Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
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Why is homelessness increasing in Los Angeles? According to a count taken in January, homelessness is up 23 percent across L.A. County over 2016, a total of more than 55,000 people. News stories round up the usual suspects: high rents, low-paying jobs, drugs, alcohol, mental illness, domestic violence, and the release of prison or jail inmates without rehabilitation programs. But one reason for the exponential increase in homeless encampments is rarely mentioned: In 2007, the...
Is the city of Santa Monica too incompetent for basic road design? Just outside my own apartment on the busy intersection of 7th and San Vicente, contradictory signs newly installed by the City of Santa Monica are endangering motorists every second of every day. On the road a simple painting declares that the right hand lane can go straight or left, and the left lane turns left. Across the street a sign repeats the message. Look at the new, bright red sign on the corner...
Editor's Note: So many people attended the pier Concert last Thursday 6/22/17, that the Santa Monica Police Department tweeted for people to "avoid the area around the Santa Monica Pier." On social media, some are wondering if we should continue with the pier concert series. After all, the 4th of July fireworks display used to take place near the pier, and that was cancelled after too many people produced too much violence. Santa Monica Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks has...
In April, Food & Water Watch held a meeting at the Marina del Rey Lloyd Taber Library for concerned residents to learn about the urgency of the need to shut down Playa del Rey gas storage facility. According to La Curbed, in 2016, just months after SoCal Gas Company plugged up the methane leak at its Aliso Canyon storage facility in Porter Ranch, a concern about potential leaks was brewing at the Playa del Rey gas storage field. The Aliso Canyon had the worst methane leak in U...
I am referring of course to Emmanuel Macron, one of the contenders for the top job at the French presidential elections. This election has turned out to be one of the most unpredictable and dynamic in the history of French politics .The entire world is watching and the result will affect the global political sphere. On the one side we have Marine Le Pen, leader of The Front National, a far right Nationalist party. And the other, independent centrist, Emmanuel Macron, who leads...
We have warned before that the Santa Monica City Council has declared all out war on the automobile. Specifically, they intend to remake Lincoln Blvd south of the 10 freeway, so it looks as much as possible like Montana Avenue or Ocean Park Blvd. The Santa Monica City Council has now approved a concept for Lincoln Streetscape Re-DesignLINC including the following change: - Street parking will be eliminated at peak traffic hours on the corridor to make way for municipal buses,...
Jeff Flocken, North American Regional Director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), issued the following statement regarding the passage of S.J. Res.18 in the U.S. Senate: "While America is celebrating the 114th anniversary of the National Wildlife Refuge System, the U.S. Senate has failed to take a stand for keystone species living on these same public lands. IFAW condemns the passage of S.J. Res. 18 and its House-passed counterpart, H.J. Res. 69, which allow...
We fully support Assembly Member Richard Bloom's AB 1506 to repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act. Los Angeles is a city of renters with 64% of the residents being renters. Yet, 64% of those renters are paying unaffordable rents. LA is the most unaffordable city in the nation for renters with tenants paying the highest percentage of their income to rent in the nation. We have the highest poverty rate in the country at 26%, meaning one out of ever four households is...
Statute of Limitations Must Govern State Bar Actions Last week's decision by the California State Bar to file disciplinary charges against former Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanichbased on conduct that occurred 31 years ago, should cause unease to every attorney in the state. This action of the State Bar, which acts as the administrative arm of the California Supreme Court, cannot be squared with that court's long-held beliefs on timely filing of actions in both...
In what may be the most ill conceived traffic plan ever created by civil employees paid more than $250,000 a year, the City of Santa Monica is pushing a plan to narrow Lincoln Blvd into one lane in each direction. "Auto-Centric businesses" such as auto parts and mechanics, would be encouraged to leave town. Commuters would be discouraged from using Lincoln Blvd, since it would flow at about 10 miles an hour between the 10 freeway and Ozone Avenue, 1.5 miles south. Update:...
One of the more depressing tricks employed by people who favor more government control of everything is this: Put government controls on a business, which causes problems, and then use the problems as a justification for more government controls. It's like trying to reverse a case of alcohol poisoning with a jug of moonshine. Nowhere is the "here, drink this," cure more discouraging than in the housing market. Just recently, Assembly member Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica) and...
Question: When is California's drought emergency over? Answer: When Gov. Jerry Brown says it's over. In January 2014, acting after two successive dry years, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. declared a State of Emergency for the entire state of California. He cited the extreme and prolonged drought. Seven executive orders followed from April 2014 to May and California remains to the present day in a state of what amounts to marshal law with respect to its water supply....
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...
