To the Editor

Senior executives at Trammel Crow Company have vowed that they will board up the buildings and leave the apartments at 301 Ocean Avenue vacant after the last tenants are evicted on March 17, and if they do not get their way and have the landmark designation reversed by the City Council. It already looks very much like an abandoned property with weeds nearing two feet in height along the parkway and in the once beautiful interior garden courtyard.

It is the elderly tenants who have made their homes at the city landmark for decades that are the last to leave because this has been their permanent home and not just an apartment and leaving is a heartbreaking experience. This week Betty Yamamoto who has lived there for 27 years bade a tearful good-bye to her long-time friend and neighbor Lois Storey who left to live near her children in Kentucky. Ironically, Ms. Storey moved in the same year as Betty and lived in the apartment first occupied by Clo Hoover, Santa Monica’s first woman mayor, and is now moving to the state Clo Hoover left. Storey’s eviction was especially painful because she is still grieving the loss last year of her husband of 50 years with whom she had made her home here.

Trammel Crow’s employees alleged that they had the best interest of the city in mind throughout the protracted process that ended with the Santa Monica Landmarks Commission designating the property as a city landmark because of its identification with Clo Hoover who is unquestionably an important historic personage in Santa Monica. One wonders exactly how an abandoned building at what is arguably the most scenic intersection in the city could possibly be in the best interest of the city. Already gang graffiti is appearing on one of the buildings and a homeless man has been sleeping in a carport. Abandoned buildings are alluring to vagrants, addicts, and unsupervised youngsters looking for a place to party. They are not alluring to neighbors that have invested in expensive homes nearby.

Santa Monica’s Landmarks Commission is a superbly credentialed and conscientious body that studied the property and its historic owner for nearly a year before conferring the landmark designation. Now Trammel Crow Company has appealed the designation to the City Council and seems to be using the threat of a vacant building in the center of a beautiful neighborhood to sway council votes in their favor. There is a lot of buzz in the community that the company has already lined up enough votes to secure their reversal when the council brings the matter to the table in April.

We certainly hope that is not the case as it would destroy any semblance of transparency in the city’s processes since the council members are bound to maintain a neutral position until the matter comes before them in chambers.
=
Titus Wapato
301 Ocean Avenue
Santa Monica-
å