Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
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The best legal recourse is a writ of mandate action in Los Angeles Superior Court. Resident organizations or residents from LA and Santa Monica should be plaintiffs. This is a 50-50 shot and time is short. A writ of mandate will void the City approval and end this 12-year nightmare. There are three primary reasons the City Council action was unlawful. First it violates the City Charter, specifically Measure LC for "local control" adopted by a 60% vote in 2014. This will be...
Donald Trump has decided that he wants to "get rid of and totally destroy the Johnson Amendment." What does that mean for America? The Johnson Amendment, passed in 1954, is a tax code provision that prevents 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations from conducting political campaign activities to intervene in elections to public office. First presented by then-Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, the amendment was completely noncontroversial at the time, and continued to be noncontroversial...
Editor's Note: This is a mass e mail thread circulating among airport opponents and Rick Cole. In most cases, e mail address have been redacted. Since public figures like the City Manager Rick Cole are commenting, we feel it has significant public interest. With respect, Marty, the City of Santa Monica was pursuing two Federal lawsuits, two State eviction actions and was the subject of five Part 16 FAA proceedings including a Notice of Investigation and a Cease and Desist...
History has a habit of repeating itself. Yesterday, on a Saturday morning, the city announced that an agreement has been reached with the FAA to close Santa Monica Airport on December 31, 2028. The City Council voted in closed session and came to a 4 to 3 SPLIT VOTE accepting the agreement. Our usually unanimous voting and often mistrusted city council could not agree that this is a good deal! We quote from the sketchy details released by the city yesterday in a whirlwind of...
This week – despite widespread resident opposition - City Council voted 7 to 0 to move the City Services Building project forward. They denied David Garden's appeal, which was supported by four neighborhood groups and dozens and dozens of emails citing substantive challenges to what has repeatedly been called "a trophy project." Residents presented ethical, rational and valid reasons why the project should be sent back to the drawing board. And David Garden made a strong c...
Donald Trump is backtracking on campaign pledges to create American jobs and cut wasteful government spending by issuing an executive order to freeze federal employee hiring across the country, The order will result in more work being outsourced to more expensive contractors, the American Federation of Government Employees said today. "President Trump's action will disrupt government programs and services that benefit everyone and actually increase taxpayer costs by forcing...
WELCOME TO OUR WORLD Senator Diane Feinstein said, "The country is overwhelmed with fear". Well, if that were true, Senator, Trump wouldn't be President-elect, would he? But, I understand, I really do. We Conservatives know exactly how you feel. We were just as fearful when Obama was elected. But we didn't have the media, academia, Hollywood and politicians to sympathize with us. We were mocked for being fearful and told we were fearful because Obama is Black and we were...
Update: This e mail just in "Regarding the planned February 4th protest: As director of Concerned Residents Against Airport Pollution, please understand that Jonathan Stein is attempting to hijack my efforts to organize this event, and in doing so has only complicated and made it more difficult for me to focus as we move forward. I have been in the process of planning this event since mid-December.Only the date has been finalized. The format of the event is in process. I have...
Most of this years top stories had something to do with the extraordinary increase in the price of Westside real estate. 1. Measure LV defeated: It was a true grassroots effort, that started with people who were Fed Up Waiting in Traffic and Not Going to Take It Anymore. They felt sold out by the feckless folks on Santa Monica's City Council and their minions (mostly they're called Staff). They took matters into their own hands, faced the opposition of rich men like NMS's...
For the second time since Santa Monica Airport was set to close in July 2015, a brand new jet service is setting up new scheduled services. Jet flight operations are up 15% since July 2015, when all jet tenants agreed explicitly in writing to leave – the "surrender clauses" in their leases. 15 jets owned by a billionaire and others have paid no rent for one year and have not been asked to leave. The City Council and City staff are on the side of residents and have taken two a...
California has the toughest building and safety codes in the world. Why didn't authorities enforce them against the Ghost Ship's operators? This is the obvious question from the Oakland fire which has killed at least 36 people. The Washington Post has finally explained why: They didn't want to be seen as politically incorrect, forcing their way into an LGBTQ "safe space." The deaths struck at the heart of a flourishing community of artists united by the Bay Area's underground...
In SMCLC's November 28, 2016 alert we informed you that the Los Angeles Superior Court had found that Santa Monica's most prolific downtown developer, NMS, and its founder and CEO Neil Shekhter, had committed "massive, intentional, coordinated efforts to destroy evidence," "fraud," and "perjury." The Court has now issued further rulings. The Court "ordered the real estate mogul to cede all control of [the nine projects in dispute in that lawsuit, including in Santa Monica,]"...
