking point that the building doesn’t meet current code, neither do most of our homes, and we’re not tearing them down either. Neither do most of our cars conform to current safety standards, yet we don’t abandon them. Neither do the 510 and 520 buildings, but BCHD isn’t worried about them collapsing on the local citizenry.

Mark Nelson

BCHD CWG Member

Redondo Beach

Health district's spending on proposed facility

According to Beach Cities Health District's 2019-20 budget, it has authorized (and I assume spent) over $5 million so far on its 420 unit, 600,000 square-foot, planned assisted living overdevelopment on the former South Bay Hospital site.

We all need to be reminded that assisted living and skilled nursing facilities have accounted for about half of the COVID-19 deaths in California so far. BCHD’s facility is expected to have about 550 beds, making it a very large facility with the potential for a massive outbreak from future flu, virus, epidemic or pandemic events.

A recent Public Records Act response from BCHD indicates that they have yet to even consider the impacts of COVID-19 on their project. For $5 million, you’d think something as fatal as COVID-19 in the age 65+ group that BCHD is targeting would be worth at least a study.

Also, 80% of the tenants of the proposed project will be from outside the beach cities. We don’t need BCHD in the risky, commercial real estate business gambling with the lives of seniors. We can't have the first $5 million back that they've wasted, but we can stop wasting more money. It's time to shut down the big, bad project.

—Mark Nelson, Redondo Beach

Shelter in place practice

Dear ER:

The Beach Cities Health District donated $80,000 last week to two charitable funds and then wrote themselves a 10-column-inch congratulations article. BCHD gets $4 million a year in property taxes and spends half of that on their top 10-paid employees. They get another $10 million a year in revenue from property that residents bought. In the 1950s when we voted for South Bay Hospital and taxpayer bonds to buy the land and build the hospital. It’s good to “do good” but stop blowing your horn for spending our taxpayer money.

BCHD is hell bent on building a $550 million, 430 room “Kensington on steroids” senior apartment complex. Over 80 percent of the target tenants are from outside the district. Instead of that, now that BCHD has the infrastructure in place to support seniors at home, BCHD should focus on the real definition of aging-in-place, which is not being put into an enormous, disease-filled concrete coffin that’s been referred to as “God’s waiting room.” Instead, BCHD should help local seniors retrofit their homes to live out their lives and provide continued supportive services. 

Mark Nelson

Redondo Beach