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December 2007 Archives

December 4, 2007

KATZ RULES!

Tonight’s City Council meeting will be notable for its brevity, but will be chiefly notable for the anointment of a new mayor.

City Council members are elected. Mayors are chosen by the Council. Following the 2006 election, the Council divided the two-year term between Richard Bloom and Herb Katz, with Bloom as mayor and Katz as mayor pro tem for the first year, and Katz as mayor and Bloom as mayor pto tem for the second year. tonight, Katz moves into the top chair.

An architect, Katz served two terms on the Council in the late 80s and early 90s (1984 – 1992) and was mayor pro tem in 1988. He chose not to run for a third term.

He re-entered the arena in 2000 and was re-elected in 2004. This time around, he has had two runs as mayor pro tem. But tonight, for the first time, he will take over the gavel, though he probably won’t use it.

Continue reading "KATZ RULES!" »

December 5, 2007

Sacco and Vanzetti in Santa Monica

“Sacco and Vanzetti,” a new film about an old case will be shown as part of the series, “Films for Change,”on Friday, December 7.

Sacco and Vanzetti. It remains one of the most notorious trials in American history, Were they murderous anarchists, or the victims of anti-immigrant bias? This 2006 documentary offers a fresh look at the 1920s case in which Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two Italian radicals, were tried, convicted of murder, sentenced to the electric chair, and put to death in 1927.

The case became a symbol of the bigotry that immigrants and dissenters suffer in America.

The film features prison writings (read by John Turturro and Tony Shaloub) and interviews with historian Howard Zinn, the singer-songwriter sin of the legendary Woody Guthrie, Arlo Guthrie, and Chicago newsman Studs Terkel. Also appearing in the film are Henry Fonda, and Giuliano Montaldo.

The film will be shown at the home of Rachel Sene and Jay Johnson, 601- 9th Street, Santa Monica. RSVP to RachelJay@earthlink.net or call 310-451-2752 (first 20)

$5 donations will be accepted for Change-Links Progressive Newspaper and Calendar http://www.change-links.org"> http://www.change-links.org

A 30-minute discussion will follow the screening, with continued talk at Izzy's Deli, 15th and Wilshire, Santa Monica.


Schools Open Their Doors

Public Schools Week starts today, with every school in Santa Monica and Malibu opening its doors to members if the community.

The Santa Monica-Malibu Council of PTAs, in collaboration with a partnership of parents, teachers, staff, administrators and students, has organized the week in order to give people a close-up look at public education here and now.

All the schools in the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District will be open during Public School Week, December 3-7.

During the week, visitors may have coffee with principals and teachers, hear their views, look around, have a short tour of the school, see what’s happening now, and hear about what’s planned in the future.

Continue reading "Schools Open Their Doors" »

Pugh+Scarpa Awarded St. Louis Project

Pugh+Scarpa, a Santa Monica-based architectural firm, has been chosen to design the Laumeier Sculpture Park Fine Arts and Education Center in St. Louis.

"Pugh & Scarpa represent an innovative, thoughtful approach to architecture," said Laumeier Director Glen Gentele. "The first-class team that Pugh & Scarpa have assembled will help us create a visionary sustainable structure that bridges art, architecture and landscape."

Architect Lawrence Scarpa said he was elated to have been selected for this project.

"We're thrilled," said Scarpa. "It's a perfect project for us ... the idea that we get to juxtapose a new building with an existing building is quite exciting," he said in reference to the early 20th century estate house that currently houses the museum galleries, the gift shop and administrative offices.

Continue reading "Pugh+Scarpa Awarded St. Louis Project" »

December 6, 2007

Academic Rigor and Challenge in SMMUSD


Our High School Advanced Placement Program
by José J. Escarce

One of our key goals in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) is to provide high school students with a rigorous and challenging academic experience that will prepare them for success in college. At Santa Monica and Malibu High Schools, we have achieved this goal by developing exceptional Advanced Placement (AP) programs that rank among the best in the nation.

