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Brad Waller Newsletter — August 17, 2026
📬 Brad Waller, District 1 Newsletter, August 17, 2026
Good morning, Redondo,
It all started with an empty SodaStream canister. I'll explain.
South Bay Hardware had SodaStream refills in stock this weekend, so I headed over to pick one up. By the time the errand was done, I was hungry enough to keep going down Artesia Boulevard for lunch at The Empanada Shop, one of my absolute favorites. That is how shopping local works: one stop turns into two, or three or four, and every dollar stays with the neighbors who make Redondo special.
The rest of the week had that same local community theme running through it. A helicopter delivered K9 teams onto a football field, two new businesses cut their ribbons, turtle signs kept multiplying on our streets, and backpacks will start getting filled with books this coming Wednesday.
May our Monday begin.
🚨 Public Safety: Helicopters, K9s, and Programs You Can Join
🔹 The 25th Annual Police K9 Demonstration knows how to make an entrance. Over the weekend, a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department helicopter swooped into West High and delivered a tactical team, including a K9 and handler, straight onto the field. Watching dog-and-handler teams from agencies across our region race into action, tails wagging the whole way, really shows how much training, discipline, and trust these partnerships require. Congratulations to RBPD Officer Cook and K9 Wouter for taking first place in Tactical Obedience, and to Officer Haley and K9 Max, who finished second in the fastest dog competition. Twenty-five miles per hour in a ballistic vest is pretty amazing. Thank you to the Los Angeles County Police Canine Association, the participating agencies, the handlers, and the very brave decoys who made the event possible.
👉 See my K9 demonstration post
🔹 Two public safety programs took center stage at NRBBA. This past week's North Redondo Beach Business Association meeting featured Sgt. John Banach of the Redondo Beach Police Department on the Citizens Police Academy, and Deputy Fire Marshal Captain Jason Brown of the Redondo Beach Fire Department on our Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program. Both shared that they specifically chose Redondo Beach as the city where they wanted to work, which says a lot about this community.
→ 🎯 My take: I went through the Citizens Police Academy myself back in 1999, Class #12, and it permanently changed how I understand the work our officers do. If you want a deeper connection to how this city stays safe, these two programs are the front door.
👉 Learn about the Citizens Police Academy
👉 Explore the CERT program
🏛️ Council Recap: Housing Dollars and a General Plan Milestone
🔹 A $250,000 boost for affordable housing arrived. At last Tuesday's meeting, Congressman Ted Lieu presented a ceremonial $250,000 check in federal Community Project Funding to support the City's Affordable Housing to Lease Project. Housing is one of my priority issues, and federal dollars like these let us do more locally without leaning harder on our own budget. I am grateful to our congressional partners for delivering.
🔹 The General Plan ordinances reached their final step. The two ordinances aligning our zoning code and coastal land use rules with the updated General Plan Land Use Element came back for second reading and adoption, the procedural capstone on a year of land use work. As a reminder, these ordinances did not touch Public Institutional zoning or the associated FAR standards.
🔹 Commission applicants had their interviews. The Mayor and Council spent part of Tuesday evening interviewing the residents who applied to serve on our city commissions. Appointments are expected to be proposed on September 1, with the Oath of Office following on September 8. To everyone who put a name forward: thank you. This city runs on people like you.
👉 View the Council calendar
🐢 Follow the Turtle: Your Guide to the Local Travel Network
🔹 Those new turtle signs around the neighborhood are wayfinding, not new rules. The Local Travel Network, or LTN, is a South Bay-wide network funded through Measure M transportation dollars, connecting existing lower-speed streets, generally 25 to 35 mph, into one recognizable system for local travel. When fully built out, it will cover about 243 miles of streets linking communities from Inglewood to San Pedro. In Redondo Beach, the new signs are just one visible part of the project, helping identify routes for bicycles, e-bikes, scooters, street-legal neighborhood electric vehicles, and other slower forms of local transportation, while the broader funding also supports roadway, bicycle, and multimodal improvements along the network.The next steps include more public outreach, maps, and a mobile app.
→ 📊 By the numbers: SBCCOG research found that roughly 70% of South Bay trips are three miles or less. A run to the park, a school drop-off, or a taco stop does not always require a full-sized car, and the LTN gives those shorter trips a proper route.
