Santa Monica Mirror 2.17.23

Samohi Project Lead the Way Students Place Second in Congressional App Challenge PAGE 4

Santa Monica City Council Declares Local Homelessness Emergency

in the coming year, I promise to remain focused on this issue. I am already advocating from the federal level on down for more resources for housing and supportive services, and I am committed to working with other mayors in our region to address this regional issue.”

By Sam Catanzaro

The City of Santa Monica joined a growing list of local jurisdictions by unanimously voting to declare a local emergency on homelessness at Tuesday night’s meeting.

The declaration will enable the city to advocate for additional resources and funding at the county, state and federal levels, as well as remove barriers to building affordable housing and incentivize production.

“Clearly, we all know that here in Santa Monica and in our region, addressing homelessness is a top concern,” said Santa Monica Mayor Gleam Davis. “As your mayor

To declare a state of emergency, the Santa Monica City Council made necessary findings which included an increase in public safety calls for service, encampments, public deaths, arson and vandalism linked to homelessness. There are currently 809 homeless individuals in Santa Monica, part of More than 69,000 people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles County,

City Manager Rick White told the Council that they would see immediate action taken to address the crisis following the declaration. This includes freeing up $25 million in the City’s Affordable Housing Trust to finance shovel-ready projects as early as March and issuing requests for proposals (RFPs).

“The reality is that we cannot address this crisis on our own, and we need our regional,

state, and federal partners to support us,” said Santa Monica City Manager David White. “By declaring a homelessness state of emergency, Santa Monica is poised to receive more resources.”

In addition, the Council will look into how to use an estimated $4.1 million a year

generated by Measure CS—a voter-approved initiative that raises bed tax on hotels, motels and home shares—to address homelessness and public safety.

The proclamation is effective for 180 days to prioritize Santa Monica’s requests for resources and funding from its partners.

City Has “Killed the Parklets”, Says Santa Monica Chef

replaced the previous ones, which have promoted many locations to take down their outdoor dining permanently, instead of “shelling out $20,000” to remake what they already paid for during the pandemic – a time which, Bornemann points out, was already difficult for local businesses.

By Keemia Zhang

In July, Santa Monica approved a permanent outdoor dining program to preserve the parklets that sustained restaurants during COVID-era rules.

However, local restaurants claim that red tape and new mandates are causing more businesses to shut down their parklets altogether. Brian Bornemann, chef and founder of sustainable seafood restaurant Crudo e Nudo on Main Street, claims that Santa Monica’s regulations are “killing” outdoor dining.

“We understand paying rent for places that used to be parking,” Bornemann said. “It’s about $6,000 in check fees, another $1,000 for building and safety fees, $3,500 for deposit, and then rent.”

But new City requirements have also

The chef stated that the government is “treating restaurants like developers”, forcing them to pay upfront fees for new sewage lines to handle new occupancy numbers –this is customary for homeowners, however, Bornemann stresses that restauranters will not own the extensions they are paying for.

“The restaurants who made it through the pandemic are paying this one-time fee that’s exorbitant, $1,400 a seat. It’s a clear money grab from the City,” Bornemann said.

The chef also expressed frustrations with the City forcing restauranters to provide personal guarantees for their patio additions.

“Normally LLC guarantees are corporate guarantees, but for whatever reason, the City is now requiring that if your business should go under because of this, you can personally pay as an individual,” Bornemann said.

Bornemann recognizes that the City is facing financial issues following decreased revenue coming out of the pandemic but still thinks more parklets could provide increased

revenue for the City’s coffers.

“The City has its own financial issues coming out of the pandemic, but you would think they would view increased revenue on a busy street as a good thing,” suggests Bornmann. “Many of our neighbors have taken down their patios. We have to put up that money we don’t really have, and it’s very scary.”

Bornmann and his colleagues recently went to City Council in a bid to get the new measures overturned, but were unsuccessful.

“It definitely feels like it’s the end of an era right now,” says Bornmann. “It’s the opposite to helping small businesses. They’re trying to

penalize you at all costs.”

