Elected Official? Create newsletters in minutes, not hours.
Transparent, authentic, comprehensive newsletters to maximize constituent representation and civic engagement.
Ray Jackson Newsletter — September 7, 2026
📬 Councilmember Ray Jackson | Hermosa Beach | September 7, 2026
Happy Labor Day, Hermosa Beach,
Before anything else today, a thank-you. This holiday exists to honor people who work, and this weekend our town was full of them: the vendors, artists, carnival crews, police officers, and public works staff who transformed downtown into Fiesta Hermosa for three straight days. I caught Michael Gourzis and Joe Cipolla keeping the crowd smiling with great live music, watched Hermosa Cyclery keep everyone rolling, and saw a whole community show up for itself. If you have not made it down yet, you are not too late. The Fiesta's final day runs today from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM.
The week ahead is just as full: a Council meeting tomorrow night, championship volleyball starting Thursday, and a quiet morning of remembrance on Friday, the 25th anniversary of September 11. Here is what you need to know.
🚨 Public Safety
🔹 A DUI and driver's license checkpoint is set for Friday night. The Hermosa Beach Police Department will conduct a DUI and driver's license checkpoint on Friday, September 11, from 7:00 PM to 3:00 AM at an undisclosed location, funded by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Locations are selected using data on impaired-driving crashes, and the goal is prevention, which is exactly why the department announces these in advance.
→ 💡 Plain English: Impairment is not only about alcohol. Certain prescription and over-the-counter medications can affect your driving, and while marijuana is legal, getting behind the wheel under its influence is not. A first-time DUI averages about $13,500 in fines and penalties, plus a suspended license. Decide on your ride home before your first drink, and Friday's checkpoint becomes nothing more than a friendly wave-through. I am hoping for zero.
👉 View the checkpoint announcement (Instagram)
Remembering September 11
🔹 Twenty-five years, one quiet morning on the Greenbelt. On Friday, September 11, at 7:30 AM, the City will hold its annual 9/11 Remembrance Wreath Laying Ceremony at the Hermosa Beach 9/11 Memorial, where the Greenbelt meets Pier Avenue. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the attacks. The ceremony will feature remarks from Mayor Mike Detoy and community members, the Posting of the Colors by the HBPD Honor Guard and Hermosa Beach Scouts Troop 860, ceremonial music from retired service members, and wreaths placed by elected officials and Police and Fire representatives. Flowers will be available for attendees to lay at the Memorial, which holds a piece of steel recovered from Ground Zero. No RSVP is required, and everyone is welcome.
→ 🎯 A personal note: I spent nearly thirty years in uniform, and I can tell you the weight of that Tuesday morning does not lighten with time. What changes is how a community carries it. Half an hour of remembrance before the workday begins is a small gift to the people who gave everything.
👉 Read the City's ceremony announcement
🌊 Environment & Protecting Our Coast
🔹 The Coastal Act carveout is off the table, and public pressure did it. The Governor stepped back from a proposed carveout to the Coastal Act after residents, organizations, and elected leaders across California rose up and refused to see our coast divided for special interests, with Assemblymember Rick Zbur leading the fight. Bravo to everyone who spoke out, and credit to the Governor for listening and changing course.
→ 🎯 My take: Our coast is never saved once and for all. It gets saved again and again, by people who refuse to look away. This win belongs to all of them, and it is a reminder that big-money interests will keep knocking at our coastal doors. Stay alert and stay involved.
🔹 Coastal Cleanup Day lands Saturday, September 19. Hermosa's stretch of the statewide effort kicks off at 9:00 AM. It is a couple of hours of honest work with a big payoff for the ocean we all share.
→ ⚡ Why it matters: Everything we pull off the sand is something that never reaches the water. Bring the kids: there is no better civics lesson than a bucket of what the tide dragged in.
👉 View the Coastal Cleanup Day details
🏠 Housing
🔹 Short-term rentals in the Coastal Zone: where things stand. At our August 25 meeting, the Council voted 3 to 2 to adopt updates to the City's short-term rental program that open the entire Coastal Zone to short-term rentals with no cap on the number of permits, no primary-residency requirement, no minimum stay, and no limits on how densely rentals can concentrate in a neighborhood. Michael Detoy and I cast the two no votes. Some context: a Los Angeles Superior Court ruling earlier this year found our decade-old Coastal Zone ban illegal, so the City did need to rewrite its rules. My objection was never to rewriting them. It was to rewriting them without guardrails.
→ 🎯 My stance: Every home converted to a commercial mini-hotel is one fewer home for a family or a long-term renter, at a moment when housing is scarce and school enrollment is declining. I will keep pressing for reasonable limits, stronger resident and tenant protections, and a genuine public process as this program is implemented. If this issue touches your block, watch the upcoming agendas and make your voice heard. You will have my ear every time.
👉 Read my full statement (Instagram)
👉 View City Council agendas and meeting information
🏘️ Community Development
🔹 The commercial zoning draft is on paper, and your window is open. Last Wednesday, September 2, planning staff hosted an informal session in Council Chambers walking through the updated working draft of commercial zone uses, definitions, and specific use standards. If you missed it, nothing is lost. The draft documents are posted online under "Draft Documents for Review," written comments can go to planning@hermosabeach.gov, and the Planning Commission holds a study session on Tuesday, September 15.
→ ⚡ Why this matters: The rules we set for our commercial districts will outlast everyone currently on the dais, and feedback lands hardest while a draft is still soft. An hour with these documents now beats a frustrated comment card years from now.
