complete eyesore and remained that way for many years.
In June of 2024 The City decided abruptly, with no notice or any conversation with the residents here, to completely remove all of the dead shrubbery on the North Prospect Ave. median. It completely stripped us of any privacy & any bit of sound deflection, even though not much, that we had left. The City had no plan & many months went by until I initiated a movement on our street to bring the matter to the City's attention to try & get something done about it. It has taken longer than this neighborhood hoped for, but some progress has been made regarding the foliage, although I am not completely sold on the type and maturity that has been selected.
We have a major traffic and noise problem along with the privacy issues. The stretch from Beryl St. to the BCHD traffic signal has become a runway or a dragstrip for speeding cars flying down that hill at Beryl St. Flying through that stretch at least double the speed limit constantly. People don’t just drive, they are gunning and grinding through here. My neighbors on the North end of the street in the 600’s will attest. Increased traffic over the decades. But in the past 5 years the demeanor of drivers has become more reckless and more rude. We have not seen enough attention being paid by the City of Redondo Beach to dealing with impatient and speeding drivers or this entire situation.
There has been an increase in very loud exhausts from modern muscle cars and there is a rash of drivers with illegal exhausts, and we are talking about actual exhaust cutouts that are ultra loud and cause a backfiring effect. Most of you know me as a Car Guy and I love a healthy sounding ride. But some of these cars are louder than even typical Classic Muscle Car or Street Rod exhausts. I happen to know. These are on daily driven cars all over the place now, this is the modern car culture, and we see many of the same cars going through here daily. Some are even employees over at BCHD.
The BCHD and Silverado Buildings at 514 N. Prospect Ave. forms a V shaped sound reflector that points directly at our homes. Every car and motorcycle entering and exiting from there is amplified and shot right back at our direction. When you add the 2 lanes of traffic in front of BCHD heading Northbound gets even worse. Add loud booming audio and cell phone conversations from vehicles with their windows down as early as 5:30am. Super bikes screaming through here, constant Ambulances heading to BCHD and Silverado.
Buses and 18 wheelers rolling through here, bouncing and screeching brakes.
It has created a tornado of noise constantly surrounding my home from top to bottom, front to rear. There is no escape, there is no solace any longer. It’s a crazy, non-stop noise nuisance that has deeply affected our quality of living. My home office faces Prospect and it has become nearly unusable any longer due to a constant assault of noise.
We have cars flying past our home and then we get the 2 lanes of Southbound traffic and the left hand turning lane to BCHD backing up in front of our home. Sometimes it's 25 to 30 cars backed up in front of our home with people gawking down on us. For nearly a year we have had no privacy on this street. I can’t work in my garage, in my driveway, wash a car, get into a car, do gardening, take my trash in or out, without an audience. The same for my daughters and my wife. We are tired, we have been living in a nightmare here. This entire situation for the past year has caused us stress and anxiety on a daily basis.
The 500-600 block of Prospect Ave. needs better traffic enforcement from RBPD. And violators made to be an example to start deterring others. Speed tables on main Prospect was an idea that was discussed and could be a viable part of a solution. Somehow that idea has gone dark. Mayor Light? We have already had a car fly over that median, take out a light pole, flip and land in between my home at 521 and the McGarry’s home at 523.
Foliage alone will do nothing to prevent this from happening again. The next time could be fatal. Besides foliage we need a safety and sound barrier. We need real traffic calming, and we need a wall.
The City has estimated a safety and sound wall at a height of 24 feet on the North Prospect Ave. median at a cost of approx. $3.1 million dollars. This is an exaggerated wall height and an extremely exaggerated number. Mark Nelson has provided data and an estimate is more like $370K for a 6 foot wall and $494K for an 8 foot wall. Keep in mind that we probably only need this wall on the main median which runs from 619 to about 515. The residents in front of the 2nd shorter median at the BCHD signal and bus stop up to Diamond Street might have different ideas for their end.
I am asking that the City Council please pass and fund a proper budget to give the Residents of North Prospect Avenue their privacy, safety, quality of life, and a less stressful living situation back. Our situation here is an urgent matter. Thank You for your consideration.
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Darryl Boyd - Broker/Owner, MRP, SFR, CPTS
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DARRYL B. BOYD, BROKER
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