Talk of the Point

N.I.C.E. leader Paula Asmus says in email this afternoon she thinks the district still has “a chance” to win. I’ll post more on that when she has a moment to elaborate.

Jim Byers, owner of Hotel Mac, has voted no on N.I.C.E., he tells me this afternoon. According to an analysis broadcast by N.I.C.E. leader Paula Asmus to supporters this morning, that’s the end of N.I.C.E.

“The cost is exhorbitant,” says Jim. “I’d be paying over $6000 per year. I don’t know what they’d be doing with […]

If N.I.C.E. loses, the Point could see a wave of volunteer burnout. “Yes on N.I.C.E.” could quickly turn to “screw this” among long-time leaders. That’s the consensus of four people I talked to this morning.

On the other hand, a few people who are now skeptical of N.I.C.E. think a new, reformed proposal for a business-improvement […]

The two Toll Brothers reps did a song and dance last night at the Neighborhood Council meeting–and they got a resounding thumbs-down.

Their proposed mega-unit, multi-story, view-blocking complex reeked. Rarely has the Point, or even Brickyard Landing, seen such ugliness. Their brand-new blight would rival even the Iron Triangle’s admirable collection.

Through it all, though, the audience […]

Chief NICE opponent Richard Lompa is in a fury over that item earlier today (“The Indian’s rosebushes have thorns”) about the Westside Women’s Improvement Club. He says the effort was in no way intended to influence the NICE vote. In fact, he says, the project had been planned for a year or more.

Let the record […]

Did you notice the freshly tended rose bushes by the Indian? They’re across the street from Interactive Resources, but you won’t see Tom Butt stopping to smell them.

The West Side Women’s Improvement Club pruned and raked partly to make things pretty. But the timing alone–during N.I.C.E. voting– suggests that the work was also to show […]

My good friend Tom Butt keeps blowing it. When a skeptic provides an easy opening to point out the N.I.C.E. side, Tom instead fires away at the skeptic himself.

He doesn’t shoot holes in Richard Lompa’s arguments. He shoots photos of the trash on Richard’s lot.

Then yesterday when I wrote about Redondo Beach’s dubious experience with […]

One Redondo Beach neighborhood known as Riviera Village has had a business improvement district for a year and a half, and by one account in today’s Daily Breeze it’s getting lukewarm reviews.

Riviera Village sounds similar to the Point: It’s been neglected by the city, it has an ecclectic mix of businesses, and volunteers have tried […]

The little house just up West Richmond from Point Richmond Market, occupied by the 88-year-old Vera Ridley and somehow included in N.I.C.E, is to be taken out of the district. That’s according to correspondent Andrew Butt, whom I ran into outside the post office a few hours ago.

Chief N.I.C.E. basher Richard Lompa has often cited […]

Reports about last Wednesday afternoon’s extra long and extra lively Business Association meeting keep dribbling in from my disparate correspondents.

N.I.C.E. opposition leader Richard Lompa made a blood-rare visit to give what several witnesses agreed was a rousing speech. He “got people’s attention” and “spoke very well, very articulately,” witness Dave Moore recalled. Lompa’s ace: Vera […]