AP courses are college-level courses whose content and curriculum are determined by the College Board; they are widely recognized as the best, most challenging, and most rigorous courses high school students can take. Students who complete AP courses take national AP exams, also developed by the College Board, at the end of the school year. Passing scores on these exams may allow students to place out of introductory courses in college and may even earn them college credit.

In recent years, taking several AP courses during a student’s high school career has become a necessity for admission to highly selective colleges and universities. More important, studies have demonstrated that taking AP courses helps all high school students, including those who are not aiming for highly selective post-secondary schools. These studies have found that students who take AP courses and pass the corresponding AP exams get better grades in college and are more likely to graduate than otherwise similar students who do not participate in AP. Clearly, high schools that wish to serve their students well must ensure that they offer numerous AP courses and that they provide all motivated students with access to these courses.

Continue reading "Academic Rigor and Challenge in SMMUSD" »

Whither the Weather 12/7 -12/13


By Ava Tramer

Beaches
Mostly sunny
Highs: 56-64; Lows: 44-47

Inland
Cooler and sunny
Highs: 57-64; Lows: 35-43

Deserts
Clear and with possible weekend showers
Highs: 59-67; Lows: 41-47

And Santa Monica…
It is cold and wet and rainy. Temperatures are in the 40s and 50s, and it’s soaking wet out there. The sky is dark, the ground is slippery, and the air is chilly. Little furry animals have hidden themselves away, birdies no longer chirp, and the sun has forgotten how to shine. Flowers are flooded, trees are sagging, and the grass is muddy. Children are crying. The future is looking bleak… Oh, wait, what’s that you say? Oh, the rain will be gone by Friday evening? And then it will be sunny? And temperatures will soon be back in the 60s?

Oohhhh. How embarrassing. Oh dear. Well, I guess you should forget all of that bleak birdie and chilly flooding stuff.

December 9, 2007

City Process Runs Amuck

When then-Councilman Denny Zane first clapped eyes on Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, he said, “It didn’t look that big on paper.”

He was probably essaying a little humor, but the unfortunate truth is that project after project has begun small and/or useful and/or fitting and/or functional and/or aesthetically appealing. But, inevitably, as it goes through the infamous process, it almost always becomes less than it started out to be, but bigger and more costly than it was meant to be.

Some of the best architects in the world, including two Ritzier Prize winners -- Frank Gehry and Thom Mayne, live and work in Santa Monica and Venice. Like all works that aspire to art, building design does not benefit from group think, but, as must be clear by now, City Hall doesn’t want art, it wants control. And so, ironically, this renowned architectural capital is also an architect’s nightmare.

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Time after time, architects of all stripes have walked into City Hall with high hopes and designs that meet all the City criteria, but, months, or years, later, having been put through City Hall’s slice-dice machine, their original designs are barely recognizable Apparently, numberless City planners and the City Council are under the misapprehension that the submitted design is merely a rough sketch and it’s their job to finish and improve it.

Thus, periodically, we are treated to the bizarre spectacle of Council members playing architect (of course, Mayor Herb Katz is an actual architect). It is as painful as it is ludicrous to watch.

Continue reading "City Process Runs Amuck" »

December 14, 2007

Whither the Weather 12/14 - 12/20

By Ava Tramer

Beaches
Cooler and partly cloudy
Highs: 59-65; Lows: 44-50

Inland
Partly cloudy with chilly nights
Highs: 61-68; Lows: 36-41

Deserts
Mostly sunny
Highs: 65-68; Lows: 42-49

And Santa Monica…
This weekend will be nice and bright,
Cooler temperatures will rule the night.
But starting Sunday, the sun will go,
And clouds will dart to and fro.
Come Wednesday next, we might get rain,
And certainly that would be a pain.
But with the blizzards in the East,
We’ll still be warm, at the very least!

December 15, 2007

Red Cross, Firefighters Hold Toy Drive

The American Red Cross of Santa Monica, KABC Channel 7 and Southland Firefighters are holding this year's "Spark of Love Toy Drive” through Thursday, December 20th.

As in previous years, new unwrapped toys, games and sports equipment can be dropped off at the Santa Monica Red Cross, any Santa Monica Fire Department station, CVS Pharmacy and other participating locations.

