Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
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I read an article in the Observer with the headline stating that 80% of covid deaths in a one-week period in Los Angeles County in March were among the vaccinated. Although this was astonishing enough, what caught my attention even more was that the statement was allowed to even see the light of day. I've been searching everywhere and have seen no counterpoint in any media related to questioning the safety and efficacy of the covid vaccine. I wanted to first verify the...
Amid an affordable housing and homelessness crisis, why would the City want to suspend all meetings of the Housing Commission "until City Council considers its annual appointments in June 2022" (May 10, 2022 agenda item 13C)? And why are the Mayor and Councilmembers insisting that "once the Housing Commission resumes meeting following the appointments, it shall immediately hold elections for Chair and Vice Chair"? Those elections are already compulsory per Council Resolution 1...
March 31, 2022 - The Supreme Court announced Monday it would rule on the constitutionality of Proposition 12, a California ballot measure passed in 2018 that attempts to tell farmers in Iowa, North Carolina and other states how to produce pork. The law effectively bans around 96% of pork from being sold in California. It was supposed to go into effect in January–and create a massive bacon shortage–but was put on hold by a court. What's at stake? Tens of millions of dol...
Dear Councilwoman Himmelrich, I just received your "Standing Firm For Santa Monica" flyer, which I understand is yours alone. I don't have a financial dog in this fight, as the condo I own doesn't approach 8 million dollars. My problem is what you want to do with the money. It all sounds so great! Who wouldn't want better schools and help for the homeless? Our Santa Monica schools are excellent, but if you want to give them more money, I'm fine with that. Although I am...
Los Angeles, CA-Last night, on 60-Minutes, FBI Director Christopher Wray elevated what front-line law enforcement officers have been experiencing; Police officers are being targeted for assault and murder for simply being in the law enforcement profession. "Some of it is tied to the violent crime problem as a whole. But one of the phenomena that we saw in the last year is that an alarming percentage of the 73 law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty last year were...
While I am happy to celebrate the City Clerks Week, and I am supportive and grateful for some of the employees at the City Clerk's office, I have grave concerns about the continued employment of Denise Anderson-Warren as City Clerk. According to Transparent California, Ms. Anderson-Warren's total pay with benefits in 2019 was $307, 686. Ms. Anderson-Warren is commonly known to be serving the interests of the lobbyist group Santa Monica Forward instead of being a politically...
This is not a 'wealth tax' as the signature gatherers proclaim - it is a real estate transfer tax. They are completely different things. With this new transfer tax, if you buy and sell a house for even the same price, you will owe $500,000. And as the threshold is not inflation adjusted, in a very few years it won't be just the wealthy paying this, it will be everyone - even for modest homes. And then the house-flipping industry will stop... This will have a crushing effect...
While running for office, George Gascón attacked Jackie Lacey's record of declining to prosecute police officers who killed people and promised to go a step further and undo what he saw as her mistakes. One of his first acts upon taking office was to convince the Board of Supervisors to give him more than $6 million over four years to hire outside counsel to re-examine closed cases where the District Attorney's Office had previously cleared police officers. Gascón handpicked a...
In my recent article, News not Fit to Print? some responded in a way that is best summed up by this one reader: "I genuinely believe that Dr. Fauci is a dedicated and HONEST public servant. Clearly if the vaccine was not effective, men like Fauci would not let it go unreported. Think about it. There would have to be a massive coverup involving thousands of people across the country to hide or even obfuscate a statistic that the vaccines were as ineffective as your cited...
I am responding to the Opinion piece co-authored by City Manager David White and Police Chief Ramon Batista. They responded to the "recent local and regional news coverage of a report portraying Santa Monica as unsafe". I have lived, played and/or worked in Santa Monica since the 1970's. My son attended and graduated from from school here in Santa Monica. The City Manager's and Police Chief's only factual statement is that the "messages (from the media) are difficult to...
April 12, 2022 - City officials at all levels are struggling to respond to the recent news reports ranking Santa Monica as one of the least safe cities in California. In an open letter, City Manager David White and Police Chief Ramon Batista - both relatively new hires - claimed they have heard residents' fears and dismay and are taking aggressive action to restore the city's safety. Meanwhile, Barry Snell, the Interim Chief Executive Officer of Downtown Santa Monica, Inc.,...
Leadership and competence matter when you are in charge. As George Gascón has been subjecting Los Angeles County residents to his massive social experiment, it has become painfully clear he lacks both those traits (San Francisco mayor, London Breed, tried to warn us about that). It's this failure in leadership and competence, just as much as his short-sighted blanket policies, that has made him unfit to be Los Angeles County District Attorney. From day one, Gascón has been m...
The following is public input offered before the City Council on April 12, 2022: By now you've received time sensitive notice of misconduct by City staff. I am here to amplify that notice. For months, staff in several offices have been making unilateral decisions that enable professional misconduct by a Housing Commissioner and appear to intentionally impede good work. These shenanigans happen to coincide with your new Housing Commission appointments-folks who are deeply...