→ ⚠️ One important clarification: The signs do not create a special lane, and they do not change the normal rules of the road. They simply mark the network and remind drivers to expect smaller, slower vehicles on these streets.
→ 🎯 My take: This is exactly the kind of environmental sustainability I want us building toward: practical infrastructure that makes the low-emission choice the easy choice. When you see the turtle, you are on a street selected to make local travel safer, easier, and more connected across the whole South Bay.
👉 Explore the Local Travel Network
👉 See my turtle sign explainer
🛍️ Economic Development: Two Ribbons and a Thursday Night Plan
🔹 Welcome, Honeycutt Consulting. This past week, I joined Janie Honeycutt for her Redondo Beach Chamber ribbon-cutting and presented a certificate on behalf of the Mayor and City Council. Through speaking, leadership coaching, and customized workshops, her firm helps teams navigate change, communicate better, and build healthier workplaces. Janie is a Redondo Union High School graduate and longtime resident, and celebrating a local resident building a business focused on helping others grow never gets less satisfying.
👉 See my Honeycutt Consulting post
🔹 Welcome, Face Window Tinting. I also had the pleasure of presenting a certificate at the ribbon-cutting for Face Window Tinting, now open at 832 Torrance Blvd with professional tinting for cars, homes, and commercial properties. Congratulations to the whole team, and my sincere thanks for the quesadillas from the taco cart. Every ribbon cutting should have a taco cart.
👉 See my Face Window Tinting post
🔹 Dine Around ARTesia's WEST night is this Thursday, August 20, from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. This is the final night of NRBBA’s all-you-can-taste stroll down Artesia Boulevard, with local artists showcasing their work along the route. My happy weekend hardware-store-to-empanada adventure was really just the warm-up. I first discovered The Empanada Shop at a Dine Around event. Full restaurants, busy sidewalks, and people discovering local businesses are about the friendliest form of city revenue there is, so come hungry, bring the family, and enjoy Artesia Boulevard tonight.
👉 Get WEST night wristbands
🎒 Education: Backpacks Return Wednesday
🔹 The first day of school for RBUSD is Wednesday, August 19. That gives you exactly one more morning of summer quiet. Please build a few extra minutes into your Wednesday routine near school zones, watch for the new school-colored curb extensions and crosswalk markings, and give our crossing guards your full attention. Slower turns and eyes-up driving are the cheapest safety technology we have, and they work.
👉 See the RBUSD school year calendar
📅 Coming Up
🔹 The Summer of Music enters its final two weeks. Free concerts continue at Fisherman's Wharf on Thursdays and Saturdays from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. through August 29, and classic cars keep rolling into the Redondo Beach Marina for Cruzin' the Lagoon on Fridays from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. through September 11. Pick an evening before the season slips away.
👉 See the Summer of Music schedule
🥕 Weekly Markets
Farmers' Market by the Pier (Veterans Park), Thursdays, 8am to 1pm. 309 Esplanade.
👉 Read more
Riviera Village Farmers Market, Sundays, 8:30am to 1pm. Triangle Lot, 1801 S. Elena Ave.
👉 Read more
North Redondo Beach Farmers Market, Wednesdays, 2pm to 7pm. Green Lane at Artesia.
👉 Read more
📱 Access Redondo
The wait is over for Android users: the rebuilt Access Redondo app is officially released, with the iPhone version coming soon. Do you have a problem or need to report an issue to the City? Report it in a few taps from the app, or use the new web portal from any device. My company has shipped a few hundred apps over the years, and there is no better day than launch day. iPhone users, your turn is on the way.
👉 Download the Access Redondo app
👉 Report an issue online
🏖️ Redondo Roundup
A turtle showing us the smarter way around town, a helicopter making the loudest possible case for K9 training, federal dollars landing for affordable housing, two new ribbons on the business map, and school bells just days away. If you do one thing this week, give yourself extra time near school zones Wednesday morning and keep your eyes up for small pedestrians. If you do two, grab a Dine Around wristband before Thursday arrives.
If anything here raises a question or an idea you want to share, hit reply. I read every message. Have a great week, and welcome back to school, Redondo.
