Re-invigorating King Harbor

The Chamber of Commerce, the Pier Merchants Association, King Harbor Association, city government and various other interested parties, spend considerable time and effort trying to solve the same mystery. How do we get more people to use and enjoy the fantastic resources in the Pier and harbor area?

Walk down the pier or boardwalk any Saturday or Sunday afternoon in the good weather and you’ll ask yourself, "why all the fuss?" There’s people everywhere. Travel the same route on a Monday morning in January or February and you’ll get it within the first minute. You wouldn’t be able to hit a person with a fully-loaded AK-47.

There are plenty of reasons to come to King Harbor, restaurants, night clubs, fishing, boating, Seaside Lagoon (in season), to name a few. On some weekends, like the weekend of September 27-28, the place fills nearly to capacity.

Credit the newly invigorated Lobster Festival, the Rods, Rides and Relics car show on the Pier and the Dolphin Dash for that weekend’s crowds. In the next couple of weekends the Redondo Beach Art Group will present The Power of Art inside the AES Steam plant. Redondo Beach Marina and the King Harbor Association will host the tall ship Lynx.

What’s the message in all this? The static attractions in the harbor area do an adequate job of attracting people. If you want more people, you need more attractions. It’s that simple.

The Pier has music and a few festivals in the summer and the Lagoon has a few events scattered throughout the year. If you want more people to come here, you need to create the impression that, in addition to the regular stuff, there’s always something fun going on along our waterfront.

Part of the solution would be to coordinate the existing events and market them altogether. In addition, the frequency and number of special events should expand to fill as much of the annual calendar as possible. Then the King Harbor Events Calendar needs to get marketed so that everyone within driving distance knows that there’s always something fun going on in Redondo Beach.

A tall order? Sure, but it’s doable and as it begins to come together, our need to share the harbor and pier with others will slowly become satisfied.