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Ray Jackson Newsletter — July 12, 2026
📬 Councilmember Ray Jackson | Hermosa Beach | July 13, 2026
Hello neighbors,
Here is a number worth sitting with: 37,000. That is roughly how many preventative actions Los Angeles County lifeguards took along our beaches over the Fourth of July weekend, alongside about 300 ocean rescues and more than 400 medical aids, while hundreds of thousands of people celebrated our nation's 250th anniversary on the sand. The best holiday stories are the ones that never happen because someone prevented them.
That spirit of quiet, professional service ran through the whole week, from the lifeguard towers on our shoreline to the Coastal Commission dais in Ventura. Here is what you need to know.
🚨 Public Safety
🔹 A safe 250th birthday on our beaches, by the numbers. As huge crowds came to Los Angeles County beaches for the holiday weekend, County lifeguards worked around the clock: roughly 300 ocean rescues, over 400 medical aids, and more than 37,000 preventative actions, the checks and interventions that stop an emergency before it starts.
→ 🎯 My take: Thank you to our Los Angeles County Fire Department Lifeguard Division and Beaches and Harbors partners. Prevention rarely makes headlines, and that is exactly the point. When you head down to the water this summer, take thirty seconds to check in with a lifeguard about the day's conditions. That one quick conversation can change how your whole day ends.
🌊 Environment & Protecting Our Coast
🔹 The Coastal Commission convened in Ventura, July 8 through 10. The California Coastal Commission held its July meeting Wednesday through Friday at the Crowne Plaza Ventura Beach, taking up a full docket of permit items, public comment, and statewide coastal questions whose effects reach all the way to the South Bay.
→ ⚡ Why it matters: These monthly hearings decide, project by project, whether California's shoreline stays open to everyone or slowly gets fenced off. From my seat on the Commission, that is the work, month after month, and it never stops being worth it.
→ 💡 How to follow along: Agendas, livestream links, and public comment instructions are all posted online, and you can sign up for monthly meeting notifications by email. Spanish-language resources are available too. You do not need to be a policy expert to participate. You just need to care about the coast.
👉 View Coastal Commission agendas and livestream info
🔹 In August, the Commission comes to San Pedro. The August 12 meeting lands close to home at the Crowne Plaza Los Angeles Harbor. When coastal decisions are being made a short drive away, South Bay voices carry farther. I hope some of you will take advantage of the proximity.
👉 View the Coastal Commission meeting schedule
💰 Budget & Finance
🔹 A heads-up before August 1: parking fines are changing. Starting August 1, most parking citations in Hermosa Beach, including expired meters and time limits, will be $75, with street sweeping violations at $55. The late penalty is changing too: citations unpaid within 21 days of issuance will incur a late fee equal to 100 percent of the citation.
→ ⚡ Why I am flagging it now: Nobody enjoys a citation, and a surprise late fee stings twice. Feed the meter, watch the sweeping signs, and if you do get a ticket, pay it inside the 21-day window. A little awareness now saves real money later, and every dollar of it stays in your pocket where it belongs.
👉 Read the Council meeting recap
🏠 Housing
🔹 Affordability should be the measuring stick, not the marketing. Sacramento keeps passing laws that override local control and clear the way for market rate projects with thin affordability requirements. Just up the coast in Manhattan Beach, state housing law paved the way for that city's first seven story apartment building: 40 units, only 11 of them designated affordable.
→ 🎯 My stance: If communities are told they cannot say no to these projects, the result should at least be homes working families can actually afford. Success should be measured by the number of affordable homes built, not by the number of market rate units approved. Working families need policies that produce homes within reach, not a promise that affordability will eventually trickle down. I will keep making that case at every level where housing policy gets written.
🇺🇸 Around Town
🔹 The 51st Ironman: only in Hb. Nearly 2,000 competitors, the largest field in the event's 51-year history, took on the run, paddle, and chug on the Fourth, and together they raised more than $50,000 for local charities, including the Hermosa Beach Chamber and the Hermosa Museum. A tradition that started as a beach-town dare has quietly become one of our bigger charitable engines, and that is a very Hermosa way to celebrate America's 250th.
👉 Read the Easy Reader Ironman recap
🔹 Free art workshops for veterans. Destination Art's Veterans Creative Muster program offers free art workshops for veterans, and I want to make sure every veteran in our community knows about it. If you served, or you know someone who did, please pass this along.
→ 💡 Why it matters to me: Sometimes the greatest act of service is making sure a fellow veteran knows they are not alone. A paintbrush and a room full of people who understand can do a lot of good.
📅 Dates & Community Events
🔹 Tuesday, July 28, 6:00 PM: The next regular City Council meeting at City Hall, 1315 Valley Drive. Council does not meet mid-July, so the 28th is the next chance to weigh in at the dais. The agenda will be posted online at least 72 hours ahead.
🔹 Saturday, August 1: First Saturday cleanup at the Hermosa Beach Veterans Memorial. Come lend a hand with the flags and upkeep. Everyone is welcome.
🔹 Saturday, August 1: New parking citation fines and the updated late fee take effect citywide.
🔹 Wednesday, August 12: California Coastal Commission meeting at the Crowne Plaza Los Angeles Harbor in San Pedro.
👉 View City Council agendas and meeting information
📱 Stay Connected
If you have a service issue to report, the Go Hermosa! app is the most direct way to get it to the right department at City Hall.
👉 Submit a service request via Go Hermosa!
For community updates and commentary between editions, you can follow me on Instagram.
👉 Follow @RayForHermosa on Instagram
Most of what keeps a beach town safe and livable happens quietly. A lifeguard's thirty-second conversation before someone paddles out. A commission hearing three counties away that keeps a shoreline public. A volunteer who hands a veteran a paintbrush. My thanks to everyone doing that quiet work this summer, and to you for making a few minutes for this update. As always, please reach out anytime with questions, concerns, or anything you think I should know.
