Whose College Is It, and Who’s It For?

Tweet by Carl Gettleman Richard Tahvildaran, who as President of the Academic Senate opposed giving course credit to students for serving as elected officers in the College’s shared governance system, was previously confronted by the HR Department for a similar misuse of student labor to support candidates of his choosing in a local campaign. Tahvildaran, one of the most unctiously self-aggrandizing sycophants in SMC history (a high bar I assure... Read More

New Council Term Begins Under A Cloud

Tweet The five City Council members who won the recent election — four Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights’ (SMRR) members Gleam Davis, Terry O’Day, Pam O’Connor and Kevin McKeown, and independent Bob Holbrook — had a big edge going in. They were all incumbents (Davis and O’Day by appointment), and better known than the other candidates. SMRR’s campaign machine rolled out a major propaganda blitz for... Read More

HANDS OFF: IT’S OUR BEACH TOWN: II

Tweet ioThe big winner in the recent election was the status quo. That’s good news for incumbents, and bad news for the rest of us, because things weren’t going all that well before the election. The City Hall/SMRR/developers axis, and their consultants, once again swamped voters with lies and deceptions. As a result, a majority of voters backed a tax we don’t need, re-elected incumbents who should have been rejected, and rejected... Read More

TRUTH AND LIES

Tweet by Peggy Clifford Santa Monica is one of those legendary places that’s been on the world’s radar for decades. It’s an original, not a copy. It’s been here, on the storied Southern California coast for 135 years, and it’s been an icon for longer than most of us have been alive. It’s very small, intricately made. The ocean is the main thing. It’s in the light, the air, the soil, and the souls of its most... Read More

2010: Everything You’ve Always Wanted to Know About SMRR, But Were Afraid to Ask

Tweet Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights (SMRR) representatives have held all or a majority of the seats on the City   Council, the Santa Monica – Malibu Unified School District board of education, Santa Monica College board of trustees and Rent Control Board for more than two decades. SMRR claims it has “thousands” of members. Less than 300 attended the SMRR convention in August to endorse (see “Who’s Running the City?”) Its... Read More

Who’s Running the City?

Tweet The sad, sour truth is that this great old beach town and its mostly smart, funny, spirited, wildly diverse, progressive residents are ruled by a handful of people. We are not referring to the Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights (SMRR) City Council majority, which has reigned for 22 years, but to  the SMRR “steering committee,” which rules the rulers. In 2008 and again this year, the committee overruled SMRR members to add... Read More