Crudo e Nudu recently took to social media asking the public to reach out to Santa Monica Mayor Gleam Davis (gleam.davis@ santamonica.gov) and City Council (council@ smgov.net) asking them to get rid of these fees.

“The only way to save outdoor dining is the email the mayor and City council, and ask them to remove the ‘personal guarantee’ and the ‘water waste capital facility fee’ entirely. So if you like eating outdoors, if you enjoyed watching Main St bloom, or if you like independent restaurants in general please send an email as soon as you can,” reads the post.

The declaration will enable the city to advocate for additional resources and funding at the county, state and federal levels

“It’s the opposite to helping small businesses. They’re trying to penalize you at all costs,” says chef Brian Bornemann of Crudo e Nudo

Photo: Instagram (@crudo_e_nudo)

An empty parakeet on Main Street near Crudo e Nudo.

Santa Monica Fire Department Helps Extinguished Palisades Brush Fire

Friday afternoon

brush fire put out in 50 minutes

By Sam Catanzaro

It took firefighters under an hour to put out a brush fire that broke out in the bluffs above Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades last Friday.

According to the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD), the incident occurred last Friday a little after 5 p.m. at 14830 Pacific Coast Highway, north of West Channel Road.

Responding LAFD crews arrived to find an approximately one-quarter acre of brush burning uphill, with light wind. LAFD and Santa Monica firefighters mounted an attack by ground and air on the burning brush in steep terrain. It took 49 firefighters 50 minutes to snuff out the flames, holding the burn to approximately 1.5 acres. There were no reported injuries. No structures were damaged and non were in

LAPD Releases Sketch of Man Wanted for Attempted Rape at Will Rogers State Beach

Man sought in connection to February 3 incident next to Tower 15

By Sam Catanzaro

The LAPD has released a sketch of a man wanted for the attempted sexual assault of a woman on Will Rogers State Beach.

The incident took place on Saturday, February 3 around 6:20 p.m. next to Tower 15 at Will Rogers State Beach.

by using the pepper spray.

immediate danger. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

According to the Los Angeles Police Department, when the first firefighters got on the scene, they did not observe any signs of an encampment, no tent or bulky items. The area behind the wall was clear as of Thursday evening by the LAPD Beach Detail.

A young woman was at the beach, to mourn and reflect on the 7th anniversary of her mother passing away from cancer. A man approached her and pulled out a box cutter before beginning to forcefully drag her towards the water. He then held her close, wrapping his arms around her neck and shoulders whilst placing his hand over her mouth to stop her from screaming. As he dragged her away from the parking lot/bike path area and towards the shoreline, he made threatening remarks that he intended to rape her. The woman was able to get her to pepper spray out and escape unhurt,

The LAPD describes the suspect as a Hispanic male, with black hair and brown eyes, standing around 5′ 7 and weighing around 150-160 pounds. At the time of the incident, he was wearing a navy or black zipup, dark pants and tan “army”-style cap. Police are still searching for the man, and urge anyone with information to come forward.

Please contact the LAPD’s Special Assault Detectives at (213) 473-0447 if you have information on the identity of the individual in this picture. If you see the suspect the LAPD says to call 911.

Police Seeks Additional Victims in Series of

Westside

Sexual

Assaults by Suspect Who Targeted Women With

36-year-old Benjamin Parke Belser remains in custody with bail of $6.2 million in connection to strings of sexual assaults

The Los Angeles Police Department’s Operations-West Bureau’s Special Assault Section (SAS) are seeking additional victims and witnesses in a series of sexual assaults in the West Los Angeles, Koreatown, and Downtown Los Angeles areas. The suspect, 36-yearold Benjamin Parke Belser, appears to have targeted women using social media and dating applications.

On February 4, 2023, the LAPD arrested Belser, a resident of South Los Angeles, on suspicion of rape, forced sodomy, forced oral copulation and sexual penetration with a foreign

Social Media and Dating Apps

object for a series of sexual assaults dating back to 2017. On February 7, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office filed 12 felony counts against Belser, who remains in custody with bail of $6.2 million.

