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Volume 14 Issue 44
Santa Monica Daily Press
BIKE RIDER ARRESTED SEE PAGE 5
We have you covered
100 years ago: Department of Dance BY DAVID MARK SIMPSON Daily Press Staff Writer
THE PAST In January of 1915, Santa Monica opened what the Los Angeles Times called “the first municipally managed dancing pavilion in California” at the edge of the Ocean Park Pier. The new dancehall was an obvious predecessor to the La Monica Ballroom, which opened a decade later on the Santa Monica Pier and was an inspiration for today’s Twilight Concert Series (originally named the Twilight Dance Series). With the new public dancehall came the question of censored dances - Santa Monica had made news months earlier when it banned tangoing and other “indecent” dances in the parks and on the pier. Apparently, these dances were causing public disturbances. Following the opening of the hall, the Times identified City Hall’s “new Dancing Master.” “The question of how bad the ‘rag’ may be has not been settled,” the Times wrote, after grilling the city’s new Dancing Master. Police Chief Randall admitted that he couldn’t tell the difference between a “fox trot” and a “Texas Tommy.”
THE RESOLUTIONS ALREADY ABANDONED ISSUE
What to watch for in 2015 BY DAVID MARK SIMPSON Daily Press Staff Writer
CITYWIDE Planes, trains, and the zoning code will likely be the dominant issues of 2015. The year after a highly contested, lowturnout election will likely be a big one for Santa Monica. THE AIRPORT
A key agreement between the Federal Aviation Administration and City Hall expires on July 1, giving the latter more control of the Santa Monica Airport land. Most notably, City Hall will regain control of a 20-acre parcel on the west end of
the airport. Council voted in early 2014 to have city officials consider shuttering that portion of the airport, shortening the runway and making it less attractive to pilots. Many aviation advocates said that making the runway smaller would also make it less safe. City officials are also considering restricting or prohibiting the sale of aviation fuel (citing safety concerns) and the allowance of aviation tenants on airport land. Santa Monica Airport Commissioners have noted that these actions could make the airport less attractive or infeasible for pilots, effectively strangling it through declining use.
Whatever council decides, lawsuits are all but guaranteed. EXPO
Even if the train doesn’t open to the public in 2015, the incoming Expo Light Rail will color many decisions this year. It’s scheduled to serve Santa Monica starting in early 2016 but many have noted that construction is ahead of schedule. Housing and hotel projects are going in all around the three stations. Rents — the ones not restricted by rent control — are rising. City officials are working to connect the stations to the SEE 2015 PAGE 3
CITY CONSIDERS EXPANDING BEACHFRONT PARK
City officials considered buying up a 6,000-foot-long stretch of land along the city’s north beach to used for a park. Three private landholders were offering up their space for sale and Mayor Dudley suggested they strike before prices rose any further. City officials had been given the opportunity to buy the land, at the foot of the bluffs, for significantly less, when they were buying up what is now called Palisades Park, but they declined - an error in Dudley’s view and one not to be repeated. All three swaths of land would cost the City Hall $400,000 - in the neighborhood of $10 million today - and would have to be purchased with a bond issued through a Courtesy image
SEE HISTORY PAGE 7
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TRAIN TRACKS: Expo construction has continued on (or ahead of) schedule and the train will be a big topic in 2015.
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