S A N TA M O N I C A
INSIDE SAMO Girls Soccer Comes to a Close
REFLECTING THE CONCERNS OF THE COMMUNITY smmirror.com
PAGE 13
February 8 - 14, 2019 Volume XXI, Issue 30
Climate Change and Crime Discussed in State of The City Mayor Davis delivers annual address.
By Tor Marom
Photo: Facebook.
A Los Angeles freeway in the aftermath of the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
How to Prepare for
THE BIG ONE Earthquake preparedness on in Santa Monica. By Keldine Hull
All it took was 10-20 seconds for the 1994 Northridge earthquake to rattle Southern California in a way no earthquake had done before. Dozens of people lost their lives and thousands more were injured as the state reeled from a catastrophic event that cost billions in damages. As devastating as the Northridge earthquake was, seismologists warn that the hypothetical “Big One”- an earthquake magnitude of 8.0 or more- would be even more disastrous. Twenty-five years after the Northridge earthquake, for many Californians, the likelihood of the “Big One” is imminent. While it’s impossible to predict exactly when or where a massive earthquake will strike, cities throughout Southern Cal-
ST HIGHE ELP! ON Y RATED
ifornia, including Santa Monica, have made vast improvements towards earthquake preparedness. In 2017, the City Council implemented the Seismic Retrofit Program designed to reinforce and strengthen older buildings. According to Nick Furnari, Emergency Services Administrator at the Office of Emergency Management (OEM), “Nearly 2,000 commercial and multi-family residential buildings in the City were identified as potentially seismically vulnerable in need of possible structural improvement and are required to comply with the Program. You can search to see if your building is on the list on the Seismic Retrofit website.” Santa Monica, like many other cities, continues to be active in both mitigation and preparedness activities. Furnari explains, “We maintain our state of the art Emergency Operations Center 24/7 that is the central command point for large scale emergencies. We conduct Emergency Operations Cen-
EARTHQUAKE, see page 6
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This past Wednesday, the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce held its annual Economic Sustainability Summit, including a State of the City address by Mayor Gleam Davis. Starting off her speech, Davis urged the need to maintain a “diverse and robust” local economy during the City’s process of rethinking its resource allocation, looking ahead at “the looming pension liability that threatens every city in California.” According to a September 2018 post by City Manager Rick Cole, the total pension shortfall for Santa Monica is approximately $450 million dollars. While the city’s ten-year forecast does have plans for paying it off by the end of their ten-year forecast, it is a large number to contend with; hence the need for reforming Santa Monica’s resource allocation. “We must transition from being a government mired in the old ways of doing things,” Davis said, “and evolve to become a customer-centered, agile and accessible twenty-first-century government.” Bringing up a topic close to the hearts of many Santa Monica residents, Davis went over crime stats in city. Last year, Part 1 crime in Santa Monica went up by 8.8 percent, leading to widespread debates over the potential causes—with many pointing fingers at the Expo Line, Proposition 57 and the growing homeless population. Fortunately, the rising crime stats have come to a stop, for the time being. “We began 2019 with a 12.5 percent dip in crime, and we are committed to maintaining this momentum,” Davis said. Another large point of focus for the Mayor was climate change. While it is politically a controversial topic, Davis made it clear that there is no room for denial when it comes to planning the city’s future. “Here in Santa Monica, the threat is to our very identity as a beach city. Without a dramat-
ic decline in greenhouse gas emissions, twothirds of Santa Monica’s beaches will disappear by 2100,” Davis said. “Beginning this month, through our membership in the Clean Power Alliance, our residents and businesses will have the opportunity to get 100 percent of their energy from non-nuclear renewable sources.” The mayor went on to announce plans to make the entire Big Blue Bus fleet electric. While this move is in line with the City’s sustainability plans, it is also an attempt to decrease the use of personal cars. “Our goal is not to take away anyone’s automobile, but when we drive, we need to admit that we are the traffic we hate so much,” Davis said. “Solving traffic will require that we make public transit a better alternative to the personal auto, and that we make our streets safer for other modes of transit such as walking.” The mayor went on to shared that in 2018, Santa Monica saw zero pedestrian fatalities. Finishing up, Davis called for greater community involvement, bringing up the Wellbeing Microgrants of (up to) $500 that the City has awarded to residents who try and bring the community together. She referred to a recent case of a “pop-up” playground that was put together by residents. This is a smaller part of “The Wellbeing Project,” which aims to use data on residents’ day-to-day lives to improve the city. “Well-being can be measured, and what can be measured can be improved,” David said. Misti Kerns of Santa Monica Travel and Tourism also spoke at the event in accepting the Economic Excellence Award, sharing some of the benefits the City sees directly as a result of tourism. “Over the last decade, our hotels have delivered nearly $440 million to the City’s general fund, with a record-breaking $66 million collected in 2018,” Kerns said. “Sales tax is estimated nearly $90 million over the last decade.” She also mentioned that homeowners saved $1,379 of property taxes as a result of tourism helping to pay for those City services.
CITY, see page 6
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