Belser, a North Carolina native, appears to have targeted women using social media and dating applications. Beginning in at least 2017, he began contacting women online and used elaborate ruses to conceal his identity. The sexual assaults continued until at least 2022, when SAS began their investigation against Belser. On February 4, 2023, Detectives served a search warrant on his home in the Village Green community and recovered extensive evidence supporting the investigation and are still searching for additional information that could connect him to unreported crimes.

Belser used various aliases to avoid detection, according to the LAPD. He is a white male who stands 6-feet-5-inches tall, weighs 170 pounds, with brown hair and hazel eyes. Witnesses

described him as having a distinctive body odor.

LAPD investigators identified five women whom Belser assaulted but believe there are others who have yet to come forward.

“Cases like this are especially heartbreaking because people are often reluctant to report sex crimes because they’re embarrassed,” said Detective Asia Hodge, SAS’s officer in charge. “But if these many survivors are already speaking out, we think there may be more people who are waiting to speak up. We need their help to hold him accountable. We’re gratified that the District Attorney’s office filed charges, but the work has just begun,” Hodge said. “We believe there are more people out there who need help and we’ll keep working until we find them.”

Detectives are requesting that anyone with information that could lead to the identification of additional victims or witnesses to contact LAPD’s Operations-West Bureau, Special Assault Section, at 213-473-0447. During nonbusiness hours or on weekends, calls should

Samohi Project Lead the Way Students Place Second in Congressional App Challenge

Brandon Kirbyson and Tobin Palmer awarded for developing the app Noteworthy, a Google Chrome extension that allows users to note and markup websites

Santa Monica High School (Samohi) Project Lead the Way (PLTW) freshmen, Brandon Kirbyson and Tobin Palmer, recently placed second in the 2022 Congressional App Challenge for Congressman Ted W. Lieu’s (D-Los Angeles County) congressional district.

“As a recovering Computer Science major, I am inspired by all these students who have committed themselves to creating innovative apps that address communication, cybersecurity, housing, medical diagnoses and treatment, food insecurity, and more,” Congressman Lieu said. “Our office sees growth every year in the number of apps submitted. I am proud to represent a district that is the home to Silicon Beach, as well as Santa Monica College, LA Air Force Base, and UCLA, all of which emphasize the importance of STEM innovation and education.”

Kirbyson and Palmer competed against students from 14 other high schools in California’s 33rd Congressional District.

“Finishing in such a high position for one of the more competitive districts in California was amazing to me especially given that nearly all our competitors were seniors,” Kirbyson said.

The two met while they were at John Adams Middle School and bonded over their common interest in coding, developed the app Noteworthy, a Google Chrome extension that allows users to note and markup websites and to store the annotations for future retrieval.

“Because of the major shift to digital education during the pandemic, we wanted an app that could add notes directly to websites,” Kirbyson said. “When we couldn’t find an existing app that did everything we wanted, we decided to make our own.”

Kirbyson and Palmer began developing Noteworthy in June 2022, working together throughout the summer to develop the app’s various functions. They delved deeper into multiple coding languages to ensure that Noteworthy would work with newer and older browsers and would not conflict with preexisting content on websites.

“The biggest challenge that we faced when designing this app was redoing it,” said Palmer. “As we learned more about coding, we realized

there were more efficient ways to structure the code that would make the program run more smoothly, so we wound up re-coding the entire thing in the last month.”

Even after recreating the app, Kirbyson and Palmer managed to make the November 1 deadline and receive a high placement.

“Participating in the Congressional App Challenge gave me the chance to develop a fully functional application for the first time,” said Palmer. “I would like to participate again or in another contest.” As for Noteworthy, Kirybson and Palmer are actively developing

“Noteworthy 2.0.”

The Congressional App Challenge was started in 2013 with the mission of inspiring, including and innovating efforts around science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), coding and computer science education amongst middle and high school students. Each challenge is district specific.

