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Ray Jackson Newsletter — June 15, 2026
📬 Councilmember Ray Jackson | Hermosa Beach | June 15, 2026
Dear friends,
It was a colorful few days in Hermosa. Art filled the streets for the Fine Arts Festival, a new mural went up in the Arts District, and Pride flags flew along the coast while neighbors gathered around one simple idea: that everyone here belongs. Weekends like this remind me what makes a small beach town feel like home, and it is not only the sand and the sunsets. It is a community that keeps making room for one another. Here is what stood out, and what is coming next.
🚨 Public Safety
🔹 A fast response in the middle of the night, and two children kept safe. Early on Monday, June 8, Hermosa Beach police got a call about a possible home invasion in progress, with two young kids asleep upstairs. Officers were on scene within two minutes, called in help from Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, and El Segundo, and took the suspect into custody without anyone getting hurt. The children were found safe in their room.
→ 🎯 My take: A response that fast, with two small children asleep in the house, is exactly the outcome we train and budget for, and it does not happen without the mutual aid from our neighboring departments. My thanks to HBPD and every agency that answered the call that night. If something looks off in your neighborhood, the department's non-emergency line is (310) 524-2750, and always call 9-1-1 in an emergency.
👉 Read the full HBPD statement
🌊 Environment & Protecting Our Coast
🔹 The Coastal Commission wrapped its June meeting in San Diego. The California Coastal Commission met June 10 and 11 at the Wyndham Bayside in San Diego for its monthly round of permit hearings, public testimony, and coastal policy decisions. As one of the Commission's members for Los Angeles and Orange County, protecting public access to the water is the part of this work I care about most.
→ 💡 Why it matters here: What the Commission decides does not stay in the hearing room. Permit by permit, it shapes what can be built along the coast, how the rules get enforced, and how easily residents can get down to the water. As the summer crowds arrive, that is the work standing behind the beach day you are already planning.
→ 📅 Next stop, closer to home: The Commission's July meeting runs July 8 through 10 at the Crowne Plaza in San Pedro, a short drive south along the coast. The sessions are open to the public and streamed online for anyone who wants to follow along.
👉 View the Coastal Commission meeting schedule
🎨 Around Town
🔹 The Fine Arts Festival brought the whole town outside. Hermosa's annual Fine Arts Festival ran through the weekend, turning our streets into an open-air gallery of painters, photographers, and makers. I had the chance to stop by and see the work up close, including the photography at Don Adkins' booth.
→ 🎯 Why I love this one: Every artist at that festival is also a small business, and every visitor who buys a piece or grabs lunch nearby is investing in our downtown. Supporting local creativity and supporting our local economy turn out to be the same thing.
👉 Explore local events and activities in Hermosa
🔹 A new mural for the Arts District. Congratulations to the Leadership Hermosa Beach Class of 2026, who unveiled a community mural this weekend as their class project. It is a real, lasting addition to the Arts District and a reminder of what neighbors can build when they roll up their sleeves together.
→ 💡 The bigger picture: Public art does quiet work. It gives a corner character, gives residents something to be proud of, and gives visitors one more reason to stop, look, and stay a while.
🌈 A Community Where Everyone Belongs
🔹 Pride, and the reminder that everyone belongs here. June is Pride Month, and at a time when the world can feel full of anger and division, Pride stands for something simple: every person deserves to feel seen, valued, and welcome. It has never been about special treatment. It is about dignity, acceptance, and the belief that our differences do not have to divide us. This year also marks ten years since the 49 lives lost at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, a hard reminder of why visibility and inclusion still matter.
→ 🎯 Where I stand: Hermosa is strongest when every neighbor feels welcome, safe, and valued. That is not a partisan idea to me. It is simply what a good community owes its people. Happy Pride, Hermosa Beach.
🔹 Welcoming the world, and meaning it. The World Cup has arrived in Southern California, with matches underway at SoFi Stadium just up the freeway in Inglewood and fans from dozens of countries filling the region. That is something to celebrate, and it also raises a fair question about the kind of hosts we want to be. When a World Cup referee with a valid visa, vetted and chosen on merit, is turned away at our border, it cuts against the very idea of welcoming the world.
→ 🎯 A personal note: My parents came to this country as immigrants and built their American life from the ground up, at a time when their marriage was not even legal across much of the nation. So when we say we welcome the world, I believe we owe it to ourselves to mean it, and not only when it is easy.
📅 Mark Your Calendar
🔹 Friday, June 19: Juneteenth. The holiday marks June 19, 1865, the day word of emancipation finally reached the last enslaved people in Texas. It is a fitting bookend to a week about belonging: a reminder of how long freedom was delayed for so many, and how much living up to it still asks of all of us.
🔹 The World Cup is in our backyard. SoFi Stadium in Inglewood is hosting matches throughout the tournament, including games on June 18, June 21, and June 25, with fan events across the region. If you have never seen the world's game up close, this is the summer to do it.
👉 Plan a World Cup match day in Los Angeles
🔹 Tuesday, June 23, 6:00 PM: City Council, with a public hearing on streetlights and landscaping. Council meets at City Hall, 1315 Valley Drive, and takes up next year's assessment for the Landscaping and Street Lighting District, which funds the streetlights and greenery along our public streets. It is a small line item that touches every block in town, so if you have a view on it, that hearing is your opening to be heard.
👉 View the City Council agenda
📱 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 updates and conversation between editions, you can follow me on Instagram.
👉 Follow @RayForHermosa on Instagram
A festival on the sand, a fresh mural downtown, Pride flags on the coast, a fast police response in the dark, and the world's game arriving up the freeway. Different moments, one through-line: a community is the sum of the people who make room for each other, and for whoever comes next. Thank you for being part of that. As always, please reach out anytime with a question, a concern, or anything you think I should know.
