Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
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As everyone is aware, we are in a critical time to change the trajectory of Santa Monica. We need to make sure the right people are in office to run our city council and course correct the path our city is on to bring it back to its glory. There are basically two PACS (contingencies ) running and we want to VOTE in the SAFER SANTA MONICA PAC. It will really take the entire PAC being voted in to implement real change. This is who we want to vote for: SAFER SANTA MONICA includes: John Putnam,...
Wow, it's a bore to keep deconstructing the desperate confabulations of SMRR and their puppeteers. But somebody's got to do it! The latest is from Ted Winterer, who presided on the City Council from 2012-2020 (and as the Mayor 2016-2018), and has written a truly hilarious SMDP op-ed in which he wonders why the two incumbents running (Phil Brock and Oscar de la Torre), haven't yet created safer streets in their 3 years in office when they've been in control for 40. This is also a theme in SMRR...
It seems anymore like not a week goes by without news of a stabbing, shooting, assault, rape or home invasion. And there are undoubtedly countless more less-serious crimes, many of which go unreported, like car break-ins, store theft, public drug usage, and harassment of residents and visitors by homeless wanderers on our streets. Santa Monica wasn’t like this 10 years ago. Crime continues to get worse and clearly we need to make changes in order to reverse this trend. The causes of increasing c...
Dear friends and neighbors, I want to be sure you read Councilmember Oscar de la Torre's letter published in the Santa Monica Daily Press, which is below. Oscar writes in response to an accusation by a political figure - school board candidate Jon Kean - that he is antisemitic. I have known Oscar for decades, beginning when I was a reporter for NPR and I interviewed Oscar, fresh out of college, about his work with the youth of the Pico neighborhood. Oscar then created the Pico Youth & Family...
A number of my good friends and family have been surprised about my decision to support @realDonaldTrump for president. They have been surprised because my political giving history has been mostly to Democrats, my voting registration has typically been Democrat (in NY, you must be registered to the party in order to vote in the primary, and usually the Republican candidate has no chance to win), and many of our philanthropic initiatives have supported issues that are consistent with Democratic...
In 2002 a man broke into Gloria G.'s home. He raped her at knife point and committed several other types of horrific sexual assaults. He threatened to kill her son. He was convicted and sentenced to over 100 years to life in prison. However, because of a change in the law, the man who raped Gloria, who is now over 50 years old, qualified for an elder parole hearing. Because George Gascon has banned prosecutors from attending parole hearings, Gloria, like so many other victims, had to attend the...
As Santa Monica faces rising concerns about crime and public safety, it's more important than ever for voters to understand which candidates genuinely prioritize safety and security for our community. This election, we strongly endorse the slate of Phil Brock, Oscar de la Torre, John Putnam, and Dr. Vivian Roknian for Santa Monica City Council. These candidates have consistently shown a commitment to tackling the city's safety challenges head-on, standing in stark contrast to their opponents...
September 27th is the most important day in the Middle East since the Abraham Accords breakthrough. I have spent countless hours studying Hezbollah and there is not an expert on earth who thought that what Israel has done to decapitate and degrade them was possible. This is significant because Iran is now fully exposed. The reason why their nuclear facilities have not been destroyed, despite weak air defense systems, is because Hezbollah has been a loaded gun pointed at Israel. Iran spent the la...
There seems to be a laughable attempt by SMRR to intentionally muddy the waters this election. In a case of moral confusion and cynicism, SMMR is trying to position themselves as the "change slate," because after 40 years of their establishment politics, affecting everything from overdevelopment to the destruction of the downtown, they are saying the Change Slate elected 4 years ago needs to be... um... changed by them! You see, anti-police SMRR, which appointed our city manager and almost the...
The Dems plan to steal the 2024 Presidential Election for Kamala Harris through the use of overseas ballots. This according to a X.com post from Joel Berry, Managing Editor of the Babylon Bee. Elon Musk retweeted the post. The post appears below: "Some fun facts about the Democrat plan to steal elections using "overseas" ballots: -Through the UOCAVA/overseas program, you can register to vote online without providing ID, SSN, or proof of citizenship/address. -You can register in any state, at...
DEAR SANTA MONICA If housed residents knew what's it like to be homeless in Santa Monica, they'd be pissed off and lose any respect you might have for the everyone in control, and the police don't help homeless people, they lie, intimidate, criminalize and ignore them but voters already know it's only getting worse regardless of who they vote for Same old bs, nothing new to see here folks The city approved nonprofits like " step up" move the worst of them into luxury apartments, yet leave the vu...
September 16, 2024 - Since I was called out personally, I'm finally writing in response to the letter Jon Katz, President of the Santa Monica Democratic Club, wrote in the SMDP on August 20th about my "Anybody But SMRR" letter. Jon titled his response "Playing Politics," which was appropriate, because it was full of half truths, outright lies, straw man arguments, and misrepresentations of my views-in short, a case study of playing politics from the president of an organization completely out of...
As Ryan Erlich highlighted in April, George Gascón's administration continues to reveal a troubling double standard regarding accountability. This double standard is particularly evident in the case of Diana Teran. Diana Teran, who was appointed by Gascón to serve as the "Ethics and Integrity Advisor" to the largest local prosecutorial office in the nation, is currently charged with six felonies. Despite a judge finding probable cause to support these charges, Teran remains on the public p...
