INSIDE
Elderly Santa Monica Couple Over 90 Years Old Perished in Fatal House Fire, Records Show smmirror.com
August 21 – August 27, 2026 Volume CXXIII Issue 214
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Appeals court allows Waymo to resume 24-hour Santa Monica operations pending review A state appellate stay temporarily pauses an injunction against overnight charging facilities. By Carlos Reyes. Autonomous vehicle company Waymo can temporarily resume 24-hour operations at its Waymo Santa Monica charging facilities following an emergency stay granted by a California appellate court. The California Court of Appeals issued an order temporarily halting enforcement of a lower court's preliminary injunction, which had barred overnight activity at the company's 1222 and 1310 Broadway locations. The appellate court's action allows round-the-clock operations to proceed while justices evaluate Waymo's request for a formal stay pending appeal. Court officials emphasized that the temporary stay does not address the legal merits of Santa Monica's lawsuit, nor does it overturn the Los Angeles County Superior Court's July 27 findings. "The Court of Appeal has temporarily paused enforcement of the injunction while it considers Waymo's challenge to the trial court’s decision. The temporary pause was issued without the benefit of the
City’s opposition, and it has not reversed or vacated the trial court's findings," City Attorney Heidi von Tongeln said. "Temporary orders do not end this dispute for our residents. A final decision does, and we will be urging the court to move quickly toward one." In that underlying decision, the trial judge ruled that the city demonstrated a strong probability of winning its public nuisance claim. The lower court determined that neighbor complaints regarding overnight noise, bright lights, and traffic impacts
outweighed the commercial harm Waymo would experience by pausing overnight activities before trial. Under the briefing schedule set by the appellate court, Santa Monica must submit its opposing arguments by Aug. 24, with Waymo permitted to reply by Sept. 2. Justices also requested both sides submit proposals to expedite the overall appeal process. Adjacent property owners have reported persistent sleep disruption from overnight activity at the Waymo Santa
Monica charging facilities for more than a year. Municipal officials sought judicial intervention after months of direct negotiations, formal modification demands, and structured mediation failed to resolve the neighborhood disturbances. City officials reiterated that the litigation focuses exclusively on land-use compatibility and neighborhood impacts rather than restricting autonomous vehicles within municipal borders.
SMPD Investigate Apparent Suicide on 7th Street Seventh Street remained closed between Wilshire Boulevard and Washington Avenue while crews completed their investigation By Carlos Reyes
Santa Monica police and fire personnel are investigating a death in the 1100 block of 7th Street, authorities said. An adult was pronounced dead at the scene following an apparent suicide, according to preliminary information. The death does not appear related to criminal activity, and there is no threat to the public, officials said. The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner will determine the official cause and manner of death. The person’s identity was being withheld pending notification of next of kin. Seventh Street remained closed between Wilshire Boulevard and Washington Avenue while crews completed their investigation. Motorists were advised to avoid the area and use alternate routes.
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August 21 – August 27, 2026
Malibu prepares to launch automated speed cameras along Pacific Coast Highway City officials begin a public awareness campaign ahead of a fall rollout designed to curb fatal crashes on the 21-mile corridor. By Carlos Reyes. Malibu officials have begun a public awareness campaign as construction wraps up on an automated speed safety system designed to curb reckless driving along Pacific Coast Highway. City leaders will spend the coming weeks detailing camera locations, operational timelines, and enforcement procedures along Malibu's 21-mile stretch of the highway. State legislation authorized Malibu to install up to 10 cameras across five locations within city limits. The initiative follows years of community concern over high-speed traffic, which has contributed to more than 60 fatalities on the local corridor since 2010. Emergency actions intensified in October 2023 after
a speeding driver killed four Pepperdine University students along the roadway, prompting local leaders to form a public safety coalition and push for state-level authorization. The GoFundMe to create a memorial for the four students: Niamh Rolston, Peyton Stewart, Asha Weir, and Deslyn Williams was relaunched and has exceeded its goal. Under the new system, advanced lidar and camera sensors will capture rear license plates of vehicles traveling at least 11 mph over the posted speed limit. A 60-day warning period begins in late September, during which speeding motorists will receive warning notices in the mail rather than fines. Financial penalties will take effect in late November. Citations generated through the program are civil infractions that do not assess points against a driver's license or affect insurance rates. Municipal officials confirmed that nonviolation data will be purged immediately, while violation records will be destroyed within 60 days of case resolution. Program revenue will fund system operation and future traffic-calming projects along the highway. You can find more information about the system here.
