In Inglewood, officials do justice to an open space.

SUPREME HONOR: The north mall of Inglewood’s City Hall and nearby court buildings will now be known as the Thurgood Marshall Justice Plaza, in honor of the late Supreme Court justice.

Marshall’s son, John William Marshall, a Virginia state trooper, joined Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke and Inglewood Mayor Edward Vincent at Friday’s dedication ceremony, which featured musical ensembles and color guard routines.

Marshall, a former attorney for the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People’s Legal Defense Fund, was the nation’s first African-American Supreme Court justice. He served on the high court for 24 years until he retired in 1991. He died Jan. 24 of heart failure.

SMOOTH SAILING: Drivers on Hawthorne Boulevard will have less to honk about next year now that Hawthorne, Lawndale, Torrance, Rancho Palos Verdes and Rolling Hills Estates have agreed to synchronize traffic lights on the thoroughfare.

The five cities recently approved resolutions giving the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works jurisdiction over traffic signals on Hawthorne Boulevard.

Public works will accept bids from contractors this month and work should begin by June, said Ron Ornee, public works deputy director. The project, paid for with state and federal grants, is expected to be completed by next January, he said.

The synchronized signals are expected to reduce traffic congestion, said John Squier, civil engineer for the traffic and lights division of Public Works. In addition, they also should decrease air pollution.

“When you reduce the number of stops, you reduce the amount of pollutants,” he said.

A similar project was completed on Inglewood Avenue in October. Projects on Prairie and Crenshaw avenues will be completed in March, and Rosecrans Avenue, Aviation and El Segundo boulevards should be synchronized next year.

DIAMOND CUT: For the first time since it went on the air in 1984, Torrance’s cable station CitiCABLE 22 has been nominated for two Diamond Awards, the cable equivalent of the Emmys.

The awards, which are given by the Southern California Cable Assn., honor excellence in community programming. Torrance’s station was nominated in the community impact category for “In Hot Pursuit, South Bay’s Most Wanted,” a local version of the “America’s Most Wanted” crime show. It also was nominated for overall excellence in municipal programming. The Diamond Awards will be presented Feb. 25.

Over the years, the city’s cable station has received many plaques, certificates and commendations, said Torrance’s cable television administrator Michael D. Smith. But none of them, he noted, are as visually appealing as the Diamond Awards. “It would be nice to have a stand-up trophy or two,” he said.

A SKATER’S TALE: In 1980, Casey Pieretti lost his father and brother in a car accident caused by a drunk driver. Five years later, he lost his right leg below the knee in another car accident, also caused by a drunk driver.

The losses, painful though they were, have not kept Pieretti down. The 26-year-old Santa Barbara man is now a skilled in-line skater with a mission. This spring he hopes to be the first amputee to skate across the United States to raise money for children who need prosthetic limbs.

As a primer for the big trip, which he expects will take about 70 days, Pieretti spent five days last week skating from Santa Barbara to San Diego. The trip was a little more eventful than he had expected. First there was the rainstorm, which caused his skates to lose their traction for much of the stretch between Malibu and Santa Monica. Then he had a couple of close encounters with large trucks on a portion of Pacific Coast Highway.

There was a bright spot, however. It came during a brief stop Tuesday in Redondo Beach, where an anonymous donor surprised him with $500 for the prosthetic limb project.

“I had no idea that was coming,” Pieretti said. “I thought that was great.”

LAST WEEK’S CITY HALL HIGHLIGHTS

El Segundo: Former El Segundo Councilman H.R. “Bob” Anderson died last week at 69 from complications of back surgery. Anderson, who worked as superintendent of maintenance at the Chevron Oil Refinery in El Segundo, served on the council from 1986 to 1990.

Hermosa Beach: The City Council gave preliminary approval to a plan to allow residents in 34 homes along the Strand to park along a city-owned right-of-way adjacent to their homes. Under the plan, residents who choose not to use the area for parking could landscape it.

THIS WEEK’S CITY HALL HIGHLIGHTS

Lawndale: The City Council will have a public hearing on how it should spend 1993-94 community development block grant funds.

Manhattan Beach: The City Council will consider several initiatives to improve economic development opportunities in the city, as well as a proposal to study the costs and benefits of the legal services function.