Odds and Ends 141

Click on image to enlarge.

Anthony Misetich supported Bob Bisno's plans to build 2,300 condos at Ponte Vista at San Pedro.

I have edited the March, 2007 Ponte Vista Newsletter to illustrate Mr. Misetich's membership on one of Bob's Advisory Boards.

Should anyone wish to view an entire copy of the newsletter, please Email me and I will send out a .pdx of the newsletter.

No matter what reason Mr. Misetich uses now, his membership on an Advisory Board for Bob Bisno's project should tell you something about his real support for Rancho Palos Verdes residents.

Mr. Misetich obviously did not take the time to interview Rancho Palos Verdes residents like I did to try and determine their thoughts and feelings concerning building a massive housing project right across the street from R.P.V.

Mr. Misetich may continue to claim that he was only supporting the plans so that senior housing could be built there.

There are two problems with that claim.

First, in my interviews with many seniors who live higher on The Hill, they all indicated to me they knew of no interest in living in senior housing in San Pedro, no matter where it was or what it looked like.

I interviewed several prominent seniors who live on The Hill and I could find none of them, or their friends who told me there was any interest in moving into Ponte Vista's senior housing.

So it seems that the seniors that Mr. Misetich wanted senior housing for, don't live in Rancho Palos Verdes, the city he wishes to represent.

Secondly, I support SOME senior housing at Ponte Vista. But nowhere near the number of units Mr. Misetich and Bob Bisno wanted.

I can support any number of units of senior housing as long as they are part of a total number of 831-units.

The Gardens has 1100 units on 80 acres. Ponte Vista's 61.53 would allow for an equivalent housing density of no more than 831. How is that not reasonable?

But supporting the number of senior units Bob wanted meant that far too many units would have needed to be built and that was just plain wrong!

I have a more detailed post at: www.eastrpv.blogspot.com with information also about a possibly deceptive mailer Mr. Misetich helped pay for.

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The L.A.P.D. used the abandoned housing at Ponte Vista for training this week. That is a good thing and we all need to continue to be nice to Ted and the Outreach Team for allowing first responders training areas that are more realistic than other places to train.

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I haven't taken the opportunity to visit the Outreach Team's offices to see if and who is still around during this downtime in the project.

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It appears that on November 11, there will be another status report to the Los Angeles Planning Commission concerning Ponte Vista at San Pedro.

In the past I have tried to get more information prior to the reporting out, but I think the project is still pretty much on hold and I haven't heard if there is anything really new to report.

If I find out something in the next few days, I will write.

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Not Noticing the Missing

I bet you may be like me and didn't really notice that all the signs and phone number for Ponte Vista at San Pedro are gone from the project's site.

The banner for the high school is still strapped to the fence, but the billboard has been gone for some time, as expected.

Ms Elise Swanson's voice can still be heard on the Outreach Team's voicemail at 310-241-0699.

I did see at least one police agency training on the site and that is wonderful that first responders continue to train there.

Odds and Ends 140

The Northwest San Pedro Neighborhood Council has published its Autumn, 2009 Newsletter and you can find it at: http://www.nwsanpedro.org/.

Mr. John Greenwood, the former Chair of Councilwoman Janice Hahn's Community Advisory Committee has an article in the newsletter concerning Ponte Vista at San Pedro.

It is a very good update that gets us up to just about now when nothing really seems to be coming from the developers or Outreach Team.

But that is not to contend that nothing is happening. I hope to see artist's renderings of some of the new plans for the project and some more details about the number and types of units being considered in the new plan.

Autumn last until about December 21, so there is still plenty of time to read now highlights coming out from the Outreach Team.........if there are any.

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The newsletter also has an informative article about the old Kinder-Morgan site and how cleanup is going.

A developer is still wishing to build 134-Patio Homes on the 11-acre site.

Just so's you know, that would be a dwelling density of about 12.18 dwelling units per gross acre.

A dwelling density of 12.18 dwellings per gross acre at Ponte Vista could allow for up to 750-units at the 61.53-acre site. That is below The Gardens which has a dwelling density of about 13.75 dwellings per acre.

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The condominium units at Five Points are now for sale.

The least priced units appear to be 2-bedroom units on the intersection side of the project and the billboard lists the prices beginning in the "Low $300K" range.

Of course, the prices of units overlooking the park and lake and refuge are priced much higher.

The largest units for sale appear to have 4-bedrooms and up to 3.5 baths.

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If you live in Rancho Palos Verdes or know folks who live there, please vote or encourage your friends to learn about the candidates and vote for candidates of their choice in the November 3 election.

Eastview residents provide nothing more than a miserable turnout at elections which involve our city and we can't even vote for Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District candidates.

Eastview residents need to show their might and will to try and be completely immersed in the school district where 80% of our school-age children go.