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August 21 – August 27, 2026
Elderly Santa Monica Couple Over 90 Years Old Perished in Fatal House Fire, Records Show The fire broke out shortly before 3 a.m. Sunday in the 500 block of Lincoln Boulevard By Carlos Reyes An elderly couple, both 92-years-old, who died in an early Sunday house fire in Santa Monica have been identified as Anthony and Helen Spaulding, both 92. The fire broke out shortly before 3 a.m. Sunday in the 500 block of Lincoln Boulevard. Firefighters arrived to find the single-family home heavily involved in flames. Crews conducted a primary search
while attacking the fire and located two people inside. Both were removed and advanced life support was started, but they were pronounced dead at the scene. No firefighters were injured. According to Los Angeles County Medical Examiner records, Helen Spaulding, 92, died from smoke inhalation and thermal burns. The manner of her death was ruled an accident. The cause and manner of Anthony Spaulding’s death, also 92, remained deferred pending further investigation. Both cases are open. Patch reported that the Spauldings had been married nearly 70 years and had five children. Their caregiver, Rick Garcia, described them as a “lovely couple who had a great relationship.” The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Volunteers gather along San Vicente median to preserve historic Brentwood coral trees
Residents, local leaders, and Santa Monica representatives join forces to mulch, weed, and protect the landmark trees. By Dolores Quintana Over 20 Brentwood and Santa Monica residents showed up on Sunday, August 16, near Gretna Green Way to help care for and preserve the coral trees on the San Vicente
median in Brentwood. The Brentwood coral trees became Historic-Cultural Monument No. 148 in 1976 and grow at the former site of the Pacific Electric Red Car Trolley. A growing Coral Tree Crew, the Brentwood Homeowners Association, and the Brentwood Community Council sent out a call for volunteers last week, and people really responded. For three hours, the volunteers “weeded, watered, hauled mulch, and picked up trash” on the median around the trees. Brentwood resident Emily Loughran organized the event with help from her husband, Kenneth, and the Coral Tree Crew. Nancy Freedman and the Coral Tree Fund financed the mulch, which was
delivered by Tracey and David Price of American Growers Company, along with a water truck and crew who joined in the effort. Brentwood Homeowners Association brought the coffee and donuts to keep everyone’s energy up, and City Councilwoman Traci Park’s Area Director for Brentwood and West Los Angeles, Michael Amster, and Amir Ebtehadj, who is Park's office’s new deputy for Brentwood and the Pacific Palisades, also showed up and pitched in to help. Amster had good news for the crew and told the assembled residents that funding had been found to trim the coral trees on the eastern edge of the corridor and that trimming work had successfully taken place the same morning.
There was a representative from the Santa Monica section of the San Vicente corridor, Cai Dixon, there to understand more about what Brentwood is doing to preserve the trees and build cooperation between the city and the neighborhood that are so close to each other. It was important because recently several of the San Vicente coral trees were removed in Santa Monica. Dixon stated, “That cooperation matters because the trees were never intended to be two separate landscapes.” Cai Dixon added, “Saving a living landmark is an ambitious project. It will take residents, businesses, donors, and government working together. On Sunday morning, that village showed up with wheelbarrows.”
