Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Sorted by date Results 185 - 209 of 590
Dear Mayor Davis & Honorable Santa Monica City Councilmembers, ....... I know that I have been writing to you quite a few times in the last few weeks, but I am deeply concerned regarding some of the policy proposals that have been put forth by all of you and feel obliged to write to you given the urgency and irreversibly damaging nature of these measures. Today, I am writing to urge you NOT to move forward with a plan to issue a mandate banning all gas appliances within the...
Dear Mayor Davis and Honorable Santa Monica City Councilmembers, As you know, Measure GS, the Himmelrich-financed 5.6% transfer tax on properties $8+ million sold in Santa Monica, takes effect tomorrow, March 1, 2023. As I predicted to you earlier, the impact of GS is already being seen. In the last 2 days, we have seen rapid real estate closures of at least three homes in N of Montana valued at $33,941,000, depriving the city of over $1,900,000 in Himmelrich tax for you to...
Dear Mayor Davis & Santa Monica City Council, I join thousands of my neighbors and fellow Santa Monica citizens and residents to say that I am absolutely outraged by the proposal to change the zoning on Montana Avenue and other quiet, beautiful, pedestrian-friendly avenues in our iconic, seaside city, to allow five and six-story buildings. While some of you may view this as a magic solution to homelessness or housing affordability in Santa Monica, or one way to meet the...
Back in September 2005 I was walking down the main drag of Auckland, New Zealand, when I spotted a travel agency's breathless window ad for a dream package trip to "glamorous" Los Angeles-Hollywood-Santa Monica (!!!). The ad featured a composite photo of both the Hollywood sign and SM Ferris wheel. I chuckled, feeling smug. This little window sign served to confirm my growing confidence that the 1996 timing of my departure from Marin County/San Francisco, in favor of sunny...
15 -- The San Francisco Police Department today released the police body camera footage from David Depape's October 28, 2022 attack on Paul Pelosi. People want to know if I'm ready to retract my controversial article proposing an alternative theory that the two men knew each other. I'm doubling down, because it still doesn't add up. Here is my analysis from a trained psychologist, the one who tipped me off that perhaps Depape and Pelosi were acquaintances. "Most people...
January 25, 2023 - Citing a budget that is heavy on salaries and failed programs, incompetent leadership, and the economically and physically depressed state of the Third Street Promenade, property owner and business leader John Alle is calling for the disbanding of Downtown Santa Monica Inc (DTSM). DTSM is a "private" non-profit organization that is supposed to work with the City government to manage services and operations in downtown Santa Monica. The 13-member board of...
Dear Esteemed members of the Santa Monica City Council & Honorable City Manager, I am aware that tonight, you will be discussing how the City, which represents taxpaying citizens of Santa Monica, will respond to at least one legal challenge to the recently-passed but highly flawed Measure GS. I kindly ask you to read my entire email, as long as it is, because it is based on fact, apolitical, and intended to help both your reputations and our beloved city. Note that while I am...
Dear City Council, Happy New Year and a hearty welcome to the new council members. After the acrimonious election I hope we can all come together and address the challenges our city faces by taking a cold, hard look at what is working and what isn't. It is time for new ideas and a fresh approach, which will take putting aside ideologies that prevent us from seeing reality. In December, a controversial sign was put up on the promenade and, when I saw it, my initial response...
I write tonight, an hour after observing more only-in-Santa Monica depravity. On New Years Night, I was near the end of a downtown walk. While approaching the McDonalds on Colorado, I heard something of a commotion. A packed-together crowd all had their cell phones out, looking in the same direction, up at the southwest corner of the parking garage across from McDonalds. When I looked up, I saw what was attracting all the attention: a bare-chested white man, muscular, with...
16: The 2022 election results are now part of recorded history. It takes 30 days after each election to count all the votes, implement audits, launch recounts where mandated. The required procedures insuring accuracy are all codified and part of election administration. Election administrators at the local and state level finalize results thru an official canvass. 30 days is what it takes before election results are certified and official. That has always been the...
December 21, 2022 - In September, health officials across the United States began administering and encouraging a "bivalent booster" shot for Covid-19 that was supposed to protect against both the older variants of the virus and also against the newer BA.4 and BA.5 variants of Omicron that had become prevalent over the summer. Anyone over age 12 who had not had a booster shot within two months was eligible to receive this new injection. Los Angeles County Health Department...
The Los Angeles Times seems to be suffering from serious cognitive dissonance. In a recent editorial, the Times dismissed the hundreds of California parents who ran for school board this year as having "mostly lost," while at the same time warning readers that the "parents first" movement is a major threat to the state's education establishment. The Times writes: "Considering there are nearly 5,000 school board seats in California, the scattered victories of 'parents first'...
Award winning actress Kirstie Alley was diagnosed with cancer shortly before her untimely death at the young age of 71. Grammy award winning Celine Dion has recently been diagnosed with a neurological disease called Stiff Person Syndrome. The disease attacks about one in a million and is a very debilitating disease. She is 54 years old. Disease, death and bad news can attack anyone at any age and none of us are immune. Good news came to Britney Griner who spent 10 months in a...
