Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
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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...
SANTA MONICA now surpasses 97% of California communities of any size in the number of violent and property crimes. CRIME has increased in SANTA MONICA for the 3rd consecutive year according to SMPD. Issuance of Daily Public Arrest Records were just discontinued. Why? SANTA MONICA Police made over 5,000 (reported) calls to the 3 main PARKS visited by TOURISTS and RESIDENTS in 2023. SM Police are underfunded by the Mayor and City Council. There has been a 1 to 1 increase in criminal transient...
In response to Santa Monica Mayor Phil Brock uploading to Instagram a promotional video featuring the Third Street Promenade in rose-colored terms, John Alle wrote the following regrading what he and the Santa Monica Coalition he co-founded see as the ongoing and very real problems in the Santa Monica downtown area. His remarks have been edited for length. He also provided the photos, which were date and time stamped as we have recorded here. What you [Phil Brock] conveyed in your video does not...
May 29, 2024 - Downtown Santa Monica Inc, the nonprofit, quasi-governmental agency that is responsible for the cleanliness, security, and prosperity of that area, is being accused of conflict of interest among some of its board members, poor money management, and general dereliction of duty and incompetence. The borders over which DTSM assumes control are Ocean Avenue on the west, Lincoln Blvd., on the east, Wilshire Blvd. on the north, and the SM 10 Freeway on the south. A majority of its...
May 10, 2024 - Today we received a press release from Sally Kornbluth, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, explaining why she had called police in early this morning to take down (finally) a provocative and disruptive pro-Gaza (pro-Hamas terror organization) encampment that had planted itself in the Kresge courtyard - a central point connecting the student dorms, the student center and cafeterias, and the classroom buildings. The encampment, she admits in her statement, was i...
Dear Mayor Brock, City Manager White, City Attorney Sloan, and Esteemed Members of the City Council, I write to you as a deeply concerned and thoroughly fed-up resident of Santa Monica. Our city, once a beacon of beauty and safety, has descended into a state of lawlessness, neglect, and mismanagement. This letter serves as a wake-up call and a declaration of intent to reclaim our community from the brink of disaster. It is inspired by a profound sense of duty and love for our home, much like...
May 15, 2024 - Last night the Santa Monica City Council devoted slightly over three hours in a 9-⅓ hour meeting to the topic of the Gaza conflict in the Middle East. Freshman councilmember Jesse Zwick had brought forward a resolution calling for a "negotiated bilateral ceasefire" in the military actions Israel is conducting to root out the terrorist organization Hamas. Hamas broke the previous ceasefire on October 7, 2023, brutally raping, torturing, and murdering Israelis and other citizens, ki...
Governor Gavin Newsom's extreme policies are pushing Californians, and our neighbors in Arizona and Nevada, to the brink. As a vocal critic and advocate for the people, I am compelled to expose the harsh reality and devastating impact of his actions on our daily lives. 🔴 The Hard Truth: •More than 60% of California's refineries have shut down due to excessive regulations. This isn't just a statistic; it's a direct hit on our supply chain, driving prices sky-high. •California refineries supply...
Dear Council, I knew it was just a matter of time before the virtue-signaling, radical left-wing of the Council, as embodied by the clueless Jesse Zwick, felt the need to "be heard" on Gaza. Typical hubris! As if anybody cares what Santa Monica thinks about it, as if it will change anything in the Middle East, as if Jesse Zwick has any understanding of the issue. Rabbi Gotlieb summed up the reasons why the city shouldn't wade into it well (https://www.smobserved.com/story/2024/05/14/news/span-cl...
Have you ever been so disgusted with a person or an organization that you want nothing to do with them in any way whatsoever? For example, there are those who divest themselves of stocks because of those companies that make their money from chemicals that pollute the food we eat. They could further their stance of opposing such companies if they also refused to buy any of their products containing those chemicals. But what would you think of them if they nevertheless used the very chemicals...
Here is our interpretation of what Chancellor Block really meant in his message about the takedown of the encampment on campus that conducted activities directly contrary to university policy and whose participants were shown on multiple videos harassing and restricting movement of Jewish students, clear violations of Federal Title VI. Translations of his statement are between brackets. May 2, 2024 Around 1:40 pm, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block shared the following message about the immense toll...
If you've been to the grocery store recently you've been approached, as I have, by well-meaning appearing individuals who want you to 'help apartment owners.' The message below from the Santa Monica Coalition for a Livable City (not to be confused with the Santa Monica Coalition) explains why you should not sign and allow this to be put on the ballot. April 23, 2024 Dear Friends of SMCLC, Paid signature gatherers will soon be asking Santa Monica residents to help qualify an initiative that will...
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Well-known American historians Dr. Elizabeth Cobbs of San Diego State University and Dr. David Kennedy of Stanford University have submitted a letter to Congress, cosigned by 55 academic and independent historians, calling for passage of legislation in the 118th Congress to award a Congressional Gold Medal to the Hello Girls, America's First Women Soldiers. The letter, attached to this release here, urges the Senators and House Members to cosponsor S.815 and HR 1572, r...