We don't have a real say and the only way to demonstrate power, will, and might is to show up in large numbers for the two City Council seats and provide precinct numbers that show to the City Council that we are a concerned group within OUR city.

That is the only way we can also demonstrate to the School District Board members that we are willing to fight to become immersed in such a great school district.

Our City Council has very little pull over what goes in the School District. But if we shout loud enough and vote in great numbers, it may show the new Council that we wish their support in our endeavours to have our tax monies pulled from LAUSD and provided to PVPUSD and to have the ability to vote in School District elections.

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For more news about candidates in the upcoming election, please visit www.eastrpv.blogspot.com.

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I haven't read the sign posted in the window of the space where Amalfitano's Bakery will be. It appears from a distance that it is a legal form dealing with construction plans.

Odds and Ends 139

I don't have any new information about Ponte Vista at San Pedro this week.

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The final forum for candidates to the upcoming City Council election for the city of Rancho Palos Verdes was held this past Wednesday.

Information about that event can be found at: www.eastrpv.blogspot.com.

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Odds and Ends 138

I have no new news to post this week concerning when or even whether the Outreach Team might reveal to the public the most recent plans for Ponte Vista at San Pedro.

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Ponte Vista at San Pedro is one of the issues the seven candidates for two seats on the Rancho Palos Verdes City Council can speak about.

It appears that one of the candidates, Mr. Anthony Misetich was or still may be a member of one of the Advisory Boards created by Bob Bisno over three years ago.

While not all of the candidates have offered of their opinions about Ponte Vista during the last two forums that have been held, information about all the candidates and links to their Web sites can be found on another one of my blogs: www.eastrpv.blogspot.com.

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Several of the candidates have talked about redeveloping the business district of Rancho Palos Verdes. This means that because Western Avenue contains the bulk of the businesses in Rancho Palos Verdes, there are more folks talking about working on our side of town to help improve it. Mr. Misetich should be afforded credit for mentioning this during the last two forums.

That would be a great thing except for two large obstacles.

The first obstacle is that since so few of the residents of Eastview area of R.P.V. care enough about our city's governance and government, there is currently little thought by too may local individuals to participate in their own city's involvement.

Secondly, since the bulk of R.P.V. residents live on the south and west side of the city, they make many fewer trips to the businesses along Western than even a great number of San Pedro residents.

I can find a good argument by those residents that R.P.V. governors and staff shouldn't spend the money and time on issues not more relevant to their needs and wants.

As long as Eastview residents stay firmly 'in the grasp of San Pedro' there will be real problems trying to find the will, money, and energy to put more R.P.V. resources along Western Avenue, even though that area is a revenue generator for R.P.V.

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The site of the still open P'Skettie on Western has two large signs offering a drive through business.

I wish I had more information about Amalfitano's Bakery this time.

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First, in speaking with a senior member of the development team, I can positively inform you that everything is still quite foggy with regards to just about everything involving Ponte Vista at San Pedro.

The person I spoke to attempted to state that it was up to the Planning Department to further its work before the Outreach Team revealed to the public whatever the newest plans and illustrations were for the site.

The idea that something will come out into the public in "late fall" may also be somewhat premature, it seems. Don't get impatient if something doesn't fall out by somewhere around the beginning of next year.

There really doesn't seem to be any reason to rush anything along and that is quite fine with me.

Why rush to start building anything when the housing market is still in as much trouble as it still is in.

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Yes, it is true that I do have a copy of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by Mr. Robert Henry Bisno.

It is a rather fascinating document. It is fifteen pages long and lists the names and amounts of the claims filed against Bob.

Many of the claims are disputed. But the amount apparently owed to the I.R.S. does not appear to be disputed.

In the document, Mr. Bisno is claiming estimated assets of between $100,000 and $500,000 and estimated liabilities of between Ten Million to Fifty Million Dollars.

O.K., if he says so. But the list of under 49 claimants lists claims of many hundreds of Millions of Dollars, again many disputed.

A little bird chirped that Bob has done this before and he feels he could be a billionaire by the next time he files.

But in the end, I think Mr. Bisno will avoid the southern end of the 110 Freeway in the future.

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For the very few of you who live in Rancho Palos Verdes and also visit this site, we have an election coming up on November 3.

Now I know that Eastview residents for the most part, still consider themselves San Pedrans and that is fine and dandy. That is until things go wrong in our neighborhoods and then we need to turn to our own city government on a hill overlooking the blue Pacific.

Please visit www.eastrpv.blogspot.com to learn about the upcoming election and my take on the candidate Forums.

Since this will continue to be a slow news cycle concerning Ponte Vista, I have decided to include a few things not necessarily related to Ponte Vista directly.

Our current City Fathers have been outspoken critics of a huge development on our city's border with San Pedro and I hope the two new candidates coming on board in December and the three new ones elected in 2011 will share their opposition to over development along Western Avenue and other parts of Rancho Palos Verdes.

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