Pondering My New Blog About Where I Live

I live in a home within the city of Rancho Palos Verdes.

When my parents carried me into the very same home on May 4, 1955, it was considerd to be in "San Pedro".

The zip code that the house used to be in was 90732.

The house has only moved several inches since it was first built, beginning in 1948.

The house was actually built in the unincorporated area of the County of Los Angeles and the area where the house is located was annexed into the city of Rancho Palos Verdes during the time other family members occupied the home.

The house is in the original tract of homes located between Western Avenue and Miraleste Drive. It is in the tract of houses first named "Eastview" by the developers of the tract.

"Eastview" has now grown to mean all the homes formerly located in an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County that was annexed into the city of Rancho Palos Verdes, years ago.

There are still a great number of residents living in Eastview that lived in the areas before it was annexed into the city of Rancho Palos Verdes.

As such, there are still a great number of residents who consider themselves to be 'San Pedrans' and they hold their hearts, allegiances, and thoughts with San Pedro and have little consideration for the city of Rancho Palos Verdes, where they actually live.

My heart still is firmly with San Pedro. It is still my community even though my brain has told me for years that I need to consider Rancho Palos Verdes as my governing entity.

I also want to deal with the facts that the vast majority of residents in the city of Rancho Palos Verdes also still believe we are more alligned with San Pedro than we are with their city.

Voting records for the Eastview area prove that our residents vote in elections affecting Rancho Palos Verdes at about 11% of the eligible voters.

But the Eastview area has a large percentage of the population of Rancho Palos Verdes. We have two of the three major Supermarkets in the city of Rancho Palos Verdes (Smart and Final and Trader Joe's). We have the only movie theaters in the city of Rancho Palos Verdes. The majority of sales tax revenues that come back to the city of Rancho Palos Verdes come from the Eastview area, with help from our great friends/spenders who live in San Pedro, Lomita, and other communities.

So we have the population, commerce, restaurants and some other items far greater than any other area of Rancho Palos Verdes.

The eastern side of Rancho Palos Verdes is a sleeping giant of a residential and commercial base for the city of Rancho Palos Verdes yet we are sorely under represented with regards to just about everything within the city of Rancho Palos Verdes.

Miraleste is has some of the oldest residences in the city. We have more custom made homes on the east side than anywhere else in the city.

The Eastview area is more densely populated than any other area in R.P.V.

We have Palos Verdes Drive East within the area, two L.A.U.S.D. schools, one P.V.P.U.S.D. middle school and we are topped off by a military installation.

With all this, we are still connected in so many ways with San Pedro, especially the northwest area of that community, all of the businesses, recreational facilities, and community concerns that affect all of us in San Pedro and eastern Rancho Palos Verdes.

Northwest San Pedro and all of eastern Rancho Palos Verdes make up two of the largest areas within OUR community. We can't survive apart from each other and we share far too many things together.

I created: http://www.eastrpv.blogspot.com/ to deal with issues that more reflect the needs and wishes of the residents of the entire eastern side of the city of Rancho Palos Verdes.

I want to be able to provide another forum for everyone to understand better how we are all connected, yet we have some issues relating more to the rest of Rancho Palos Verdes than some issues found in San Pedro and other communities.

It is understandable that our hearts belong to San Pedro, but our brains need to focus on Rancho Palos Verdes more of the time.

Residents of eastern R.P.V. need to become more united in their dealings within eastern R.P.V. and with dealings by the government and bureaucracy of Rancho Palos Verdes.

It is time that we realize the need to take more control of our own city and the needs of the residents of eastern Rancho Palos Verdes.

On November 3, 2009, there will be an election where one current member of the Rancho Palos Verdes City Council may run for reelection or two seats will be up for new members to the Council.

There are already some candidates for the two seats and residents of eastern Rancho Palos Verdes have the opportunity to learn more about those candidates and become more involved with affairs in Rancho Palos Verdes.

I have less than a year to help gather more interest by residents of eastern Rancho Palos Verdes so they can be better able to determine how our city's government and infrastructure should be run.

Of course, I will never be a candidate for an elected office in Rancho Palos Verdes, but I can make available instruments where more of our residents become involved.

The biggest problem we need to overcome is the lack of interest, particularly within the Eastview area, for our own city's government and activities.

We have over 3,000 residential units on the east side or R.P.V. I sponsored a candidates forum during the last R.P.V. election cycle and less than 40 people showed up to listen to the candidates. That is shameful for an area with so many residents, I feel.

Currently, eastern R.P.V. and northwest San Pedro are dealing with the Marymount College Expansion Project.

This project will affect eastern R.P.V. and northwest San Pedro more than any other areas of either communities.

40% of the new traffic created by an approved Expansion Project will travel north and south along Western Avenue between Crestwood Street and P.V.Drive North.

Another 25% of the traffic would go through eastern R.P.V and along 1st and 9th Streets in San Pedro.

With up to 65% of the increased traffic going through our two areas, it is very important that discuss, respond, and have opinions as to whether we want the Expansion Project to be approved.

http://www.eastrpv.blogspot.com/ will now have an information stream about the Expansion Project and I will move information resources from this blog to that blog, dealing with the Marymount College Expansion Project.

Please consider visiting my new blog concerning eastern Rancho Palos Verdes.

Thank you.