The winners from each congressional district will be recognized by the respective House of Representatives member and each winning app may be put on display in the U.S. Capitol Building for one year.

Santa Monica Police Activities League Deals Its Poker Tournament Benefiting

Local

Youth

The event will be held on Saturday, February 25 at the historic Moose Lodge on Ocean Park Boulevard.

Take a seat at the table or watch from the sidelines for Santa Monica Police Activities League’s (PAL) annual Poker Tournament 2023 to benefit Santa Monica youth. The event will be held on Saturday, February 25, beginning with check-in, dinner and bar at 5 p.m., poker lessons for beginners starting at 5:30 p.m., and the official first hand dealt at 6 p.m.

“We are delighted to bring back the everpopular PAL Poker Tournament. It is one of most well-attended fundraisers each year and we missed seeing everyone’s smiling faces around the card table – all in the name of raising much needed funds for Santa Monica Youth,” says Eula Fritz, Director at Santa Monica Police Activities League. “The pots vary by hand, but one sure bet is that everyone is a winner with the PAL Poker Tournament.” The tournament will take place in the historic Moose Lodge at 1600 Ocean Park Boulevard. There’s something for everyone! Players can enter the tournament with a $150 admission fee that includes dinner, one drink ticket and two drawing tickets while nonplayers can enjoy the festivities with a $50

entry fee that also includes dinner, one drink and a drawing ticket. However, all attendees must be 21 and up in order to join. To RSVP or for more information about the event, please visit Eventbrite or call 310-458-8988.

A variety of prizes will be awarded along with delicious dinner options throughout the night as well as desserts and drinks! Moreover, sponsorships are available at different levels such as Royal Flush ($1,500), Straight Flush ($1,000), Four Aces ($500), or Full House ($250). For complete sponsorship details please call (310) 458-8988.

Santa Monica PAL is a nonprofit organization operated by the City of Santa Monica dedicated to providing free afterschool programming for youth ages 6 -17 in an effort to bridge any stigmas between law enforcement and local communities of color through various activities and mentorship opportunities designed to build trust within our younger generation. For more information about PAL visit their website smpal.org.

Former Vons Set for Santa Monica Redevelopment as Developer Secures $385 Million in Construction Financing

Construction is set to break ground next month

Developer Related California announced recently that it has secured $385 million in construction financing from Bank of America for its next major mixed-use development in Santa Monica at the site of a former Vons supermarket.

“For more than 30 years, Related California has been transforming neighborhoods across the West Coast,” said Related California president Gino Canori in a news release. “We are excited to undertake this monumental development in Santa Monica, which is further proof of the power of public-private partnerships delivering much needed mixedincome housing in Los Angeles County.”

Located in Santa Monica’s Downtown near

the intersection of Lincoln Boulevard and Broadway, 710 Broadway plans to include apartments, a 30,000-square-foot private park, 35,000 square feet of retail space and a 55,000-square-foot Vons supermarket, all designed by Large Architecture.

Construction is set to break ground next month and finish in the fourth quarter of 2025. The project will also be partnering with the Community Corporation of Santa Monica to offer affordable housing options across a range of income levels.

This development will mark an exciting chapter for both Related California and Santa Monica itself as the city takes another step towards becoming a vibrant market destination with attractive living accommodations and amenities.

Santa Monica Travel & Tourism Announces Partnership with Veo to Distribute Free Helmets

Monica which makes this partnership with Veo so important to us,” said Misti Kerns, President and CEO of Santa Monica Travel & Tourism. “Historically, over 80% of overnight visitors to our community never use a car once they arrive in Santa Monica, demonstrating the walkability of the area. Additionally, the 19 miles of green bike lanes throughout the City support active mobility and we’re confident this collaboration is going to further encourage travelers and our residents to safely use alternative transportation and that’s a win for everyone.”

regulations, all riders must be 18 years or older to rent a Veo e-bike or scooter.