August 21 – August 27, 2026
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FILM REVIEW ONE NIGHT ONLY
BEHIND THE SCREEN By Kathryn Whitney Boole The previews for One Night Only may lead you to think you are about to sit through a story that’s been told repeatedly in books and on screen. But a few minutes into the movie, you realize that no matter how unrealistic this rom-com’s story may be, you are starting to connect with the film’s two leads - “Allie,” played by Monica Barbaro, opposite Callum Turner as “Owen.” These two will take you on a trippy journey through New York City on a night framed by an edict from a future government that has swung ultra-conservative. The federal takeover of social mores has imposed strict laws against sex out of wedlock, spawning
a modern society which is a model for rampant sexual repression. It is only on this one night each year, perhaps to quell anti-government sentiments, when single people are permitted by law to have premarital sex with anyone, whether they are your husband, wife, girlfriend, boyfriend, or a complete stranger. Naturally, this one night turns a sex-starved populace out on the streets, harboring a vast store of pent-up feelings and primal urges to unload. Allie and Owen are among the more contemplative of the subjugated, lawabiding citizens. They do not know each other at the outset, but somehow, they keep literally running into each other amidst the horny crowds. Uninterested in hooking up with strangers, they are each subdued and depressed about the evening, in the same way that some singles can find Valentine's Day hard to bear. Allie and Owen get themselves into “Three-Stooges” style predicaments. They are brought together and pulled apart
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Rated R 102 Minutes Released August 7th again and again by hilarious situations and incidents that we can all recognize. About ten minutes into the movie, you realize that you have fallen for these two main characters and they can do no wrong. They are imperfect, not flawless movie stars, and it’s an exercise for you to grow to identify with them. They start a self-conscious friendship on what must be, for some, the most awkward night of the year. These two bring the audience to buy into the plot, a soft tale that keeps twisting and turning all the way to the end. One hilarious sequence sends Owen frantically searching for the one item that he didn’t think he was going to need, and that, because of the nature of this “holiday,” every store he goes into is sold out. A 12-year-old kid named “Troy,” played by superb young stand-up comedian and actor Mateo Ray, appears from time to time with off-the-wall sarcastic comments
that only a kid could make about the “free sex day.” Ray’s timing is impeccable. He is the one who sees things as they really are, as he’s on the outside looking in, agewise. He becomes the comedic soothsayer of the film. The movie was filmed on location in New York City, and cinematographer Yaron Orbach focuses on neighborhoods
in Soho and the Upper West Side, a great visual study of the city- realistic in its gleam and grime, all-colorful. You will also notice some shameless product placement, especially in the earlier minutes. That probably helped in getting the movie funded, and I’m glad of that, as this is a fun movie. It seems part of the tongue-incheek style of the film and serves as part of its comedic charm, while the movie seems to laugh at its own outrageous premise. Director Will Gluck is no stranger to romcoms, having helmed Easy A in 2010, Friends with Benefits (2011), and the sleeper hit Anyone But You that helped propel the careers of Sidney Sweeney and Glen Powell in 2022. He is adept at setting up great chemistry with his actors and letting a simple and touching story run its course. Barbaro is a classically trained ballerina, which is evident in her graceful and artful movements. She grew up in Mill Valley, studied many forms of dance, and then switched her focus to acting. Her first major role was on the TV series UnREAL, a 2016 parody on reality shows. Barbaro’s breakout film role was “Lieutenant Phoenix Trace” in Top Gun: Maverick (2022), where she stole the screen as a costar. Turner was born in London and decided to try acting at 18. He became a featured model for Burberry’s 2011 campaign and then began to seriously study his craft. In 2014, he was cast by legendary director John Boorman in Queen and Country, playing a young version of the director himself. Since then, he has worked steadily in film and TV, including the role of “Major John ‘Bucky’ Egan” in the award-winning limited TV series Masters of the Air in 2024. Yes, this kind of setup has graced movie screens before. But somehow in this film it’s played with such nonchalance that you almost buy into the idea. It will creep up on you and pull you into its world by surprise. Allie and Owen’s bemused,