According to public court documents, FAA has proposed a "Standstill Agreement" to the City, which the FAA insists the City Council agree to upon threat to issue a Cease and Desist Order. Like some in City Hall and on the Council, I urge the City not to sign the FAA Standstill Agreement. Let me explain why very briefly. The City is pursuing a questionable strategy, but one that I support. It is setting up the City's own "fixed base operator" (FBO) to replace Atlantic and...
Since last Tuesday's shocking defeat of the popularly chosen presidential nominee Hillary Clinton by the electorally chosen Donald Trump, thousands of protestors have poured into the streets in major cities across America – and that's exactly the right thing for them to do. The electoral college system has devalued the votes of populated states to such an extent that twice in the last five elections the candidate with the most popular votes has lost the presidency. An e...
It's morning in America. America won last night. Our system worked. The American people instinctively believed the country was going in the wrong direction and yesterday they said so. I don't believe we elected Donald Trump as our next President as much as we rejected a Hillary Clinton Presidency. Those who know me know I've not been a Trump supporter. He has said and done many things that concern me greatly. Yesterday, I didn't vote FOR Trump, I voted AGAINST Hillary...
As a former management consultant with clients that ranged from small companies to large Fortune 500 companies, and the largest company in Canada, one principle stood out when trying to understand a business: Follow the money! So, let's unwrap the "No on LV" package: First some basics: Increased height, plus density, equal higher land values; this often translates into what is called economic rents, that is, profits beyond what is needed to justify a project. Another basic is...
For months now rational Americans have been both bewildered and amused that the pigheaded adolescent rebellion of GOP leaders during the Obama administration led to a presidential nominee who is, to say the least, well out of his depth. At first, no one really believed that this blowhard businessman might actually ascend to the Whitehouse. People aren't that silly, are they? Then, sometime mid-summer, a dangerous and sinister alliance took place. After a series of private...
I am voting NO on 65 and YES on 67. If passed, Prop 65 will require the mandated fee (minimum of 10 cents per law) charged to customers for alternative bags (recycled paper, compostable, or reusable) to be deposited into the "Environmental Protection and Enhancement Fund" (EPE Fund) to be established in the State Treasury and administered by the Wildlife Conservation Board. The sole purpose of Prop 65 is to confuse voters. It would only serve the interests of plastic bag compa...
1/24: A short while ago, I learned that the Santa Monica Firefighters Local 1109 had given its support to the "No on LV" effort. As a 38-year veteran of the Santa Monica Fire Department and lifelong resident of Santa Monica, I was shocked and confused as to why they would do that. Knowing how overwhelmed and understaffed our Fire Department currently is, with extremely high call volume, and how difficult it is to respond to life-threatening emergencies due to extreme and...
"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must learn to work, instead of living on public assistance." Cicero-55BC We'll all miss this raucous election season, but isn't the bigger problem what priorities to set, rather than which personality to run it. Here's the five bigg...
Well it's that time of year again, on hyper-drive. In this craziest of all elections, here are the Observer's recommendations when you go to the polls: US SENATE: Kamala Harris. What a lame choice for an incredibly important political post. Kamala Harris is cautious and always poll-tested and surprisingly unaccomplished, Loretta Sanchez comes across as a cooky flake. Harris does seem smarter, and we do give her kudos for her negotiation with the banks over the foreclosure...
Threatening to undermine the separation of powers that is fundamental to our free society, John McCain says that a Republican Senate would not confirm any potential Supreme Court Justices nominated by Hillary Clinton. This obstreperous partisanship is unprecedented in American history. Responsible politicians know that a complete court is fundamental to the review process necessary to ensure that laws are being carried out in a fair and just manner. While past Senators may hav...
Mr. Zinner: Your recent article about new development being good for the earth was terrific! I agree: Single family residences are inefficient and should be banned. More retail/residential structures should be built to make the entire city look like a modern strip mall. If four stories is good, eight stories is twice as good. Let's build to the sky! They should all be painted white in order to reflect the heat. Your premise that people live where they work is also brilliant!...
What do you do when you are waiting outside the classroom door (or presidential debate) and suddenly realize that you didn't read the mandatory pages for today's discussion? This 10-step formula is fairly simple and easily mastered: 1. Flip through the book, and select a couple of easy-to-understand charts or graphs. If it is a novel, choose some quotes from a main character. Mark the pages. 2. Always allow others to speak first. Let at least one do-gooder, prepared, student s...
WASHINGTON, DC, Oct 14 - This year marks the 25th anniversary of Clarence Thomas' appointment to the Supreme Court and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which opened last month in Washington, has seen fit to "honor" the jurist by completely ignoring the event and Thomas, himself. Dan Weber, president of the Association of Mature American Citizens, calls the museum's "snub" a deliberate insult. "What else can it be when a prestigious institution...