Santa Monica Travel & Tourism (SMTT) and Santa Monica-based, micro-mobility company Veo have announced a partnership to distribute free helmets to riders in the City. The two organizations are also collaborating with Santa Monica Spoke, a local 501(c)3 organization dedicated to improving walking and biking in the City. “Safety remains a top priority in Santa

Helmets will be available at any of the Visitor Information Centers located at 2427 Main Street, 200 Santa Monica Pier (Looff Hippodrome), and 1400 Ocean Avenue. After use, helmets can be returned to one of these locations where they will then be donated to Santa Monica Spoke for a future community project. Helmets are one size fits most. In accordance with local

“Whether you’re headed to the beach or going to dinner downtown, hopping on a shared scooter or bike is one of the best ways to explore all that Santa Monica has to offer,” said Candice Xie, Veo co-founder and CEO. “Veo always encourages our riders to wear a helmet, but we also know it’s not the first thing many visitors pack in their luggage. This unique partnership will make it easier for anyone to grab a free helmet on the go. We thank SMTT for partnering with us to support a safe and sustainable travel experience for visitors.”

Headquartered in Santa Monica, Veo has been providing shared electric scooters and bikes since July 2021 as part of the City’s shared scooter and bike pilot program. Their mission is to end car dependency by making clean transportation accessible to all. Riding is simple: simply locate your ride using the VeoRide app, scan the

QR code and pay a $1 unlock fee. Riders then pay an additional per-minute rate for each trip taken. The company also offers a discounted pricing option for lower-income riders through its Veo Access program.

Helmets will be available at any of the Visitor Information Centers located at 2427 Main Street, 200 Santa Monica Pier (Looff Hippodrome), and 1400 Ocean Avenue.

Convert Your Analog Memories Into Digital With Westside Video Services

Sam Najah’s Westside Video Services bringing memories back to life

By Susan Payne

The boxes of 8mm and 16mm film, comprised of childhood memories, moments with your siblings and friends captured before the digital era, are likely in your closet or tucked away for another time.

But, when will that time be? When will you take the boxes out, and convert the footage to an easily accessible and safe format, free from possible damage beyond repair?

The time is now, said Westside Video Services owner Sam Najah.

“Your memories are priceless and irreplaceable. Fire or flooding, there are all kinds of ways you can lose those photos or videos, lose the memories of your childhood forever. I always encourage people not to put it off,” he said.

Najah, who has nearly 30 years of production experience, local to Topanga and West Los Angeles, provides a service that makes the digital conversion and organization of those files seamless for the customer,

helping preserve, restore and showcase your cherished memories.

“Sometimes people get overwhelmed with the technology and put it off, but I really say, leave it up to us,” Najah said. “There’s not much you have to do besides pulling it out of the closet.”

Najah, equipped with a state-of-the-art system that transfers film to high definition, has been in business for three years, bringing those memories back to life.

“My customers well up in tears after they’ve rewatched the footage they haven’t seen in years,” Najah said.

In addition to converting analog film and photos to digital, Westside Video Service offers the following services:

DIGITAL TRANSFER

For memories stuck in an analog format, Westside Video Services transfers them into a DVD or a digital file. Photos slides and negatives are scanned at an archival quality, and 8mm film reels are converted to a highdefinition format that can be easily viewed, shared and enjoyed on any modern device.

Westside Video also offers free pick-up and delivery to ensure memories remain safe from potential shipping issues.

VIDEO SLIDESHOW

Remembering special events such as weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, memorials and more is easy with Westside Video Service’s customized projects which combine your photos, video clips, music and special effects for your keepsake.

COMPLETE HOME ARCHIVAL SOLUTION

Westside Video has four steps in creating a home archival solution for your cherished memories. Step one is to digitize and take inventory of the photos, slides, negatives, videos, audio and more. In step two, Westside Video will organize and create folders and subfolders by date, events and holidays. After the organization step is complete, Westside Video will manually restore each image that can benefit from restoration by removing stains and blemishes and restoring the faded colors. Finally, step four, showcases the best photos, slides, video and film clips into a montage of your life set to music.

