Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
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Public health officials on Saturday finally released data regarding Covid-19 infection and death rates among the fully vaccinated residents of the county. The numbers reveal the rationale behind officials requiring the fully vaccinated to wear masks in public places (assuming masks are effective in preventing infection). At the same time, the collected data throws doubt on the necessity or wisdom of violating federal medical privacy laws, violating civil rights, and basically...
October 7, 2021 - Police have released composite sketches of the two suspects in a shooting involving an attempted carjacking in the early morning of September 22. At approximately 3:00 am on that Wednesday morning, Santa Monica police received multiple calls regarding the sound of shots fired. Shortly thereafter, the victim himself called police, reporting he'd been shot in the face. The victim had been sleeping in his car in the area of Ocean and Pacific. Two suspects...
The Los Angeles County Sheriff is the only entity in the area willing and able to remove homeless encampments, says Michelle Bisnoff, Chair of the Brentwood Community Council, in a social media post. Currently, the sheriff's Homeless Outreach Services Team (HOST) is working to clear the encampment of veterans that have occupied the sidewalk on San Vicente outside the Veterans Administration for some time. Two murders have occurred in the tent encampment in a month. In an...
October 1, 2021 Spurred on by Santa Monica City Councilmember Phil Brock, the City Council on Tuesday voted 5-2 to ask a Westside city association if they should join a lawsuit challenging the number of units they've been ordered to build by the state. The lawsuit, already filed in June by the Orange County Council of Governments (OKKOG), disputes the number of units decreed by California's Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), saying the population growth...
Santa Monica’s Mayor refused to attend a public forum on homelessness where she could not control the microphone. Nor did she reply to our request for a statement regarding her refusal to come discuss a problem that is arguably, in some significant part, her fault and likely to get worse if she peppers the city with the “affordable” and “permanent supportive” housing she desires. On the other hand, City Councilmembers Phil Brock and Oscar de la Torre did attend the meeting h...
During the month of October, it only costs $5 to adopt a healthy cat with all his or her shots from a Los Angeles County animal shelter. Vaccinations and neutering when done privately could run you well over $200. You will need to make an appointment, however, before you can meet your potential new best friend. Schedule an appointment to adopt today! https://animalcare.lacounty.gov/all-visits-to-the-animal-care-center-are-by-appointment-only/...
September 23, 2021 - At approximately 3:00 am on Wednesday morning, Santa Monica police received multiple calls regarding the sound of shots fired. Shortly thereafter, the victim himself called police, reporting he'd been shot in the face. The victim had been sleeping in his car in the area of Ocean Avenue and Pacific Street. Two suspects approached his car, demanded he give them the keys to the vehicle, and then abruptly shot him. Following this assault, they fled in another...
9/21/21 - A registered sex offender who was preying on homeless women on the Santa Monica beach was charged yesterday with one count of Assault to commit rape and 1 count of Sexual Battery for two incidents reported to Santa Monica Police this month. Jarvis Mathias Newman, 26, is also known as Marquis Perkings. His residence was not given in the official press release. The first incident allegedly involving Newman occurred on September 12. A female victim had been sleeping in...
September 17, 2021 - Los Angeles County Health Department officials announced this week that they will be issuing a new Health Officer Order that will require vaccine verifications in order to enter bars, wineries breweries, nightclubs, and lounges. Either a vaccine verification or a negative Covid test within 72 hours prior will be required for attending outdoor mega events. These are already required at indoor mega events. The county's press release states the modified...
September 17, 2021 - This week, Los Angeles County health officials announced they would be issuing a new Health Officer Order mandating vaccine verification for individuals wishing to work at or enter bars and wineries. Proof of vaccine or a negative Covid test would be required to attend an outdoor mega event. They could not have created more distrust in the vaccine if they tried. Initial damage was done to the vaccine's credibility in mid-July, when health officials...
September 17, 2021 The Santa Monica City Council agreed to refund 3,500 parking tickets that were issued between August 30 and September 3 because the city had told the public tickets weren't going to be given until the first week of September. "This is unheard of," City Councilmember Phil Brock told The Observer in an interview. It was his motion on Tuesday night to refund the tickets, which he said were given inappropriately. "On one block alone ten parking tickets were...
September 13, 2021 - An abrupt shake hit Santa Monica at 7:59 am Monday morning. The center of the quake was located 5 kilometers North Northwest of Thousand Oaks, California. Depth of the quake was 1.8 kilometers, according to the US Geological Survey. At 8:30 AM, the LAFD tweeted: "This morning's preliminary M 3.6 #earthquake in #ThousandOaks (~ 14 miles west of #LosAngeles) was felt widely, but caused no reported damage or injury in @LACity. The @LAFD is in a normal...
September 10, 2021 - Shortly after midnight this morning, a victim was held up at gunpoint outside La Condesa restaurant at 1519 Wilshire Boulevard, and then driven around the block in their own car while they were robbed. At least two suspects then fled in their own vehicle at high speed, crashing at 26th Street and Wilshire Boulevard. Santa Monica Police arrived on the scene, set up a perimeter, and with the help of dogs and a drone, caught one of the suspects. The Beverly H...