As this year ends, we want to update you on our ongoing involvement regarding important issues our city is facing: The Gelson's teardown project (Lincoln and Ocean Park Blvds): In late July, the City issued a lengthy non-compliance letter to the developer detailing necessary project revisions. No revised plans have been filed. The project planner says the City will post any updated plans on its FAQ page link for this project when it receives them at: https:...
December 13, 2022, Los Angeles, CA - Consumers love a good deal, and Amazon is often the first stop for online shoppers. But, behind the scenes at the e-commerce juggernaut is a massive retail apocalypse; an unchecked monopoly and tsunami of destruction on Amazon third-party sellers, bullied retail partners, crushed manufacturers, and deceived consumers. Amazon's free-flowing marketplace enables unvetted third-party global sellers, and Amazon as a direct seller, to flood the...
UPDATE December 12, 2022 - The mountain lion known as P-22 has been safely captured according to the National Park Service and SaveLA Cougars. Beth Pratt, Regional Director of the National Wildlife Federation, thanked NPS and California Department of Fish and Wildlife for bringing P-22 in safely for a health evaluation. As well, Pratt wrote that, "Our hearts go out to the pets and people that in P-22's distress have been impacted. We acknowledge that these interactions are...
December 9, 2022 - Former Santa Monica Mayor Sue Himmelrich ended her reign in a manner emblematic of its disdain for the public, and particularly for anyone who disagrees with her. She allowed a crowd to boo a speaker critical of her tenure and only afterward reminded the crowd - while laughing - that they were not to speak or make any kind of noise during a speaker's public comment. The Special Meeting of the City Council was held in order to swear in new councilmembers -...
We've obtained a copy of the most recent tax return for the Humane Society of the United States. Once again, it tells a story of an organization more focused on its executives' bottom line than on pets. Overall, HSUS spent over $4 million on compensating its top executives, including over $450,000 for CEO Cristobel "Kitty" Block. The lavish spending didn't stop with the C-suite. A whopping 112 staffers at HSUS made over $100,000 in compensation. Meanwhile, the Humane Society...
The City of Santa Monica violated my civil rights by failing to engage with me in an interactive process after I requested a reasonable accommodation to be able to call in and offer my public comment over the Council phone line as opposed to in person on December 6, 2022. They did not offer any alternative for me to participate in the meeting, as is required by the law. When a friend who went to the City Hall signed me up to speak and was ready to let me call her cell phone...
In 1991, when Jamie S. was 13 years old, she was kidnapped, raped and sodomized by Danny Brown while walking to her junior high school. In 1991, Jamie S. and her family could rely on the governmental agencies responsible for investigating and prosecuting Brown. In 2022, that radically changed when Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon abandoned Jamie S. Although prosecutors in every other county attend parole hearings with victims, Gascon's policy is that...
Animal rights activists placed wildlife at risk after releasing 10,000 carnivorous mink from a farm in Hoaglin, Ohio–as well as condemning the mink themselves to their demise. The criminals, who are allegedly affiliated with the FBI-designated domestic terrorist group Animal Liberation Front, cut fencing, released animals, and vandalized barns at Lion Farms, located roughly 15 miles from the Ohio-Indiana border. As many as 40,000 mink were released during the assault, but t...
It seems to me that the neighborhood groups would like to eat the cake (as in receive public funding from the City) and eat it too (as in engage in legislative advocacy), without so much as a disclaimer that public funding is not paying for the group's political activity. I am not OK with that. As a resident of Downtown Santa Monica, where there is no neighborhood group, I do not wish for the City to disburse my tax dollars to the neighborhood groups in other parts of town,...
"Internal terrorist" is an old LAPD management term used for those who don't "get with the program." Much has changed within LAPD, but not for some of its alums. One in particular, George Gascón-former LAPD brass-used the antiquated term during his campaign for district attorney. When asked how he would work within civil service rules to implement his agenda, he was not concerned. "I know certainly how to deal" with "internal terrorists." He wasn't lying. Since Gascón took o...
Analysis What Lula's victory in Brazil means for Latin America Lula's victory in Brazil could mean many things: A mockery of justice, a story of redemption, hope for the people, a democratic setback, an opportunity for unity, or further division and class hatred. Any of the above may be possible. Despite this, I would like to focus on what the presidential change in Brazil means for Latin America....
WASHINGTON, DC, Nov 11 -- The Association of Mature American Citizens [AMAC] partnered with the American Constitutional Rights Union [ACRU] in a collaboration aimed at protecting the rights of senior citizens, particularly their voting rights. The ACRU's Executive Director, a retired U.S. Army veteran and former congressman, Lt. Col. Allen West, joined AMAC CEO, Rebecca Weber, in a recent interview on her Better For America podcast. The ACRU was established some 25 years ago,...