“We digitize and organize everything. We go through footage and slides and restore it to optimal colors and tones, then I showcase pieces highlighting the memories into one

with music. You can narrow it down to an hour it tells their life story completely,” said Najah.

LEGACY VIDEO

Westside’s Legacy Video service connects family members across generations with a unique and tangible legacy, capturing the stories you and your family has to share. Westside will film an interview with the family member and support the stories they share with photos and videos from the past.

VIDEO PRODUCTION

Westside Video Services also provides costeffective production and specializes in online ads, web videos, commercial or corporate videos.

For more information on these services, or if you’d like to speak with Najah about the process of converting your analog inventory, go to www.westsidevideoservice.com.

“All my prices are listed on my website, but we do quantity discounts for people who have multiple tapes and albums, so it helps,” Najah said. “You do this once, you’re not going to have to do it again.”

Santa Monica City Council –Planners, Politicians, or Developers?

Santa Monica – a progressive city 20 years ago, a chaotic city today! A city that is struggling for its identity and life is a titanic struggle for the heart and soul of our city. And a city council that prizes development over planning. Are we to be a city of gardens, recreation, and the arts, with courtyard housing and boulevards as linear parks, or will our neighborhoods canonize and fill with block buildings as our downtown has?

I seriously question whether our city council even can understand what’s happening to our city. It’s discouraging to realize we have an entire city council that makes decisions contrary to good urban planning & design. A city is a balance between where people live and where they work, and this balance in Santa Monica is up for grabs.

It’s truly unbelievable that our city council next Tuesday is voting to increase existing heights from 1, 2, & 3 story development on the four neighborhood boulevards and avenues to 5 stories. Replacing 1, 2, & 3 stories with 5 stories is very visible in the transformation of Lincoln Boulevard. It’s stunning to realize city council is considering changing neighborhood commercial into the density, character, and height of downtown boulevards –affecting demand on public transportation, school safety, parking, and other social, ecological, and economic systems.

Our City Council is flying blind! They show a remarkable inability to control development and our environment with piecemeal planning at every level – jumping from one event to another, one crisis to another – an extraordinarily frenetic and costly way to run a city. Whatever the problem du jour – homeless, affordable housing, crime, public restrooms, regulating robots, etc., our underlying mantra has been economic gain at the expense of residents and our environment. Santa Monica serves Wall Street investors, has become a cash cow for developers, and listens to tourists ahead of residents. This tradeoff for increased height, density, traffic and safety is a bargain with the devil!

Financially, the city is teetering towards bankruptcy – financially and environmentally struggling because of costly and wasteful “piecemeal” decision-making and budgeting.

To mention a few…..

$.5m for a backroom stairwell mural in city hall

$2.3m for a restroom facility in Clover Park

$145m for a 50,000 sq ft city hall expansion ($3,000/sq ft – unbelievable!!)

$8m for a public relations consultant !!

On a larger scale, “piecemeal” (and stupid) is the conversion of 185 of the Santa Monica Airport’s 215 acres to a park abutting and accessible from both Santa Monica and Los

Angeles, to LA’s immense benefit. Would it make any sense to at least consider relocating the 8.5 acre Big Blue Bus yard at the edge of Santa Monica’s downtown 1.75 miles west to the 185 acre airport and/or the city’s 16.5 acre waste management yard 1 mile west to the airport. This would allow two wonderfully located sites for a park, a school, a cultural venue, etc., to be central and useful to all Santa Monica residents!

Concerning increased mass and density on our four residential boulevards and avenues, this unchecked greed will further hasten the wreckage of our city. Density and mass don’t equate with quality of life. And where’s the infrastructure to support this, i.e., schools, water, power, etc. Changing 3 stories to 5 stories will affect traffic safety near schools, pedestrian & bicycle routes, parking, and other services? This suggestion falls somewhere between IGNORANCE and LUNACY! And the financial cost of this “piecemeal planning” is astounding. If the state dictates it, they should pay for it!