In an example of the consequences of Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon's zero bail policy, a suspect was able to break into and rob the same restaurant on the Third Street Promenade three times in one week. Jason Tyrone Strickland, 42, allegedly homeless, was observed on surveillance footage breaking into the CULT restaurant on the Third Street Promenade on August 20, 22, and 26. He was issued citations and let go about his business on the first two occasions, which...
Infectious Disease Doctor From UCLA Health Warns City About Threat of Typhoid and HIV in Garages Used as Campground by Homeless Third Street Promenade property owner John Alle asked Dr. Lewis Simon, an infectious disease doctor from UC San Diego, currently working for Santa Monica's UCLA Health Center, to walk through the city's public garages with him over a year ago, when Alle first noted the meth manufacture and human waste in the structures. Dr. Simon came on his own tour...
Vagrants are still being allowed to camp in the downtown Santa Monica parking garages, using the stairwells and elevators as bedrooms and bathrooms, according to downtown property owner John Alle. In the early morning hours of July 3, a drug-addled vagrant attempted to rape the female companion of a visitor attempting to retrieve his car from Parking Garage 8. When the male driver left his vehicle to rescue the woman from the vagrant, the vagrant stole his car and ran over...
August 6, 2021 - Local beaches, including all of the Santa Monica beaches, beaches in Malibu, Topanga, and on Catalina Island, have been experiencing sporadic closures and advisories since the July 11-12 spill of 17 million gallons of raw sewage from the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant located in Playa Del Rey. County Health Department press releases claim the high bacteria levels measured at area beaches are no longer the result of the Hyperion spill but rather reflect...
August 3, 2021 - County health officials have lifted the warnings that had been up on several Southland beaches yesterday, caused by high bacteria levels measured in the water. Only the beach at Avalon on Catalina Island continues to remain posted with warnings against playing, surfing, and swimming in the water near their pier. Officials said they did not believe the July 11 raw sewage spill from the Hyperion Treatment Plant had caused the unhealthy bacteria levels in the...
July 27, 2021 The City Council will discuss tonight a resolution asking Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon to follow state law regarding bail and sentencing of criminal defendants. The resolution, put forward by Councilmember Phil Brock, does not go so far as to state no confidence in Gascon. But in some ways it goes further than the no-confidence votes of 24 other cities in the county. Brock's resolution digs into the specific directives Gascon has issued...
After hearing a brief history of the long journey to demolish Parking Structure 3 in downtown Santa Monica, the city council voted 4-3 to demolish the structure and replace it with affordable housing. The demolition will not take place until December 31, 2021 at the earliest and will take an estimated six months to complete. No plan has been approved, or even submitted, regarding the proposed affordable and supportive housing that is to replace the structure of 337 parking...
The Los Angeles County Health Department and the nonprofit environmental group, Heal the Bay, have slightly differing attitudes toward current water quality in the Santa Monica Bay after a sewage spill on July 11 from the Hyperion Water Treatment plant. Heal the Bay appears to agree with County Health that water quality at the earlier affected beaches, Dockweiler and El Segundo, have reached acceptable levels, but "we urge you to exercise caution by regularly checking the LA C...
Santa Monica Mayor Sue Himmelrich thinks the key to saving the dying Third Street Promenade is to allow drug-using vagrants to use the business district's parking garages. Just kidding. What she really thinks will help is tearing down the garages and putting so-called affordable housing in their place. Himmelrich has shown little interest in the problems with vagrancy, trash, drug use, and human waste in the city's public garages. She has not responded to the problem of...
Catalina Island, 26 miles off the California coast, is still struggling to attract visitors with yet another "reopening" announcement. The island shut down in March 2020 until mid-June of that year in an attempt to stop the spread there of Covid-19. But its June 2020 reopening to tourism was hampered by the public health guidelines set in place by Los Angeles County and the State of California. Out-of-county visitors were supposed to quarantine upon arrival, restaurants could...
For 19 months prior to the rape attempt, carjacking, and violent assault in Santa Monica's Parking Structure 8, property owner John Alle had been sounding the alarm to public officials and Downtown Santa Monica, Inc. about unsafe conditions in the parking garages that line the Third Street Promenade. In emails to Kathleen Rawson, CEO of DTSM, to the city council, and to Henry Servin, Traffic and Parking Manager for the City of Santa Monica during this time period, Alle begged...
There are an estimated 2,000 homeless people inhabiting the streets of Venice, California. News outlets reported 200 tents on the Ocean Front Boardwalk as of June 27. And on June 28, Los Angeles Councilman Mike Bonin boasted in an email blast about housing 19 individuals. Bonin attempted to play up the importance of this insignificant dent in the crisis, brought about in large part by public policies put in place by himself and others like him. That's "someone's mother, father...