April 7, 2022 - The LA County Department of Public Health relies on data disseminated to them from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) and direct voluntary reports from hospitals, care providers, and the public in assessing Covid vaccine safety. No active surveillance is performed. This information comes from Dr. Paul Simon, MD, MPH, Chief Science Officer for the LADPH. County health officials do not actively follow up with patients who receive injections nor...
On Jan. 8, 41-year-old Alejandro Garcia was working the drive-through at Taco Bell in South Los Angeles. Mr. Garcia was shot to death by Jonathan Madden after Madden tried to pay with a counterfeit $20 bill. Mr. Garcia is survived by his wife and three children. The tragedy of Mr. Garcia's murder is compounded by the fact that it was entirely preventable. If we had an elected district attorney who enforced the law, Madden would have been in custody. Not only did Madden have a...
March 25, 2022 - The BA2 variant of the Omicron version of Covid-19 now comprises 14.7% of samples sequenced, and that has Dr. Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health worried. In the same press release yesterday in which she admits that by every metric the Centers for Disease Control measures, the county is in a very low spot regarding danger from Covid-19, she warns that new "community prevention strategies" may be triggered by the growing number of cases...
March 18, 2022 - Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health did her best to angle toward continued fear of Covid-19 and the importance of public readiness to get vaccinated and wear masks even as she noted the county had reached a "low risk level" per guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control. Yesterday there were on 36 Covid deaths and 495 people hospitalized. This is compared to deaths counts in the 80s and hospitalizations topping...
On Monday, March 14, 2022, the City of Santa Monica began the process of tearing down Parking Structure 3 in downtown Santa Monica. Santa Monica Bayside Owners Association (SMBOA) lost its court battle to preserve the parking garage located on 4th Street, between Arizona Ave. and Santa Monica Blvd. The demolition is the culmination of the city's battle to destroy small businesses along the Promenade and downtown, which are served by the garage. Mayor Sue Himmelrich and other m...
13: Vladimir Putin's pointless war has already led to thousands of people losing their lives, suffering from life-changing injuries or left traumatised by their experiences, along with the destruction of Ukrainian homes and infrastructure. Throughout Europe refugees wonder about when they will be able to return home and what they will find when they get there. There is more tragedy to come. This is why the search for some sort of cease-fire is growing, though it is still...
Violent criminals hurt individuals and endanger the public. California law allows sentencing enhancements/allegations to be filed when the criminal also inflicts great bodily injury (Penal Code 12022.7), uses a deadly weapon (Penal Code 12022(b)(1)), uses a gun (Penal Code 12022.53), commits the crime for the benefit of a gang (Penal Code 186.22), or when they have prior felony convictions for crimes of violence (Penal Code 667(a)(1) and 1170.12). Allegations show the...
March 2, 2022 - Yesterday, the Los Angeles Police Commission voted to curtail stops made by police officers on a technical pretext that is then used to search the vehicle for criminal activity. Below is the scathing response from the police union's Los Angeles Police Protective League: Los Angeles, CA-Today the Los Angeles Police Commission voted to significantly curtail the use of pre-text traffic stops by LAPD officers. These stops, deemed legal by the U.S. Supreme Court...
February 25, 2022 - At her weekly press briefing on Thursday, Dr. Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health for the County of Los Angeles made the case that wealth, rather than vaccine status, appeared to be a causal factor regarding Covid-19 case rates, hospitalizations, and deaths. In a series of three stunning slides, Ferrer showed that unvaccinated wealthy people were less likely to catch Covid, get hospitalized, or die compared to fully vaccinated poor peop...
February 25, 2022 - Today, Dr. Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health, is graciously allowing Los Angeles County residents to unmask indoors - after showing vaccine verification and provided the business owner takes other precautions. The unvaccinated are not allowed to take off their masks because, as Ferrer said yesterday to the press, the vaccinated "get infected at a lower rate," and thus "it's a safer environment" to unmask when only the vaxxed are...
Mayor Sheds Crocodile Tears While Ruining Santa Monica Permanently for Residents: Letter from Santa Monica Voter Boo-hoo-boo, Mayor Himmelrich. Cry me a river with your comments. If you and this City Council were doing your jobs for the people who voted for you, the citizens of Santa Monica would not be upset with your inadequate performance. You close off Parking Structure 3 so no one can park there, especially on Wednesdays during the Farmer's Market. People can't go to the...
NOMA joins The Friends of Sunset Park (FOSP) in urging residents to attend a ZOOM developer-hosted meeting this Thursday, February 17th at 7pm to discuss a very big project on the Gelson’s site at Lincoln and Ocean Park Blvd. Weighing in at almost 60% larger than Santa Monica Place, this proposal would build 521 apartments, only 10% affordable, in ten buildings up to five stories. In spite of its misleading name, “Lincoln Center,” this isn’t going to be a community center...
