Why Are Home Prices Dropping in Hermosa Beach?

Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach & El Segundo 

Condo Townhomes Average Price Per Sale & Sold 

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Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach & El Segundo 

Single Family Home Average Price Per Sale & Sold 

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E&B has been making their rounds presenting to local real estate groups over the past week about the economic benefits of oil drilling in our Beach town. They will spew a truck load of BS and have already costs Hermosa Beach property owners about approximately $343M in aggregate real estate wealth in the first 15 months of being in town.  Here is the math = (7000 parcels x $980,000 avg. per parcel) -5% decrease to be conservative. The last 12 months have seen a sharp spike in home prices everywhere in the South Bay but Hermosa Beach.

Unfortunately, the Stop of Hermosa Beach group has not been invited to present the other side of the oil story. If you ask anyone from E&B if slant hydraulic oil drilling can be done safely near the thousands of abandoned wells in the South Bay, E&B will lie and refer to studies or experts. However, ask any other experienced oil executive and they will tell you that E&B is nuts to hydraulic drill with capped wells under homes nearby.

Slant hydraulic drilling cannot be done safely with abandoned wells under homes and schools. Ask E&B if they plan to cover abandoned wells in the EIR? It won't because Marine Research has no experience with with their failed EIR's for Whittier Hills and Baldwin Hills. If they cover how to mitigate an abandoned well becoming pressurized in the EIR it will kill the whole project and E&B knows this. This is also a fact!  

Why Did Hermosa Beach "Neighborhood Watch" Postpone Their E&B Oil Information Meeting?

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.