LEGISLATIVE ALERT: MULTI-FAMILY, SINGLE FAMILY AND CONDOMINIUM HOUSING There is one statewide proposition on the California November 2024 ballot that I am very concerned about. It is Proposition 33, which enables extremely restrictive rent controls on a state-wide basis. These Proposition 33 proposed rent controls, including homes, condominiums, as well as multifamily complexes, could turn California into a nightmare scenario like NYC after WWII or Santa Monica or West Hollywood for the period...
Dear Council, et al: I live on 9th street, a block from three boulevards-Wilshire, Santa Monica, and Lincoln. This means I'm literally surrounded by 8-story "stack and packs," while being told the fiction that this grotesque sop to developers "won't affect the neighborhoods of Santa Monica" and will help "solve homelessness." Ha! This is, like so much that we hear from SMRR, a lie flown in on the wings of money-in this case Hedge Funds (Cypress Equity, I'm looking at you). While we were sleeping...
Your November ballot is going to be an orgy of tax increases that would make the Kama Sutra blush. In the main arena, we see that state lawmakers have unbuckled old restraints that have stopped local governments from taking on too much debt. The 1879 California constitution stated, "No county, city, town, township, Board of Education, or school district, shall incur any indebtedness or liability in any manner, or for any purpose ... without the assent of two thirds of the qualified electors...
July 29, 2024 - An article in the Los Angeles Times this week highlighted a RAND Corporation study claiming that homeless encampment cleanups don't lead to a reduction in the number of homeless in an area. Mark Ryavec, President of the Venice Stakeholder's Association, took great exception to this conclusion, noting that such cleanups should be accompanied by "offers of shelter, enforcement of 24/7 no-camping zones and the installation of landscaping, fencing and physical barriers at strategic...
Dear Santa Monica Voters, We are heading into the election season here in Santa Monica and our choices are becoming clear. If you ask any resident what their main concern is, they will respond that it's the crime, safety, and disorder perpetuated by the transient addicts and mentally ill who are using our city as either a toilet, or a pool to hunt victims. In the course of the past month we've seen stabbings, attempted rapes, attempted murders, and the horrific kidnapping of a toddler by a...
August 1, 2024 - It's been almost three years since Santa Monica's Chief of Police Ramon Batista said he would provide Santa Monica with "unparalleled public safety." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ups05Sdpv3U&ab_channel=CityofSantaMonica But I get yelled at by drug addicts almost every day. I'll be walking down Montana Avenue – Ocean, 7th Street, Idaho, 2nd Street, Santa Monica, Wilshire, 4th Street, Main Street, The Promenade, The Beach Strand – and some crazy drug addict yells at me agg...
July 26, 2024 - Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsay Horvath is lying About Santa Monica. She recently said in an emailed statement: "County partners with Venice Family Clinic to provide harm reduction services for up to three hours each week in Santa Monica. Through harm reduction and other efforts, deaths among people experiencing homelessness held steady for the first time since 2015, as opposed to continual increases the County had historically seen." Horvath added that since the County...
Dear Mayor Brock and Members of the City Council, I am writing to you today as a concerned citizen of Santa Monica and a PhD scientist and MIT-trained chemical engineer. Last night's decision to establish a Bitcoin Office within our city deeply concerns me, and I feel compelled to share the significant risks and adverse impacts associated with this initiative. My primary concerns revolve around the financial instability of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, as well as the severe environmental...
Lots of news outlets are now covering how unsafe Santa Monica is because of the Santa Monica Coalition's sign on the promenade. The Santa Monica Coalition's sign says "Santa Methica Is Not Safe. Our City Manager Supports the Needle & Meth Pipe Distribution Program In Our Parks and Public Spaces." Santa Monica's Mayor Phil Brock recently did a TV interview where he said that "Most of Santa Monica is always safe." Here's the interview: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtxlbIBUxJQ) There's a big...
June 25, 2024 Dear Council, Hate to hit you two days in a row, but this sociopath was arrested after attempting to rape a 17 year-old girl at the beach, strangling her until she lost consciousness and breaking her nose. He then attempted to rape and drown another woman, a homeless woman who is a hero that seems in real need of our services, who came to the girl's aid. Victim 3 was a 73 year-old tourist from Montreal who also intervened and was robbed of a necklace and dragged 40 feet in another...
Dear Council, The city is broke! We are told the council must choose between paving our alleys or hiring more police, as crime, addiction, disorder, and mental illness has become our new brand. (Just in the last couple weeks, tourists have been stabbed, robbed, or had their windshield shattered as they entered the city-welcome!). This immigrant, whose dream was to graduate from a pushcart to a store in SM, in six months has been robbed twice on the 3rd street promenade. Watch the heartbreaking...
Mayor Brock left Reed Park after 45 min. I watched from my car, and did not enter Reed Park. Brock approached me as I was sitting in my car, said he was hungry, and going to lunch. Brock's comments about the Venice Family Clinic in Tongva Park are hearsay, because he was not there. While in Reed Park, Vice Mayor Negrete and a Venice Family Clinic worker were startled by an addict close behind them who began screaming a 4-letter word and waving his hands. They quickly moved on. While in Tongva...
