by Garrison Frost

Why do some things get signs on the freeway while others don't? There's probably a guy who sits in a basement office at Caltrans in Sacramento who knows the answer to that question, but I'm not willing to take the time to find him. So I'll just continue to wonder as I drive my little stretch of South Bay freeway why the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center has a sign while the Redondo Beach Pier does not. Or why the Lomita Railroad Museum has a sign but the Manhattan Beach Creative Arts Center does not.

A good part of the South Bay is enclosed by the San Diego Freeway from El Segundo Boulevard to the Harbor Freeway at Pacific Coast Highway (This omits San Pedro and Palos Verdes which, geographically aren't part of the bay, but we consider South Bay for a variety of reasons). And any number of cultural and recreational facilities and institutions are within just a few minutes from an off-ramp. Signs direct you to some of these, but not others.

Driving south through this section, one encounters signs for (omitting street and city signs):

• Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center
• El Camino College
• Torrance Cultural Arts Center
• Port of Los Angeles
• L.A. Harbor College
• Torrance Airport
• Ken Malloy Regional Park
• Lomita Railroad Museum
• South Coast Botanical Gardens.

Driving north through this same section, one sees signs for (omitting street and city signs):

• CSU Dominguez Hills
• El Camino College
• Torrance Airport
• Torrance Cultural Arts Center
• Torrance Del Amo (we assume the Del Amo Mall)
• Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center

So why no freeway signs for the Redondo Beach Pier (or any of the municipal piers, for that matter), King Harbor, the Manhattan Village Mall, the South Bay Galleria or the Madrona Marsh? And why do drivers going south get to learn about some things that drivers going north don't get to know about, and vice versa? For instance, why is the location of Torrance Del Amo more important to those going north than those going south? Who knows?

One could also wonder why the tiny Lomita Railroad Museum gets a sign at all. Have you seen it. Sure, it's a neat little thing, but let's get serious, if you see that sign on the freeway, you're likely to picture something a lot more significant. Even though it is Lomita's big claim to fame, it is not nearly as big a deal as the Torrance Airport or the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center.

One could also wonder why drivers going north get specific directions to Manhattan Beach while drivers going south do not get a sign at all.

Maybe somebody should ask that guy at Caltrans.

(Feb. 20, 2006)

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