Dear ER:
BCHD now wants a $30 million taxpayer bond issue after it spent $4,500 per foot on a bike path? I don’t think so. The bond is supposedly for the allcove building and demolition of the South Bay Hospital building. Neither one of those proposals is a good use of district taxpayer funds.
allcove is an LA County Service Planning Area 8 program that encompasses a 1.4 million population. Of that, the District is only 120,000 or 9%. Why does BCHD believe that 9% of the service area should pay $10M for the allcove building and upgrades out of the total $17 million cost? The irrationality doesn’t end there. BCHD received a meager $6 million state grant toward the cost of the allcove building, and that grant required BCHD agree to operate the building and its health services for at least 30 years. BCHD has no funding past mid-2025. That leaves District taxpayers at risk for the $100 million that 30 years of allcove program operations will cost. Sure, BCHD will apply for grants year after year, but District residents and taxpayers are always the backstop for that $100 million risk BCHD signed us up for. If grants don’t completely fund it, District taxpayers, only 9% of the allcove service area, are on the hook.
BCHD continues to pitch the fiction that the hospital building must be torn down because it doesn’t meet current seismic standards. That’s nonsense. BCHD’s Youssef consultants told the Community Working Group in writing that no upgrades are required to continue use of the building. My 2015 car doesn’t meet current safety standards. My 2020 refrigerator doesn’t meet current energy standards. My 1966 house doesn’t meet current seismic standards. Should I landfill the car and refrigerator and demolish the house? That’s what BCHD suggests is the fiscally responsible solution.
It’s crazy talk to suggest that every building that doesn’t meet current seismic standards should be demolished. If BCHD were truly concerned about the failed Hospital building’s safety, why is it occupied today and collecting rent?
Just say NO to a BCHD bond for allcove and just say no to building demolition.
Mark Nelson
Redondo Beach
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