S A N TA M O N I C A
REFLECTING THE CONCERNS OF THE COMMUNITY
smmirror.com
December 18 – December 24, 2020 Volume LXVII, Issue 72
INSIDE
SANTA MONICA’S INTERIM CITY MANAGER LANE DILG LEAVING THIS SPRING PAGE 5
Former Santa Monica Mayor Santa Monica City Council Stops Bob Holbrook Passes Away Controversial Hotel Project Holbrook passes away Friday at age of 79 By SaM CataNZarO
Former Santa Monica Mayor Bob Holbrook has passed away at the age of 79. Holbrook–Santa Monica’s longest continuously serving City Councilmember– passed away at his home Friday, December 11 after a long illness. He first assumed public office in 1982 as a School Board Member, the beginning of 32 years as an elected official in Santa Monica. “After two terms on the School Board I ran for Council and I’ve often joked that the reason for my successful run was, as President of the School Board, I had handed out the diplomas at the Samohi graduations and so I was known by so many families,” Holbrook–a graduate of Samohi himself–told the Mirror in 2014. Holbrook was born in 1941 in Santa Monica at the former St. Catherine’s Hospital on 4th Street. After World War II, his father returned from the Navy and they moved to Ocean Park. Bob and his sister Cherie attended John Muir, John Adams and Samohi schools. “In our last semester at Samohi everyone took a class to prepare us for the work world,” Holbrook said in 2014. “It was in the Ocean Park Library, doing my homework, and I found out from the reference book I was using that I was eligible to go to college. Because of the Great Depression my parents hadn’t been able to go to college so my going was a big deal in my family. “I went to SMC and I also worked at McCarthy Drug Store on Montana Avenue. The owner, Tom McCarthy, was the Mayor of Santa Monica at that time and he gave me my first exposure to what it meant to be in politics. I liked him. I learned so much from him. He was a good guy and always helping everyone,” Holbrook added. After SMC Holbrook went to USC and earned a pharmacist’s degree before joining
the California Air National Guard. “It is the only time in my life I’ve been away from California for so long. I spent six months in Texas and Alabama being trained by the Air Force,” Holbrook said. “They asked me to enlist and become an officer. I had different ideas. I wanted to come home and marry Jean Ann. I came back to California and got a job working as a pharmacist at Thrifty Drug Store.” Jean Ann and Holbrook married in 1967 living in a house on 10th Street, and soon after had three children: Bob Jr., Cindy and Craig. “By 1982 we had three kids in their early teens. Jean Ann talked to me about the School Board. The School and the College Boards were going to split into two Boards. That meant there would be open seats on the Boards and Jean Ann suggested I run for the School Board,” Holbrook Holbrook did run and was elected serving two terms. In 1990 he decided to run for City Council and emerged as the second-highest vote-getter in the election. Holbrook went on to serve continuously on the Council for a record six terms until 2014. Members of the Santa Monica City Council who knew and worked with Holbrook, a native-born Santa Monican, shared thoughts of gratitude for his decades of public service and significant tenure on the Santa Monica City Council (1990 – 2014). “Bob loved Santa Monica and its history and passionately shaped more than two decades of
Mayor Passes, see page 9
A rendering of The Plaza at Santa Monica project.
Council directs staff to end negotiations with the developer of The Plaza at Santa Monica By SaM CataNZarO
Led by the votes of newly-elected councilmembers and the recently chosen mayor, Santa Monica City Council has voted to stop a controversial hotel proposal in the heart of downtown. At the December 15 Santa Monica City Council meeting, Council directed staff to cease negotiations with the developers of The Plaza at Santa Monica. The proposal called for an 11-story, 240-room luxury hotel, with 106,800 square feet of creative office space, approximately 40,000 square feet of open public space and 48 units of affordable housing at 4th Street and Arizona Avenue in Downtown Santa Monica. Council voted 4-3 in favor of ceasing
Photos: City of Santa Monica
negotiations with developer Clarett West. Among those who voted to end the project was recentlychosen Mayor Sue Himmelrich, in her first significant vote in the role. “I voted against this project on public land, as I did last summer, because it never delivered sufficient value to the City either in its affordable housing, open space, or revenue. I look forward to working with my colleagues and the public to find a reimagined project that does deliver superior value to us on this prime City-owned property,” Himmelrich told the Mirror. Negotiations were put on hold in July after slow-growth group Santa Monica Coalition for a Livable City (SMCLC) filed a legal complaint arguing the property should be reserved for public use under the California Surplus Land Act. Recently-elected Councilmember Phil Brock, who voted to cease negotiations, says the future of the property will be guided by “a community process.” “I want to explore fresh options for this land that is owned by the people of Santa Monica. The
Plaza, see page 6
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