Hermosa Beach Neighborhood Watch Postpones E&B Informational Meeting
A neighborhood watch meeting during which three E&B Natural Resources executives were going to present information on the company's proposed oil production project in Hermosa Beach has been postponed, according to Tracy Hopkins, Hermosa Beach resident and volunteer neighborhood watch founder. Tracy is the co-founder and co-coordinator of the Hermosa Beach Neighborhood Watch Saferhermosabeach.com. Safer Hermosa has a large following on Twitter at @SaferHermosa.
Ironically, Tracy was also featured on this The South Bay Show "Preparing for Disaster." The web site Safer Hermosa focuses on crime prevention and disaster preparedness. Tracy also appears to be in the business of selling disaster preparedness kits and training programs. She said on this show that Neighborhood Watch was inspired by watching the Katrina disaster in 2005.
HBNW receives $5,000 in funding from the city, said Tom Bakaly, city manager, adding that the $5,000 is used for National Night Out, an annual event that cities nationwide participate in in August. Tom said the city was "kind of staying out of" the meeting and any controversy surrounding it. "This is their [neighborhood watch's] information setting," he said. "It's an informational meeting."
It does not take a genius to realize that most of the communities that have oil and gas drilling have much higher crime rates. Go to DrillingMaps.com and you can make the obvious correlation yourself. If oil drilling is permitted it will undoubtedly change the demographics of South Hermosa even further. Renters will go up and so will crime rates.