steadfast humor is at the heart of the story. It’s based on reality, but not real – the undercurrent of the story is a political parody of a conservative government that places extreme moral restrictions on personal behavior through an oppressive “Department of Damage Control.” In this alternative universe, an actual night of permissiveness would likely result in a very chaotic and violent night, quite the opposite result from what would be desired. The real heart of his movie is people finding each other and how the best way to do that may be to leave yourself open to unexpected surprises and friendships. Kathryn Whitney Boole has spent most of her life in the entertainment industry, which has been the backdrop for remarkable adventures with extraordinary people. She is a Talent Manager with Studio Talent Group in Santa Monica. kboole@gmail.com
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August 21 – August 27, 2026
Curious City 08/14/26: WE WILL PREVAIL
By CHARLES ANDREWS
FOR THE SAME REASON The Vietnamese did. And the First American Revolutionaries. And so many other people fighting not for conquest, health, or wealth, but to keep their nation free. The powerful pieces of autocracy are being assembled, but at the same moment very many smart people are anticipating all the moves and taking measures. Pitch in. JOE MCCARTHY LIVES For the history-challenged, he was the junior senator from Wisconsin, little known until he became famous and feared in the early ‘50s for “finding a Communist under every bed.” McCarthy asserted, without evidence (sound familiar?), that the State Department, the C.I.A., U.S. Army, the administration of President Truman, and
the entertainment industry were packed with card-carrying Communist infiltrators. The entertainment industry wound up with a list of names from these mostly baseless accusations, and those blacklisted could no longer find work and had their careers ruined. One of them was actor Will Geer, later “Grandpa” on the Waltons, who took his savings and bought land in Topanga Canyon, built a stage and planted vegetables, and now 50+ years later we have the wonderful theatre company Theatricum Botanicum. The policies and support by Republicans have been so disastrous and harmful to our nation that they know they will be decimated in the fall elections, so what’s their plan? Switch gears and start working for affordability? Stop building ballrooms and arches and putting tacky gold on everything? Of course not. BRING BACK THE “RED SCARE”! This is just a hunch on my part, but it does have the odor of Stephen Miller to it. Sir, Mr. President, sir, Your Holiness, the Democrats now have commonsense candidates who call themselves Democratic Socialists. Most Americans don’t know the difference between a communist, a socialist, and a can of beer. Let’s use the old “Look! Squirrel!!” ploy to take their focus off gas and grocery prices, no medical care, and the torture and killing of their brown-skinned neighbors. The evil connection, going back 75 years, is that McCarthy’s close legal enabler was Roy Cohn, who had gangster ties and
later took Donnie and his dastardly daddy under his wing, imparting so much useful wisdom to the young Donald, “principles,” that have served him to this very day. “Attack, attack, attack, counter-attack, and never defend.” Always stay on the offensive, and hit back much harder than any initial blow. “Admit nothing, deny everything.” Contrition is weakness; never admit a mistake, accept defeat, or say you are sorry. “Weaponize lawsuits.” Use aggressive litigation to overwhelm opponents, stall adversaries, and intimidate critics. “Control the narrative and media.” Manipulate the press and claim victory in the court of public opinion regardless of the legal or factual reality. “Art” of the deal, my caboose. He wouldn’t recognize art if it bit him on the nose. But the Iranians, and the rest of the world, know this about him, and that’s why they are taking him/us for a clown ride. BACK-UP PLANS Trump/Miller have several, I’m sure. The evidence is everywhere. Election deniers appointed to state election committees, all those judges who often don’t forget who appointed them, attacking mail-in voting and restricting voting in so many ways, mountains of money (Elon Musk has pledged at least $100,000,000) to overwhelm the “poorly educated” Trump says he loves, seizing the ballots from 2020 in Georgia, and, ultimately perhaps, all those troops in the streets in Minneapolis,
