Blue Zone ‘bluewashing’

Dear ER:

Unfortunately with the Beach Cities Health District, this is a case of “bluewashing” the truth [“Tripping over health: The Blue Zones Project’s plan to re-engineer communities, one city at a time,” ER Dec. 5, 2019]. For surrounding neighborhoods of BCHD, the agency has been the leading chronic stressor since the 1950s. And now, BCHD is gearing up for a 15-year demolition and construction project that will put continued, chronic stress on the surrounding neighborhoods, and especially the entire generation of children in those surrounding neighborhoods [“Redondo Beach Residents eye Healthy Living Campus plans,” ER July 18, 2019].

Bluezones.com states that stress “often called the silent killer,” can strain people’s work, school, friendships, relationships, and even sleep habits, cause physical suffering and reduce the ability of the immune system to fight off illness.

In this case, we know the cause of the stress. It’s BCHD’s zeal to expand its scope into real estate investments and spend $500 million to become a 430-unit senior apartment landlord.

With its tens of thousands of truckloads of debris, and hundreds of thousands of worker commuter trips, BCHD will plug up streets and impact both parents and commuters from 190th Street south to the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Couple that with the noise, digging, demolition, vibration, dust, and toxic particulate emissions of heavy construction, and the health of the local neighborhoods is undeniably being sacrificed by BCHD for their starry-eyed real estate development lust.

It’s unfair and hypocritical of a purported Blue Zones practitioner to force a half century or more of chronic stress on its neighbors.

And in these days of quid pro quo, I can’t help but wonder if this interestingly timed, P.R. fluff piece cover story is a quid pro quo based on advertising revenues from BCHD.

Mark Nelson

ER News web comment

Unhealthy Healthy Campus

Dear ER:

Letter writer Vijay Jeste wrote in support of the current Healthy Living Campus building plan proposed by the Board of Directors of the Beach Cities Health District (‘Yes, Build It’, ER Letters Dec. 5, 2019). The writer mentions the inconvenience of occasional teardowns and construction of single family homes in the Beach Cities as a comparison with the Healthy Living Campus development, a 15 year project. The BCHD campus is located near the top of a hill. Prevailing wind is from the ocean. Residents and a school in the city of Torrance east of the campus will receive most of the unhealthy air resulting from demolition, excavation, construction, and vehicular movement. The Towers Elementary School playground is located 450 feet downwind of the BCHD buildings proposed for demolishment. Students spending time outdoors in the schoolyard could be subject to a lot of unhealthy air and be at risk of health problems.  The writer mentions increasing numbers of plus 65 seniors in the three Beach Cities. Few of those seniors will likely be able or willing to pay as much as $9,000 monthly at the Healthy Living Campus senior housing. The Healthy Living Campus development will cause problems for nearby residents and students, few of whom will ever be able to benefit much from it.

Robert London

Redondo Beach

You call that Living?

Dear ER:

The Beach Cities Health District board of directors asserts that in the next 15 years, in order to continue to provide the current level of services to the community, a new Healthy Living Campus must be developed at a cost of $530 million [“Redondo Beach Residents eye Healthy Living Campus plans,” ER July 18, 2019].

This development will take public land zoned for parks and recreation to build a “for profit” senior residential facility, preventing the possibility of open air recreation facilities.

Additionally, the 15 years of construction brings a high cost to Redondo Beach residents: lost time due to increased traffic congestion, air quality and environmental degradation, devaluation of property values, degrading roads, increase roadway repair costs, and the list goes on.

This over-the-top plan to keep popular programs functioning is unnecessary overkill. When we think of BCHD, the Life Span Services are the programs and services that we see. They include direct grants to organizations, youth services, Blue Zones, volunteer programs, and school programs. The 2018 cost of these programs was $4 million, just slightly above the revenue received from local property taxes. The other popular program is the Fitness Center/AdventurePlex, costing $3.3 million in 2018 and almost entirely covered by revenue from user fees.

These two programs account for $7.3 million out of a budget of nearly $14 million. The balance of $6.5 million is spent on administrative services and property operations. This amounts to 46 percent of the budget. The general nonprofit expenditure standard is a ratio of 80 percent expenditures on grants to the community and 20 percent spent on administrative expenses.

We can keep the LifeSpan Services and the Fitness Centers without building a Healthy Living Campus. The realistic solution is for the board of directors to adopt the nonprofit 80/20 standard practice and reduce administrative and property operation costs to 20 percent of the total budget.

Sheila W. Lamb

Redondo Beach