Red light
Question: Since it is uniquely legal to turn right on a red light in California, why are we constantly stopped by sudden red-signals while traveling on Seal Beach Boulevard or Westminster every time someone turns onto these streets from one of the smaller cross streets?
This frustration occurs even when they are turning into the opposite direction.
Couldn’t we simply “de-activate” the signal-tripping device that serves the right-turn lane from such streets as Apollo, Road C, Island Village etc., etc.?
I posed this question to the city traffic-controller two years ago and he politely dismissed me saying that he would take the next six months to “look into it.”
Paul Murphy
Seal Beach
Lucky to live in Seal Beach Leisure World
A friend came to visit and I gave her a tour of Leisure World. She receives Social Security and a small retirement check but she is working two jobs because she can’t pay the high cost of rent.
She doesn’t live near bus transportation and is struggling to keep her car in running condition.
She was very impressed and said she had no idea how much opportunities we had here.
She praised the facility and couldn’t stop talking about how reasonable our cost of living was.
She had sold her home years ago and invested the money, but now with the high cost of rent, most of it was gone.
This community is successful in large because of people willing to help each other.
We must pay employees for many of our services and I believe we must pay fair wages, equal to the cost of the current times. We all wanted that when we were working.
The first rule in my fiscal classes emphasized that you get what you pay for.
The second was probably the emphasis of observing carefully what you were getting for your money.
I highly recommend that some of you get to know your GRF representatives and actually meet with our administrator.
You might be surprised and gain new insights into the community management.
This community was never intended to be set up as a for profit organization.
It was designed as safe, comfortable, and affordable retirement homes. It is part of a beach community. It is not a business.
Our “profits” should be totaled by the comfort and happiness we are able to provide to senior retired persons.
Some people are unaware of that basic tenet.
We have a group of people that have chosen to disrupt meetings, scream insults at the folks in charge, demand wage reductions and cost cuts at every turn.
Now they are picking on the truly handicapped within our community.
The bus riders are almost all handicapped, in various ways. This was the only means they have to still be independent, to attend church, to eat out, to be active in club activities.
The changes demanded by this “cost cutting” group has severely reduced their “living.”
Saving money and careful budgeting is important.
When the cost of outside services rise, we must increase costs, but I think we have done better than the surrounding counties and our state at keeping our expenses reasonable.
More volunteers can make a big difference. Our buses are paid for, they travel on natural gas. If more people used the buses for trips within Leisure World, we would spend less on street repairs and other costs created by multiple vehicles. The buses would be less empty and it would be better for the environment.
It’s easy to complain, it’s harder to put your time and action out. Sometimes I wonder if “bullies” never grow up, they just get older.
Marjorie Dodero
Seal Beach Leisure World