LA, Chicago, so we are used to thatr when he declaeres martial law because of voting fraud in November – which, of course, he has no proof of. So be prepared for the possibility of making your way past Marines to drop your ballot in a box, at which point you will understand that your ballot will have no meaning. It is not the vote that counts, but who counts the votes. If you think I’m getting a bit carried away, just wait. I am being realistic, and prepared, and I try to stay informed. And as we get closer to the election, these columns may upset you even more. But it takes some shock and awe to be ready for what’s cooking. Locally, we will be OK too. We have the best crop of common-sense, progressive thinkers I’ve ever seen in a local election. Very smart, passionate about their city and its RESIDENTS, and having put in the hard work for years. I will help you identify them. Running, of course, against the worst kind of bought politicians, well organized and well funded. I believe we are ready this time. But there is still a lot of work to do. Charles Andrews has lived in Santa Monica for 40 years and wouldn’t live anywhere else in the world. Really. Send love and/or rebuke to him at therealmrmusic@gmail.com And to receive my columns in your email automatically, join my free Substack account MUSIC, POLITICS, LIFE here – https://therealmrmusic.substack.com/
August 21 – August 27, 2026
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OPINION
More Housing, Same Water? Santa Monica’s SB 79 Problem SMa.r.t. Santa Monica Architects for a Responsible Tomorrow
A relatively obscure zoning decision coming before the Santa Monica City Council on September 8 shows how complicated the new world of state housing law has become, how little of it is visible to the public, and how little discussion of its impact on the city’s water supplies actually takes place. The details can be eye-glazing (fair warning!), but the devil, as they say, is in those details. At issue is SB 79, the new state law requiring cities to allow substantially more housing near major transit stops, known as Transit-Oriented Development, or TOD, zones. Santa Monica has seven such zones. Six already qualify for a temporary exclusion from SB 79 because their existing zoning provides far more housing capacity than required to satisfy that law. The exception is the area around the Expo/ Bundy station. The City is trying to qualify the Expo/ Bundy area for a temporary exemption from SB 79, for reasons explained later in this article. Expo/Bundy includes both higher-density commercial and apartment areas and an R1 neighborhood made up mostly of single-family homes. Under SB 79, both the higher-density parts of Expo/Bundy and the low-density R1 neighborhood are treated as one single transit area. The problem is that the law also requires a certain share of the individual properties in that area to allow at least a minimum amount of housing, and too many of the low-density residential lots currently fall short. So the City only needs to allow more housing on enough of those lots to meet that requirement and qualify the entire Expo/Bundy area for the temporary exemption. Instead of allowing the full SB 79 density, the City would only allow about 40 units per acre on those parcels, and other reduced standards. That means roughly 445 to 534 units, compared with about 890 to 1,068 units under full SB 79. In other words, the City would add roughly 500 units of theoretical capacity to these 89 parcels in order to prevent SB 79 from potentially allowing about twice as much there, while also preventing the state law from automatically controlling development standards throughout the rest of Expo/Bundy. Why would a pro-housing Council choose less density? Santa Monica's City Council has generally supported more housing, and individual City Council members have specifically shown an interest in upzoning R1 neighborhoods. So why adopt zoning that allows half the density allowed by SB 79? This has received surprisingly little
