Never mind the kinder, gentler Mitt Romney profiled on the front page of today’s Los Angeles Times, or the hurricane that’s headed
for Tampa, the site of the Republican Convention, or the Dodgers’ star additions to their roster. The most startling feature in today’s Times is on page A31, and it’s an ad, not a story.

Actual obituaries fill the top half of the page. The ad that fills the bottom half of the page is an obituary of a kind, too. In a few words and some strokes of an artist’s pen, Donald T. Sterling, L.A.’s leading philanthropic developer, manages to wipe out the gloriously idiosyncratic beach town that residents cherish and replace it with High-Rise City.

A banner headline shouts “SANTA MONICA DEVELOPED BY DONALD T. STERLING.”

Directly below the headline is a full color illustration. A huge bathing beauty lies on the sand in the foreground looking solemnly at the reader.

In the background is a row of white high-rises lining the beach. Some of the buildings look quite familiar. Others are obviously new.

Underneath the illustration is a no-nonsense caption: “Most Beautiful Apts at The Beach, 150 High-rises & Apt. buildings to choose from. Over 50,000 Satisfied Tenants, $2,000- $10,000 Mo.”

When residents speak at meetings, this is what they rage at — the reduction of this legendary beach town to a developer’s formula, with the enthusiastic help of our crack planning corps, and the support of a majority of the Council.

But the ad may backfire, as it’s the best argument we’ve seen for banning high rises and developers with big ideas and changing the guard at City Hall.