Lawndale coffee shop lovers perk up at news that hangout will be rebuilt.
MORE COFFEE, PLEASE: When Spires coffee shop left six months ago, Lawndale mourned.
Gone was a city institution, one of the only real coffee shops in town, a place where local politicos, retirees and others gathered to shoot the breeze over a cup of mud.
But just as other, bigger cities grieve over the loss of big department stores or mega-malls, tiny Lawndale could not swallow life without its Spires. Some said Lawndale would lose a little of its small-town flavor without the Spires, which was demolished to make way for a mini-mall.
“It was the local place where everything happened,” Lawndale Councilwoman Nancy Marthens said, recalling discussions on everything from politics to religion. “Everything outside of government occurred there.”
“The waitresses enjoyed the people as much as people enjoyed the waitresses,” said Ruben Felix, a Lawndale resident for 30 years who liked the warm atmosphere. “I think those ladies went out of their way to make sure they knew people’s names.”
The citizens brewed without their coffee. About 1,500 felt strong enough about the loss to sign a petition asking the Spires chain to keep a shop in Lawndale.
The petition and public outcry worked. The developer and Spires management have agreed to rebuild a smaller version of the hangout next to the new mini-mall. It is scheduled to open in February.
“I think it’s a blessing for the city,” said Mayor Harold Hoffman, a regular diner.
EYE SPY WORK: Defense Department contractors in the South Bay may be laying off people in droves, but that doesn’t mean military work has completely gone AWOL.
Witness the celebration that TRW’s Space and Electronics Group in Redondo Beach recently held for the unveiling of the 2,000-pound Low Data Rate payload, a key component to Lockheed’s Milstar military communications satellite that is scheduled for launch sometime next year.
Air Force dignitaries and TRW spokesman John Booth hailed the completion of the “switchboard in the sky” as a sign that aerospace is not dead, despite recent cutbacks. Booth declined to release the cost of the payload because it is a classified project.
About 600 employees worked on the payload, which resembles a giant aluminum box. It has 13 antennas and more than 100 electronic units, including four programmable computers and mechanical fixtures.
Yet Booth’s optimism over the industry does not mean TRW has not weathered changes.
It has laid off thousands of employees over the last few years, and its work on the Milstar needed adjusting when the threat of nuclear war subsided with the end of the Cold War.
Originally intended to allow generals and other top brass to communicate during nuclear war, TRW adapted the payload to allow field commanders in conventional battles to communicate with strategists in Washington.
For example, if the satellite was in space now, field commanders in the Somali military operation could communicate with their bosses at the Pentagon quickly and easily through one satellite without their messages bouncing around ground stations across the globe.
“It proves defense systems are extraordinarily flexible,” Booth said.
ENGLISH ONLY: Bank signs in Chinese are a no-no in Rolling Hills Estates, city officials have told East West Federal Bank branch officials. English signs yes, Chinese characters no.
“How come?” asked branch manager Phoebe Yu, pointing out that Union Bank in Rolling Hills Estates has a sign in Japanese and that a Chinese restaurant advertises its location in Chinese.
A check of records shows that no permit had been issued for those signs, either, said Richard Thompson, city planning director. But city officials won’t move in on them until the City Council takes up Yu’s appeal of the Planning Commission’s decision not to grant her a permit, Thompson said.
The East West bank request was rejected because the proposed sign wasn’t “compatible” with the area and because “it was too much like advertising,” Thompson said.
One of 17 branches in Southern California, the bank has been in business on the Palos Verdes Peninsula since 1986, Yu said. It recently moved to 47421 Hawthorne Blvd., and applied for the new sign.
Yu appealed the building department’s denial of her permit to the planning commission, which rejected her case last week, voting 4-3. Yu will appeal to the City Council, she said.
“I don’t understand. They approve English signs, but not Chinese. Most of my customers are from China, so I need that sign badly, but they say no,” she said.
SORRY, WRONG NUMBER: The after-hours telephone message tape at one beach cities office begins on this cautionary note: “You have reached the South Bay Hospital District and not the South Bay Hospital. The South Bay Hospital number is 376-9474.”
The message is intended for those unsuspecting callers attempting to contact South Bay Hospital in Redondo Beach, only to reach the the South Bay Hospital District, an agency tucked away in a Hermosa Beach office building. The district provides grants to health organizations--but lacks doctors, nurses and hands-on medical care.
Even so, “we’ll get two or three calls a week from people thinking this is the hospital,” said the district’s interim executive director, Robert L. Riley.
The confusion is understandable. The relationship between the district and the hospital is a tangled one: The district is a public agency that owns the hospital building but leases it to a for-profit company that runs the hospital.
So, in a move toward simplification, officials may strike the word hospital from the district’s title altogether. The district board is holding a hearing Jan. 7 to gather public comment about a name change. Some alternatives mentioned to date: South Bay Health District, South Bay Health Care District, Beach Cities Health District and South Bay Wellness.
In an age of fiscal austerity, officials are swift to note that this is an ideal time to re-christen the district: They are about to order new stationery.
BEATS DICK CLARK: Those wild and crazy San Pedro Bay Historical Society types have come up with a New Year’s Eve bash sure to make that Big Apple falling in the middle of Times Square turn green.
At 11:45 p.m., society members plan to take flashlights, creep up to the top of Angel’s Gate in San Pedro and ring the Korean Friendship Bell.
Actually, since the Republic of South Korea sent the bell as a Bicentennial gift to the American people, the historical society has rung it every New Year’s Eve.
The ceremony is open to the public. And in these recessionary times, the public may want to seriously think about joining in. After all, buying a deluxe flashlight and climbing up to the bell is a lot cheaper than splurging for a tux or a sequined dress.
And the bell ceremony promises to be a lot classier than the Big Apple ritual, known for its post-midnight pandemonium.
GOVERNMENT MEETINGS THIS WEEK
The South Bay governing bodies that usually meet this week have canceled their meetings except for the Hawthorne City Council.
Hawthorne: 7 p.m. Monday, 4455 W. 126th St., Hawthorne. (310) 970-7902. Televised on Channel 22 (Paragon) at 7 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday and 6 p.m. Saturday.