public discussion. One possibility: the issue appears to be not simply how many units are allowed, but who decides where they go. The City's proposal would temporarily exclude Expo/ Bundy from SB 79 and give Santa Monica until roughly 2030 to prepare its own Alternative TOD Plan. That would allow the City to determine height, floor area, density, and where new housing capacity is placed, including in other areas of the city (until this proposal is adopted, however, the full density allowed under SB 79 applies, and at least one 5-unit project, in the R1 single-family neighborhood, has already been submitted for review under the full SB 79 standard). The City could later add more housing to the R1 area, shift more capacity to commercial corridors or higher-density properties, or even ultimately create as much or more housing capacity than SB 79 would have produced. The difference is that Santa Monica, rather than the State, would determine how it is distributed. It is noteworthy that the Council rejected an earlier staff proposal to upzone 59 R2 parcels and six R3 parcels. Many already contain rent-controlled or lower-cost multifamily housing, raising concerns that redevelopment could displace existing tenants. Council instead directed staff to examine R1 properties, where tenant displacement is much less of an issue (while causing deep consternation among homeowners there). The September proposal is therefore best understood as a first step: accept significant R1 upzoning now, but at a lower density, while preserving the ability to design a broader TOD strategy later, including the possibility of future greater density in R1 zones. Then there is the water question Even these 89 parcels could add roughly 75 to 94 acre-feet of water demand per year before Water Neutrality offsets. Santa Monica's Water Neutrality Ordinance is intended to prevent that added demand from increasing citywide potable-water use. Projects that exceed a site's historical water use must offset the difference, often by funding replacement of inefficient toilets, showerheads, urinals and faucets elsewhere in the city. But those savings are finite. Once an inefficient fixture is replaced, that conservation opportunity is gone. The City's own Urban Water Management Plan acknowledges that as conservation programs mature, fewer opportunities for additional savings will remain. Water Neutrality can reduce the impact of new development, but it cannot simply be assumed to provide an unlimited supply of offsets for future growth. The City's 2025 Urban Water Management Plan does not say how much Water Neutrality offset capacity is still available citywide, how much has already been committed to
development projects, or how much future growth the remaining offsets could support. That matters because SB 79 is not just about Expo/Bundy. Santa Monica has seven TOD zones, and even if Expo/Bundy receives the temporary exclusion, the City is expected to prepare an Alternative TOD Plan that could later restore substantial housing capacity there or redistribute it elsewhere. More importantly, there is currently no public demonstration that the remaining Water Neutrality offsets alone could accommodate development approaching the full potential created by SB 79 and future TOD zoning throughout the city. The City's water strategy does not depend exclusively on Water Neutrality. The Urban Water Management Plan also relies on conservation, new efficiency measures, recycled water, groundwater production, and imported water from the Metropolitan Water District. But that raises a broader planning problem. The draft 2025 UWMP assumes that after 2029 Santa Monica will experience relatively little population growth because the city will essentially be built out (pp. 1-3, 3-7, 3-9, 4-9). State housing law is making that assumption impossible to rely on. SB 79 is only the latest example. Housing laws continue to create opportunities or requirements for additional development beyond what earlier planning documents anticipated, and Santa Monica's own future
Alternative TOD Plan could add substantial capacity as well. The September 8 decision may look like a technical discussion about 89 R1 parcels near Expo/Bundy, but it points to a much larger issue: the collision between state housing mandates, the City's desire to control where growth occurs, and the ability of its water system to serve that growth. Santa Monica is trying to plan its future water supply while state housing laws keep changing the size of the future city it must serve. At some point, those two realities collide. Next week, we look at whether the City's and state’s water plans are in agreement— and what happens if they are not. Daniel Jansenson, Architect for S.M.a.r.t.: Santa Monica Architects for a Responsible Tomorrow Dan Jansenson, Architect (former Building & Fire-Life Safety Commissioner); Robert H. Taylor, Architect AIA; Mario Fonda-Bonardi, Architect AIA (former Planning Commissioner); Sam Tolkin, Architect (former Planning Commissioner); Michael Jolly ARE-CRE; Jack Hillbrand, AIA, Santa Monica’s Landmarks Commission Architect; Phil Brock (SM Mayor, ret.); Matt Hoefler, Architect NCARB; Charles Andrews, columnist, journalist; Bruce Leddy, NOMA Co-Chair (former Human Services Commission Chair).
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August 21 – August 27, 2026
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