Red Cross volunteers will collect the gifts and distribute them to children in Santa Monica and other communities.

Last year’s drive collected over 600,000 toys in the five-county area. This year’s volunteers aim to double that number.

The drive is in its fourteenth year,

The Santa Monica Red Cross chapter is located at 1450 11th Street (at Broadway) in Santa Monica. Santa Monica Fire stations are Station 121: 1444 7th Street between Santa Monica Boulevard and Broadway, Station 122: 222 Hollister Avenue at 2nd Street, Station 123: 1302 19 Street at Arizona Avenue and Station 125: 2450 Ashland Avenue, south of Ocean Park Boulevard at the Airport.



Council Has Busy Night

Tuesday night’s City Council meeting was longtime Councilman Herb Katz’s inaugural turn as Mayor. Though his predecessor, Richard Bloom, kept intervening as if he thought he were still the mayor, Katz managed to lead his colleagues through a crowded agenda.

They spent a lot of money, authorizing the City Manager to negotiate and execute a third modification with Black & Veatch for the design of the City Hall seismic retrofit project, and approving an additional amendment for $377,626 for design services related to development of an elevator and electrical room.

After discussing the “timing for developing a new traffic impact methodology,” the Council also approved an amendment to an existing contract with Nelson/Nygaard Consulting in the amount of $250,000 to provide transportation planning services, a contract with Moore Iacofano Goltsman, Inc. in the amount of $375,000 for workshop preparation and facilitation and an agreement in the amount of $145,000 for an economic feasibility and market study for the Land Use and Circulation Element Concept Plans.

It also did some running in place.

Continue reading "Council Has Busy Night" »

Citywide Reads Strikes Out Again

When it was announced several years ago that Santa Monica, like a number of other cities, was going to hold an annual Citywide Reads program, I immediately imagined a month every spring, in which all the people one saw – on the beach, on buses, in cafes, on park benches, – reading the same book and talking about it. I also imagined the books that should be read.

Topping my very long list were “The Great Gatsby,” which should be read and reread regularly by everyone, because it is a masterpiece, “Farewell, My Lovely” by Raymond Chandler, because his novels are must reading for anyone who aspires to understand Los Angeles, and Carolyn See’s brilliant, utterly original and stunning novel, “Golden Days.” Three extraordinary writers. Three authentic works of literature . Perfect choices for a town full of readers and writers – ranging from teenagers to ancients.
But as it turned out, not for the first time, the City and I saw things very diffferently.

Continue reading "Citywide Reads Strikes Out Again " »

Where Are You Going, Santa Monica?

For nearly all of its 133 years, Santa Monica has gone its own iconoclastic way.

It was at the epicenter of both the birth of surfing on this continent and the American aviation industry. It is home to such traditional organizations as the Kiwanis Club and the Rotary Club, as well as the absolutely un- traditional Z Boys’ Dogtown.

Its first residents were Japanese fishermen who lived in lean-tos on the beach. In the 1920s and 1930s, the beach became “The Gold Coast,” and four of Hollywood’s five studio heads had houses there, as did Irving Thalberg, J. Paul Getty and William Randolph Hearst, and a gaggle of film stars.

Large numbers of writers, painters, sculptors, actors, directors, photographers, architects and musicians have always been drawn to this outer edge of the continent that is made more of light and air, ocean and sky than of soil, brick and cement. Like the artists, beach town residents are bright, naturally contrary, independent, and idiosyncratic.

All of that, and much much more is in the bones of this beach town, and expressed in its unique character and rogoe spirit, as well as in its buildings and houses and its residents. But, in recent years, City Hall has seemed bent on making all that, and us, merely orderly and pliant. And conventional.

Many of the new buildings – the City’s own and commercial buildings like those graceless fortresses that line Fifth and Sixth Streets – are vagrants, affronts. They are here, but they don’t belong here, and their enlarging presence is diluting the sense of place.

