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