Residents Call for Building Moratorium
Santa Monica Coalition for a Livable City representatives and leaders of Friends of Sunset Park, North of Montana, Ocean Park Association, Pico Neighborhood and WilMont met with City manager Lamont Ewell, City Planning Director Eileen Fogarty, and City Attorney Marcia Moutrie to discuss a building moratorium under California Government Code Section 65858, The moratorium would be in effect until the completion of the City’s General Plan revision. On the current schedule, it... Read More
Voice on the Village on the Web
At the Tuesday night, June 19, City Council meeting, City staff will ask the Council to approve the conceptual plan for ”The Village,” a 324-unit housing complex to be built on public land in the heart of downtown Santa Monica. If the Council approves the plan, work on a development agreement between the City and the developers will go forward. As proposed, The Village is larger, taller, denser and more ambitious than anything the City has undertaken to date. Its impacts... Read More
Less Is More. And Vital
It was architect Mies van der Rohe who famously said “Less is more” and “God is in the details” decades ago, and every time we read another staff report on the revision of the land use and circulation elements of the General Plan, we wish he were here. Over the last several months, the City planners have held a number of community workshops on the revision of the land use and circulation elements of the General Plan. The good news is that Planning and Community Development... Read More
Three Crucial Meetings Coming Up
Decisions will be made at three meetings here next week that could change Santa Monica in fundamental ways – for better or worse. On Tuesday, June 19, at a special meeting of the City Council, the Council will consider the “Neighborhood Conservation and Placemaking Principles,” which the City Planning staff has called “a major component of the Land Use and Circulation Elements (LUCE).” [see “Less Is More…and Vital” coming soon to this blog}/ Read More SHARETHIS.addEntry({... Read More
Poundstone to Appear at Library
One of America’s most talented, original and acclaimed comedians, Paula Poundstone would surely be Santa Monica’s most amusing resident — if it weren’t for certain officials. You can see for yourself when she appears at the Santa Monica Public Library’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Auditorium on Thursday, June 28. Poundstone will read from and talk about her new memoir, “There’s Nothing In This Book I Meant To Say,” which contrasts her tabloid travails... Read More
Council Aims to Gag Gag Orders
Tuesday night, climaxing a marathon meeting, the City Council approved a $437 million budget for the next fiscal year, but it was the disposition of a $530,000 allocation that dominated the evening. It began late last fall, when the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District’s Chief Financial Officer Winston Braham refused to certify a District pay raise that he contended was not financially viable and resigned. Council member Bobby Shriver believed the Council should talk... Read More
Bedlam-by-the-Bay
At the outset, then-Director of Planning and Community Development Suzanne Frick said that the state-mandated revision of the General Plan was our Constitution, as it would determine our destiny for the next 20 years. It sounded more like a threat than a promise. Frick’s successor, Eileen Fogarty has been demonstrably more interested in listening to and incorporating residents’ views in the revisions than Frick was, but she recently said that there would have to be “trade-offs”... Read More
Getting It Wrong
As nearly everyone knows by now, late last November, the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District’s Chief Financial Officer Winston Braham refused to certify a proposed District pay raise, resigned, and agreed to accept a $189.000 contract settlement with the proviso that he go mum. Santa Monica City Councilman Bobby Shriver saw the District’s muzzling of Braham as a serious breach of both trust and common sense, and asked that Braham appear before the Council to discuss... Read More
Palm Trees, Angels…and Devils
I’ve always been crazy about palm trees. I love looking at them, thinking about them when I’m not looking at them, and roaming around L.A. looking for them. Five years ago, I wrote “…most species of palm aren’t native to Southern California, but they have been here much longer than most of us have. They are perfect because they are unlike any other tree, or anything else for that matter, and…they are both gallant and goofy, and they are the only trees that don’t... Read More
Two Coasts, Two Takes
Santa Monica made the Sunday papers on both coasts. The Los Angeles Times’ WEST Magazine devoted a page to the delights of shopping on Montana, with detours to Bay Cities Deli and Palisades Park. The story on the front page of the New York Times Sunday Style section, headlined “Surf’s Up, But the Water is Brown,” was not nearly as cheerful.. Written by Mireya Navarro, the story focused on the sorry state of L.A. county beaches in general, but paid particular attention... Read More
