Whither the Weather 8/24 – 8/30

Tweet By Ava Tramer Beaches Partly cloudy and warm Highs: 72-70; Lows: 64-68 Inland Clear and hot Highs: 94-101; Lows: 66-69 Deserts Sunny and hot Highs: 101-110; Lows: 83-88 And Santa Monica… Friday will bring warmth, but with clouds overhead. Saturday will be bright, so sunscreen you should spread. Sunday, too, will be sunny and warm, On Monday, I promise, there will be no storms. Tuesday will be warmer with sun in the sky. Wednesday will be so hot you feel like a cry. Thursday... Read More

City Planners Hit Wall

Tweet According to a story in the Santa Monica Daily Press, City officials continue to grapple with their own acute housing problems. Having outgrown City Hall some time ago, City staff has been deployed all over town – in 46.000 square feet of office space at a cost of over $1 million annually. It’s inconvenient and make-do, and it’s the result of incredibly bad planning by City staff. Several years ago, the City bought 11-plus acres and two office buildings from RAND... Read More

And Now — Tree Quotas!

Tweet Policy 1.5 of the City’s adopted Community Forest Management Plan “stipulates that the Community Forest be comprised of a diversity of tree species and varied ages within each species. It is the City’s goal over time to achieve a Community Forest where no one species of tree dominates the forest and each species constitutes no more than 10% of the total forest.” Everything is the matter with this policy. For starts, it bears an unfortunate resemblance to those... Read More

To the City Council

Tweet From: Stephanie Barbanell I was an original member of the Civic Center Specific Plan Advisory Committee, from 1990 to 1993, representing the resident homeowners of Sea view Terrace. The update of the General Plan, land use element and zoning code happens only every 20 years. We are currently going through that process. I request that the Civic Center Village project be continued until such time as the revised land use element in the General Plan has been adopted. I further... Read More

Residents Lose Two Rounds

Tweet City Hall’s rationalizations trumped reason at the Tuesday, August 14, City Council meeting. The City’s $8.2 million “Second and Fourth Streets Improvement Project” was on the Consent Calendar, which includes items that can be approved without discussion. But a dozen members of the public were there to protest that portion of the project that is devoted to the trees on the two streets. The project’s $700,000 tree treatment program calls for removing 24 palm... Read More

Whither the Weather 8/17 = 8/23

Tweet By Ava Tramer Beaches Sunny and warm Highs: 72-80; Lows: 63-65 Inland Clear and hot Highs: 94-99; Lows: 62-69 Deserts Hot and sunny Highs: 107-110; Lows: 77-84 And Santa Monica… Across the girth of our big planet earth, You will find all sorts of weather. In far away lands fierce winds do pierce, Blowing birds to and fro losing feathers. There is a wonder, I think it’s called thunder, That booms through the sky with a ring. I read a rumor of hail falling fast in a gale, Bouncing... Read More

On the Road to Nowhere City

Tweet A town as small as Santa Monica (eight square miles) and as densely populated (10,000 people per square mile) can only sustain a few body blows before it begins to, literally, disintegrate, City Hall has made some bad calls in the last several years, but now it seems bent on making a mistake that would dwarf all the others – literally as well as figuratively. Though it has acted to delay some large projects until the General Plan revision is finished, it’s rushing its... Read More

Whither the Weather 8/10 – 8/16

Tweet By Ava Tramer Beaches Clear and growing gradually warmer Highs: 75-78; Lows: 64-68 Inland Sunny and hot Highs: 94-102; Lows: 63-71 Deserts Sunny and scorching Highs: 107-115; Lows: 81-89 And Santa Monica… Little Miss Sunfet Sat above a townfet Shining her beams down all day. Along came a clouder Who tried to shine over But Miss Sunfet scared it away! SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Whither the Weather 8/10 – 8/16", url: "http://www.santamonicadispatch.com/2007/08/whither-the-weather-810-816/"... Read More

Deep in Boondoggleland

Tweet There are several sorts of boondoggles. Our favorites are the plaited leather cords that’re usually made by campers or scouts and the government projects that are of no real value to the communities in which they’re located. There’s a boondoggle on the Tuesday Night City Council meeting agenda, and unfortunately it’s not a leather cord, but a $8.2 million government project of no real value. The City calls it ’“The 2nd and 4th Streets Pedestrian and Streetscape... Read More

Armed and Dangerous:Left Brain City Hall in Right Brain Town

Tweet T.S. Eliot declared that “April is the cruelest month,” but August is the cruelest month in Santa Monica, because it’s the traditional start of the annual battle between City Hall and residents for this venerable beach town’s soul. Early every August, City Hall goes silent and residents go quietly nuts. Experience has taught them that the City staff will emerge from its self-imposed silence in mid-month armed with bundles of invariably preposterous plans and projects,... Read More