City Hall boasts of its leadership in “:sustainability” and “green” towns, but it is currently engaged in an extended tug of war with residents over some 50 ficus trees that the City wants to remove from two downtown streets.

City Hall tells us to get out of our cars and onto our bikes, but a parade of bike riders appeared at a recent City Council meeting to describe all the ways in which they were being harassed by police.

Continue reading "Where Are You Going, Santa Monica?" »

December 19, 2007

Cuban Film To Be Shown

As part of the Cuban film series, the Los Angeles Coalition in Solidarity with Cuba will screen “Viva Cuba,” directed by Juan Carlos Cremata Malberti, on Friday, December 21.

The film focuses on the friendship between a young upper class girl and a young boy from a poor, proud socialist family, and their efforts to prevent the girl’s mother from leaving Cuba. 80 minutes Spanish with English subtitles

The film will be shown at the home of Rachel Sene and Jay Johnson 601 9th Street, Santa Monica, at 7 p.m.

$5 donation for The Cuban Five defense freethefive.org

RSVP: RachelJay@earthlink.net or call 310-451-2752 (first 20)

The discussion will continue at Izzy's Deli, 15th and Wilshire, Santa Monica. Free parking in rear.


Pillars Rise at 415

The first visible signs of the resurrection of the long dormant beach club at 415 Pacific Coast Highway were scheduled to rise Monday morning, signaling a new chapter in its long, tangled history.

Sixteen monumental white pillars that are meant to evoke the iconic white columns of the original Marion Davies estate were to l be installed over a two- day period, Each of the 29-foot tall pillars was pre-cast off-site from a special brilliant white concrete mixture.

The estate was built in the late 1920s by publishing titan William Randolph Hearst for his mistress, actress Marion Davies. Its centerpiece was the 100-room mansion designed by noted architect Julia Morgan. Davies was renowned as Hollywood’s first “screwball” comedienne, and her estate was the largest and most opulent on the Southern California beach, and was, in effect, Hollywood’s own beach club..

Continue reading "Pillars Rise at 415" »

Ling Keeps Seat on CRA

Despite efforts by two Los Angeles City Council members to block her reappointment to the Community Redevelopment Agency Commission, Joan Ling, executive director of the Community Corporation of Santa Monica, was reappointed today by a 10-4 vote of the Council's housing, community and economic development committee.

Following her reappointment, Ling told the Dispatch, “I want to be a commissioner who is fiscally responsible for city resources and socially responsible for all city residents, particularly those in low-income communities.”

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who appointed Ling to the Commission in 2005, supported her reappointment.

According to stories in both the Daily News and the Los Angeles Times this morning, Los Angeles City Council members Bernard Parks and Jan Perry were lobbying against Ling’s reappointment.

Continue reading "Ling Keeps Seat on CRA " »

December 21, 2007

Whither the Weather 12/21-12/27


By Ava Tramer

Beaches
Mostly sunny
Highs: 59-67; Lows: 40-48

Inland
Clear and sunny
Highs: 58-67; Lows: 32-38

Deserts
Warm and clear
Highs: 60-70; Lows: 39-46

And Santa Monica…
Well folks, I know you had your hopes up that maybe, just maybe, we’d have a white Christmas this year. I hate to be the one to break it to you, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. And we won’t even have white clouds in the sky: Christmas will be clear and sunny, with a high in the low 60s. I think Christmas must be the only day of the year when us Santa Monicans are actually jealous of the rest of the snowed-in country, and the rest of the snowed-in country is not jealous of our perpetual sun. But just because it’s green and sunny outside doesn’t mean that it can’t be cozy inside. Don’t let the sun get you down this Christmas. You can still light up your fireplace, wear fuzzy slippers, and sip a cup of steaming cocoa, all the while forgetting about the beautiful weather outside.

December 22, 2007

Candlelight Vigil Christmas Eve At Arlington West

Veterans for Peace. LA chapter, will hold a candlelight vigil at Arlington West Memorial at nightfall on Christmas Eve, December 24.