However, proper planning would suggest that redevelopment of these 4 streets with primarily 1 story existing buildings and asphalt covered parking lots into 2 stories of terrace housing over 1 story of commercial could provide the required 8,000 units alone – if at all even necessary – instead of walls of 5 story cell-blocks. And the return on investment would be every bit as attractive when you consider less construction cost & time, less bank financing in addition to possible tax incentives and reduced permit processing time! And with shifting affordable housing to cityowned property, the Developer would be way ahead! Piecemeal planning doesn’t include all the components of an urban environment – it is strictly economic gain at the expense of the residents and the environment.

So what is a master planning process in contrast to our current “piecemeal planning” process. Master planning is a system driven process including social systems, ecological systems, economic systems, etc. in contrast to simply adopting 5 story boulevards & avenues at next Tuesday’s council meeting, and authorizing a 185 acre regional park at next month’s council meeting with the cost to be determined in an unspecified process and time. Instead, we need a plan for our grandchildren which allows the city to be developed in a visionary and coherent way – not the random environment by West & East coast developers.

City Council, you need to understand the value of data driven planning as well as the attraction and success of our low-rise courtyard buildings and their pedestrian character – not more 5 story prison blocks, You also need to understand that LUCE is a general plan, not a master plan, with no teeth, and whose primary principal is to “maintain the character of Santa Monica.”

Since our founding 149 years ago in 1874, Santa Monica has never had a master plan –

the need for a master plan should be front and center!! The money wasted on “piecemeal” forays and assessments is staggering! So what is a comprehensive, strategic master plan?

• it’s a digital platform that quickly sees connection between problems and possibilities

A master plan gives us data driven information that will lead to solutions to reduce our city budget in a productive and economic way. We are currently spending “millions” in piecemeal projects that mostly lead us nowhere, while a master plan can be completed in 2-3 years at a cost of +/- $3 million (3/4% of our yearly city budget over the next 3 years).

We need a plan for growth, but not growth for growth’s sake! A master plan is needed to find the right balance between the built and natural environment, balancing sustainable development is and where it should occur. This year’s budget will determine our city’s future –a piecemeal or master-planned future.

So what is our vision for Santa Monica –the future for our neighborhoods, boulevards, commercial and cultural centers, our open space and recreation. Are we to remain a low to midrise beachfront community for both our residents and surrounding population? Can we maintain our vision, culture, scale, and character in face of development interests? If ever we needed a clear and comprehensive master plan, this is the time City Council! In summary, do we want the chaos of “piecemeal development” or the comfort of a master plan? Until we understand the absolute necessity of a master plan providing

for growth along with the economic health, the city will continue to slip away – and at an increasing pace! In essence, we’re trying to be a seafront city, without a master plan for a rudder. City Council, we need creativity now – not stupidity! Put SM residents back at the center – not NY developers! We can still maintain our small scale beachfront atmosphere, our urban form, our cultural and historic resources while still allowing for growth and staying economically healthy. “Quality of life and environment” is more iconic than “piecemeal planning and naiveness.”

Every city needs to pursue its highest and best interest – what is ours? Please City Council – step up to the plate, be responsible, prioritize the relatively small budget for the city’s first master plan and allow yourselves to sleep at night. Can we maintain our community’s vision, scale, culture, and character – or will this continue to be a developer’s city? City Council, we have so much to gain and yet so much to lose. This is our need, this is your chance – don’t blow it!

Ron Goldman for SMa.r.t. (Santa Monica Architects for a Responsible Tomorrow)

Thane Roberts, Architect, Robert H. Taylor AIA, Ron Goldman FAIA, Architect, Dan Jansenson, Architect & Building and Fire-Life Safety Commission, Samuel Tolkin Architect & Planning Commissioner, Mario FondaBonardi AIA & Planning Commissioner, Michael Jolly, AIR-CRE.

YOU BELONG AT SMC

Classes start March 6 On-campus and online smc.edu/spring