Not too far from where I live, there is a series of bluffs above the beach and bicycle path that are often used by remote control glider pilots. I’ve had a couple of close calls with them, but given the nature of the beast – fragile balsa and mylar or foam gliders weighing very little, I thought little of it.<\/p>\n
But apparently a glider pilot hit the wrong person this week.<\/p>\n
In today’s Daily Breeze<\/a>:<\/p>\n A few residents, including a city planning commissioner, have asked the Redondo Beach City Council to ban the activity because the planes sometimes go out of control and hit homes, cars and pedestrians in the heavily trafficked area.<\/p>\n Lenore Bloss, a planning commissioner, asked the council earlier this month to consider an ordinance outlawing the craft in the city after she was hit in the back of the head by a low-flying plane. Though she wasn’t hurt, Bloss was outraged. Not only was there a possibility of real injury, but the pilot didn’t apologize.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Her story got the council’s attention. Councilman Gerard Bisignano said the matter will be taken up within six weeks.<\/p>\n …<\/b><\/p>\n “People do get hit and I don’t deny that,” Freschi said. “But to my knowledge no one has been seriously hurt. It stings and it smarts. But no blood, no broken bones.”<\/p>\n He makes an analogy that dogs bite and bicycles run into people. But these beach activities aren’t banned; laws are passed to make the activities safer.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n First, I need to disclose that I do not and have never flown remote controlled airplanes. My sons have not flown remote controlled airplanes. I do often use the Esplanade and bike path near there, so I ought to be on the side of the angels and support banning the damn things. And hell, I’m a liberal, so regulation must be good, no?<\/p>\n In this case, no.<\/p>\n Boy, I have so many problems with this. <\/p>\n First of all, it fits nicely in with my view of the SkyBox nature of our process. A planning commissioner gets hit – and her feelings, not her scalp are wounded. So A Law Must Be Passed So That They Learn A Lesson. Bull.<\/p>\n Second, I’ve got to ask, where’s the real risk? Kids play frisbee on the beach all the time, and the wind catches them…I’ve been hit by those. I’ve been clocked by an errant volleyball. Should we ban those? Of course not.<\/p>\n Third, the notion that the city would ban the activity – rather than make any effort to reasonably figure out how to make it workable, when it’s been done there for 40 years or more – sticks in my throat. The City Attorney says:<\/p>\n “City Attorney Jerry Goddard said enforcing such restrictions could be costly and difficult. Banning the gliders would be the easiest, cheapest alternative.<\/p>\n “I have to say, reluctantly, that the level of use of The Esplanade and beach area has reached the congestion point where regulation is necessary,” Goddard said.<\/p>\n “I’m saddened by that. Mainly because I’m disappointed at the ever growing level of government regulations over citizens’ lives. And I’m also disappointed in the irresponsibility of people to do anything from walking their dog on a leash to flying a model airplane in a responsible fashion.”<\/p>\n Goddard said that in his 11 years as city attorney an adult or child, car or house has been hit by a glider about every two years.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Sorry, Jerry, but one reported accident every two years isn’t evidence of irresponsibility, and while I think you’re on the right track about intrusive regulation, saying you’re against it while proposing it seems kind of disingenuous.<\/p>\n Personally, I think there are probably some simple and easily enforceable rules – like don’t fly on summer weekends or holidays after 9 or 10:00 am – which would lessen the chances of conflict and keep the pilots flying.<\/p>\n Personally, I think Redondo is a small enough town that those affected by the flying could walk up the hill and personally interact with the glider pilots and work something out informally.<\/p>\n But that might be too simple.<\/p>\n Mayor Greg Hill<\/a>, Councilmember Gerard Bistango<\/a>, and City Manager Lou Garcia<\/a> are the ones who ought to think about this. One might hope that they’d come to the conclusion that this is silly and embarrassing, and that the City has more pressing business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A city planning commissioner is hit by a small balsa model, and not hurt… but suddenly A Law Must Be Passed to ban the offending objects. Uh, no. This is what I mean when I write about “SkyBox Liberalism”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}