Located on the beach just north of the Santa Monica Pier, Arlington West is an ever-enlarging field of crosses that honors the American soldiers who’ve been killed in the Iraqi war. Veterans for Peace volunteers have set it up every Sunday and on certain holidays since February, 2004.

This weekend, it will be set up Sunday, December 23, and remain in place through the afternoon of Christmas Day.

In addition to the field of white crosses, punctuated by a “thread” of red crosses, that honors the 3893 soldiers who have been killed to date, the display features a tribute wall to the American wounded, a marker honoring the Iraqi dead, and flag-draped coffins and blue crosses in memory of the most recent casualties.

December 25, 2007

Kennerly on Today Show Wednesday

Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer David Hume Kennerly will appear on the Today Show Wednesday, December 26, the first anniversary of President Gerald Ford's death.

The Santa Monica resident is scheduled to appear in the 8:30 a.m. segment during a celebration of the 38th President's life.

Kennerly's new book, "Extraordinary Circumstances: The Presidency of Gerald R. Ford," has just been published by the Center for American History, The University of Texas, Austin.


December 26, 2007

More Trees, Less Bush


“More Trees, Less Bush” will be the theme of a New Year’s Eve peace and environmental celebration e on Monday, December 31, at 7 p.m. at The Church in Ocean Park.
The celebration will feature the “Pre-Primary Comedy Review,” with comedians Rick Overton, Denise Munro Robb, David Zasloff and Larry Hankin.The all-activist band The Peace Tree with Steve Fine, Dennis Davis and other longtime peace and environmental activist musicians will play. Singer and KPFK-FM radio host Maria Armoudian and “singer/songfighter” Ross Altman will also perform . Jerry Rubin will be master of ceremonies.

Continue reading "More Trees, Less Bush " »

Treesavers Dub 2008 "Year if the Trees"

Treesavers will proclaim 2008 the “The Year of the Trees” at a mobilization meeting and vigil on Thursday, January 3, 2008.

The vigil will begin at 5 p.m. in front of the Natural Resources Defense Council at 1314 Second Street around one of the threatened Ficus trees.

The mobilization meeting is scheduled to take place from 6 to 8 p.m. at the NRDC Center.

Continue reading "Treesavers Dub 2008 "Year if the Trees"" »

December 28, 2007

Whither the Weather 12/28 - 1/4

By Ava Tramer


Beaches
Mostly sunny and gradually warming
Highs: 58-67; Lows: 45-51

Inland
Partly cloudy
Highs: 60-70; Lows: 37-43

Deserts
Sunny
Highs: 60-71; Lows: 40-50

And Santa Monica…
As the new year dawns so hopeful and bright,
Be warned that New Year’s Eve will be chilly at night.
Under your sparkles and suits and nice hair,
Remember to wear good ol’ long underwear.
As the clock strikes midnight, and people do cheer,
We’ll all hope for sunshine in the upcoming year.
Chances look good that our hopes will come true,
For we live in Santa Monica, with skies always blue.

December 31, 2007

2007: The Year City Hall Vetoed the People

By any measure, Santa Monica City Hall’s most significant accomplishment In 2007 was vetoing the residents.

It has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars staging “community workshops” that are run by visiting “facilitators,” who know little about Santa Monica but a great deal about rigging the workshops and manipulating participants to get the responses the City wants.

The responses are further diluted or adjusted when they are run through the City filter, interpreted, summarized and inserted into staff reports.

At the last City Council meeting of the year, another $350,000 was allocated for another round of workshops.

The City also spends enormous sums of money on consultants, an unusual number of whom seem to be from San Francisco, and, more often than not, accepts their assessments as gospel.

Residents’ opinions. ideas, complaints and critiques – spontaneous, unrigged, unmanipulated, unfiltered, uninterpreted, unabridged and occasionally downright brilliant – are presented to the City Council free of charge at every Council meeting. but they are almost always ignored by the powers-that-are.

Continue reading "2007: The Year City Hall Vetoed the People" »

About December 2007

This page contains all entries posted to Santa Monica Dispatch in December 2007. They are listed from oldest to newest.

November 2007 is the previous archive.

January 2008 is the next archive.

Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.

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