Bruce’s Beach press conference on April 9. From left to right: State Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, Chief Duane Yellowfeather Shepard — representative of the Bruce Family, former Manhattan Beach Mayor Mitch Ward, LA County supervisors Holly Mitchell and Janice Hahn, and State Sen. Steve Bradford. Photo courtesy of Supervisor’s Hahn office.
On May 17, SB 796, a bill championed by Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn which would allow Los Angeles County to return the Bruce’s Beach property to the descendants of Willa and Charles Bruce, cleared another legislative hurdle in Sacramento.
Chair of the California Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Anthony Portantino, determined that the legislation had no significant state costs and applied Senate Rule 28.8, sending it directly to the Senate Floor for a Second Reading without a hearing in the Appropriations Committee. The legislation had already passed the California Senate’s Committee on Natural Resources and Water last month with unanimous support.
In 1912, a young Black couple named Willa and Charles Bruce purchased beachfront property in Manhattan Beach and built a resort that served Black residents.
See RLN’s story here.
The property the Bruce family once owned was years later transferred to the State and in 1995 transferred to Los Angeles County. It is now the site of the Los Angeles County Lifeguard Training Headquarters.
Supervisor Hahn announced her intention earlier this year to return the property to the Bruce Family, but found that she needed State legislation before the County could transfer this property. When the property was transferred from the State to the County in 1995, the State imposed restrictions that limit the County’s ability to transfer the property. SB 796, legislation introduced by State Senator Steve Bradford, would exempt the Bruce’s Beach property from statuary restrictions on the transference and use of that land to enable the County of Los Angeles to transfer the land to the descendants of its rightful owners, the late Willa and Charles Bruce.
SB 796 next heads to the Senate Floor where it needs a vote of two-thirds to pass before heading to the Assembly.
The motion also calls for the expansion of workfare and volunteer opportunities across county departments…
This launch marks a significant step in the state's ongoing effort to lower prescription drug…
After the Indiana University Media School fired its director of student media and banned…
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Business Journal has given a top legal honor…
The Final 2024 Class 8 Drayage Truck Feasibility Assessment Report focuses on battery electric and…
So far in 2025, Public Health has reported 118 cases of clade II mpox.