📬 Councilmember Ray Jackson | Hermosa Beach | May 4, 2026

Dear Hermosa Beach,

Picture this: miles of California coastline lined with private homes, public beaches that don't really feel public, wetlands paved over, parking gone, paths gone, the whole shore a private playground for whoever bought in first. That is what California looks like without the Coastal Act, and 2026 is the year we mark fifty years since voters refused to let that be the future. Coastal stewardship is the through line of this week's update, with one tragic Orange County case sharpening every conversation we are about to have in Hermosa around safety on our streets, our pier, and the public spaces we share.

Here is what you need to know.

🚨 Public Safety

🔹 A heartbreaking update from Lake Forest. Last week's newsletter flagged the Surron e-motorcycle case in which a 14-year-old illegally riding the vehicle critically injured 81-year-old Ed Ashman, a substitute teacher and Vietnam veteran walking home from El Toro High School. On Wednesday, April 29, Mr. Ashman died from his injuries. Orange County prosecutors have now upgraded the rider's mother's charges to include involuntary manslaughter. The OCDA noted that deputies had warned this same parent months earlier about the dangers of letting her child ride this exact vehicle.

→ 🎯 My take: This is no longer a cautionary tale. It is a death, and it was avoidable. A combat-trained Marine who served his country, taught at a public high school into his eighties, and was simply walking home is gone. Accountability matters here, and so does prevention. We need clear rules about who can legally operate which class of vehicle, real enforcement, parental responsibility taken seriously before tragedy happens, proper licensing legislation that catches up to the technology, and physical separation between pedestrians and high-speed devices wherever our streets and Strand allow it. Hermosa Beach is not Lake Forest, but the devices and the dynamics are the same. We are not going to wait for our own version of this story.

→ 💡 What to do this week: If you are a parent of a teen riding any e-bike or e-motorcycle, please take fifteen minutes to verify what your child is actually riding, what the law says about it for their age, and what the consequences look like when something goes wrong. HBPD's programs and tips page is a clear starting point.

👉 HBPD programs and safety tips

👉 Read the OCDA statement on the upgraded charges

🌊 Environment & Protecting Our Coast

🔹 Fifty years in, here is what the Coastal Act actually buys us. When voters passed Proposition 20 in 1972 and the Legislature followed with the California Coastal Act in 1976, they did not promise a perfect coast. They promised one that would not be quietly handed over to whoever could afford it first. That distinction is the entire game. Without the Coastal Act, large stretches of coastline would be gated, not shared. Development would crowd the shoreline and block the views and open space that belong to all of us. Wetlands, dunes, and habitat would be paved over, even though those are exactly the systems that protect the coast from itself. Parking and access paths would shrink. Beaches would belong, in practice, to a few rather than to every Californian.

→ ⚡ Why this matters now: This is not theoretical. Last week the Coastal Commission unanimously opposed AB1740, a bill that would weaken individual permit oversight in coastal cities. As we mark fifty years of the Act this year, similar pressure is going to keep coming, and someone has to keep saying out loud what the Act protects and why. From my seat on the Commission, that posture is non-negotiable.

→ 🎯 My stance: The coast is never saved. It is always being saved. Public access, protected habitat, and shoreline stewardship hold only as long as we are willing to defend them in every Tuesday meeting, every permit hearing, and every legislative session. I will keep doing that work.

👉 Read the California Coastal Act

🔹 Coastal Commission staff: California Ocean Day recognition. On California Ocean Day last week, the Coastal Commission's professional staff, led by Executive Director Dr. Kate Huckelbridge, was recognized for the daily work of stewarding our shoreline. They are the ones in the room before, during, and after every Commission meeting, navigating competing interests, hard calls, and constant pressure to land the right outcome for the public. Recognition like this rarely makes headlines, and it should.

→ 💡 The takeaway: Good policy depends on good people willing to choose the harder right over the easier wrong. Hermosa benefits every time that staff does its job well, whether anyone here ever sees their names.

🔹 Mark your calendar: Coastal Commission meets in San Pedro, May 13 to 15. The Commission's May meeting will be held just down the coast at the Crowne Plaza Los Angeles Harbor Hotel in San Pedro. South Bay residents who care about coastal access, public hearings on Los Angeles County beach projects, or the broader work of the Commission will find this one geographically close enough to attend in person. Cal-Span typically carries the livestream for those who would rather watch from home.

👉 View the Coastal Commission meeting schedule

💰 Budget & Finance

🔹 A real federal partner for the Hermosa pier. Congressman Robert Garcia spoke up last week in a way that lands directly in our city's most important infrastructure conversation. The choice in front of Hermosa is not abstract: replace the pier or keep paying to patch it. A federal partner willing to acknowledge that our pier is not just a local asset but a piece of public access infrastructure that serves everyone is exactly the kind of relationship we need to build right now.

→ 🎯 My stance: Walking away from our pier is not on the table. Reimagining it is. Activating it is. Generating revenue from the visitors who use it is. That is responsible governance, and it is the conversation I will keep pushing at the dais. Federal interest like Congressman Garcia's strengthens our hand.

🔹 The Council Budget Study Session is the moment for resident voice. Council convened last Tuesday for the FY 2026-27 Budget Study Session and the Regular Meeting. These early budget conversations are where the priorities for next fiscal year first take shape on the public record. If a specific line item matters to you, whether it is pier-related, public safety staffing, parks investment, or anything else, the most direct way to influence it is right now, before the numbers harden into a draft budget. I will continue to report back as the budget conversation progresses through the spring.

👉 View City Council agendas and meeting information

🇺🇸 Around Town: Honoring Service

🔹 First Saturday at the Veterans Memorial. On Saturday morning, a group of us gathered at the Hermosa Beach Veterans Memorial for the monthly First Saturday cleanup. We swapped out the flags, gave the memorial a polish, and spent a couple of hours doing the simple, hands-on work of caring for a place that means a great deal to a lot of families in this city. There were good people there, plenty of laughs, and the kind of quiet purpose you only get from neighbors who chose to show up.

→ 🎯 Why it matters to me: As an Army veteran with thirty years in uniform, I will keep showing up to that memorial as long as my schedule allows. The Vietnam veteran lost in Lake Forest last week, and the names on the Hermosa Beach memorial, are part of the same long line of Americans who chose service over an easier path. The least we can do is keep that ground looking like we mean it.

👉 Learn about the Hermosa Beach Veterans Memorial

📅 Upcoming

🔹 Tuesday, May 12, 6:00 PM: Regular City Council meeting at City Hall, 1315 Valley Drive. Agendas post at least 72 hours in advance.

🔹 Wednesday, May 13 to Friday, May 15: California Coastal Commission meets at the Crowne Plaza Los Angeles Harbor Hotel in San Pedro. The geography matters this month: this is a coastal meeting in our backyard.

👉 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

The thread running through this week is older than any of us. People who came before us decided that some places, our coastline, our memorials, our public infrastructure, are not for sale and not for any one generation to give away. The work of holding that line never finishes. It just gets handed off, season by season, to whoever is willing to keep at it. Thank you for being part of that work in Hermosa Beach.

As always, please reach out anytime with questions, concerns, or anything you think I should know.

Working together to build an ever better Hermosa Beach.

Ray Jackson
Councilmember, City of Hermosa Beach
rjackson@hermosabeach.gov