👉 Review the draft zoning documents
💼 Economic Development
🔹 Fiesta Hermosa's final act is today. Downtown stays in festival mode until 6:00 PM with music, art, shopping, food, and carnival fun. Three days like these are a gift to the small businesses that carry this town the other 362, so spend your holiday dollars on our own blocks. The next Fiesta does not come around until Memorial Day weekend.
👉 Visit the Fiesta Hermosa site
🔹 Welcome to the neighborhood, Malendrina. Dave Shott and I went hunting for chicken wings on Pier Plaza and found something better: Gea, Abraham, Amanda, and Chuck getting ready to open Malendrina, a wine bar inspired by Sicilian and Palestinian cuisine. We tried the watermelon, the shrimp, and the chicken, and I can report the hype is earned. The official ribbon cutting is still ahead, but do not wait for the big scissors to show them some Hermosa love.
🔹 City Hall just got easier to deal with. The City has launched its new Online Permitting Portal, bringing 24/7 availability, digital document submission, real-time status updates, and secure payments to building permits, planning applications, and public works permits, with more applications coming online later this year. How-to videos are posted to help you navigate the new system.
→ 🎯 My take: When I first asked for your vote, I said a city of 1.4 square miles should be nimble, and that my job was to help find the choke points and work them loose. This portal removes a big one. Fewer trips to the counter, fewer paper shuffles, and more clarity about where your project stands. That is what efficiency looks like from the resident's side of the desk.
👉 Visit the Online Permitting Portal
👉 Watch the portal how-to videos
🔹 Championship volleyball returns to the Pier on Thursday. The third annual Wedbush Hermosa Beach Open runs Thursday, September 10 through Sunday, September 13, with qualifying leading into a weekend main draw, and admission is free all four days. The Beach Volleyball Capital earns its title the right way: by hosting, and our restaurants and shops get four days of visitors at summer's end.
👉 Visit the Hermosa Beach Open site
🏖️ Around Town
🔹 Free concerts on the sand, two Sundays running. The City announced the 2026 Hermosa Beach Concert Series lineup: Sunday, September 13 features openers Auner Garcia Collective and Katt Hall with headliner Magic!, and Sunday, September 20 brings The Lucky Effect and headliner Cubensis. Music starts at 3:00 PM on the sand south of the Pier, free and family-friendly. A tradition born in 1998, back under City ownership since 2024, and better than ever. Bring a blanket.
👉 View the Concert Series lineup
🔹 Art, tacos, and neighbors. At the Back-to-School Picnic, I ran into the multitalented Millie Velasco, who told me about her upcoming feature at Guisados through its Featured Artist Program. Local restaurants and local artists teaming up to bring people together is Hermosa at its best. Swing by Millie's Artist Mill next to Creamy Boys for great art and a good laugh.
🗳️ A Note on November
🔹 Grateful, and still working. This week I was honored to receive the endorsements of Supervisor Janice Hahn and Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, two leaders who have stood with Hermosa Beach and our coast from the beginning. Supervisor Hahn gave me a simple lesson when I was first elected in 2021: show up, do the work, and let people see how you serve them. I have tried to live that standard every week since, and I would be honored to keep earning your trust.
🔹 Be election ready. If you are new to town, recently moved, or overdue for an update, registering takes just a few minutes, and L.A. County election officials are actively working to safeguard vote-by-mail and protect every ballot. Closer to home, mark Tuesday, September 29 at 7:00 PM for the City Council candidates debate sponsored by the Hermosa Beach Neighborhood Association. Your voice matters. Use it.
👉 Register to vote or update your registration
👉 View the candidates debate details
📅 Dates & Community Events
🔹 Today, Monday, September 7: City offices closed for Labor Day. Fiesta Hermosa final day, 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM, downtown.
🔹 Tuesday, September 8, 5:30 PM: City Council meeting, Council Chambers, 1315 Valley Drive. Agendas post at least 72 hours in advance.
🔹 Thursday, September 10 to Sunday, September 13: Wedbush Hermosa Beach Open at the Pier. Free admission all four days.
🔹 Friday, September 11, 7:30 AM: 9/11 Remembrance Wreath Laying Ceremony, Hermosa Beach 9/11 Memorial, Greenbelt at Pier Avenue.
🔹 Friday, September 11, 7:00 PM to 3:00 AM: HBPD DUI and driver's license checkpoint.
🔹 Saturday, September 12, 6:00 PM: Movies at the Beach.
🔹 Sunday, September 13, 3:00 PM: Hermosa Beach Concert Series, south of the Pier, headlined by Magic!
🔹 Tuesday, September 15, 5:00 PM: Planning Commission study session on the commercial zoning code update.
🔹 Saturday, September 19, 9:00 AM: Coastal Cleanup Day, followed by Movies at the Beach at 6:00 PM.
🔹 Sunday, September 20, 3:00 PM: Hermosa Beach Concert Series, headlined by Cubensis.
🔹 Tuesday, September 22, 6:00 PM: Regular City Council meeting, Council Chambers, 1315 Valley Drive.
🔹 Tuesday, September 29, 7:00 PM: City Council candidates debate, sponsored by the Hermosa Beach Neighborhood Association.
👉 View the City calendar of events
📱 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
Summer closes the way it should around here: with music in the streets, neighbors everywhere, and the smell of carnival food drifting off Pier Avenue. Then the quieter season begins, with zoning drafts, Council agendas, and a ballot heading toward your mailbox. Both seasons need you. Thank you to everyone who kept this Fiesta weekend safe and joyful, from HBPD and our public works crews to the Chamber and hundreds of vendors and volunteers. If anything in this edition raises a question, write to me anytime, and on Friday morning at 7:30, I hope you will stand with your neighbors on the Greenbelt.
Working together to build an ever better Hermosa Beach.
Ray Jackson
Councilmember, City of Hermosa Beach
