THURSDAY, JANUARY 4, 2007
Visit us online at smdp.com
Volume 6 Issue 45
Santa Monica Daily Press
HOUSTON HAWKS TOUR COUTURE PEOPLE IN THE NEWS PAGE 17
Since 2001: A news odyssey
DAILY LOTTERY 9 10 38 51 53 Meganumber: 1 Jackpot: $102M 8 15 31 42 46 Meganumber: 6 Jackpot: $37M 2 8 31 35 37 MIDDAY: 0 1 7 EVENING: 7 6 7 1st: 02 Lucky Star 2nd: 04 Big Ben 3rd: 10 Solid Gold RACE TIME: 1.49.21 Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the winning number information, mistakes can occur. In the event of any discrepancies, California State laws and California Lottery regulations will prevail. Complete game information and prize claiming instructions are available at California Lottery retailers. Visit the California State Lottery web site at http://www.calottery.com
NEWS OF THE WEIRD BY
CHUCK
SHEPARD
■ Ruth Bell Graham, the frail wife of evangelist Billy Graham, has split with her elder son Franklin by rejecting as her burial place Franklin’s planned memorial library for Billy near Charlotte, N.C. (in favor of her mountaintop retreat west of there). According to a December Washington Post report, Ruth’s long-time friend, the crime writer Patricia Cornwell, told Ruth that the largely bookless “library” is “truly tacky,” featuring for example a mechanical cow that greets visitors, and straw on the floor to resemble the barn of Billy’s youth. Franklin’s thinking is that the memorial should draw a new generation of worshipers and donors, including kids who would be attracted by the farm motif. ■ Checking a boy just before his bar mitzvah, Orthodox rabbis in Sydney, Australia, found that his rabbi-supervised circumcision had not quite been “complete” and ruled that it must be done again because, officially, the boy was not a Jew. The boy’s mother objected and instead found a Progressive synagogue for the bar mitzvah (although the Orthodox rabbi, Moshe Gutnick, said she is “fooling the child” into believing he is Jewish).
TODAY IN HISTORY President Lyndon Johnson 1965 outlined the goals of his “Great Society” in his State of the Union Address. During the Korean conflict, North Korean and Communist Chinese forces captured the city of Seoul.
1951
WORD UP!
Pull a fast one Frustrated publishers: ‘Free’ doesn’t mean ‘take all you want’
SEE PAGE 3
Fabian Lewkowicz fabianl@smdp.com
Eye of the beholder Housing gets rise out of neighbors BY MELODY HANATANI
favonian \fuh-VOH-nee-uhn\, adjective: Pertaining to the west wind; soft; mild; gentle.
INDEX Inside Scoop Making good on resolutions
3
Business Following the trends
14
Surf Report Water temperature: 59°
15
Horoscopes What the future holds
16
MOVIETIMES Celluloid heroes
17
Comics & Stuff Strips tease
18-19
Classifieds Find your place in the world
21-23
Daily Press Staff Writer
MID-CITY — After four and a half years of planning and development, a 41-unit affordable housing complex at the intersection of Broadway and 15th Street — complete with its espresso-colored stucco and crushed-can exterior — is finally nearing completion. A product of architectural genius, its planners contend, the building incorporates sustainable green elements and will help revive a desolate stretch of Broadway. Some residents, however, argue that something is not right with the building that now towers above them.
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Standing at four stories, or 40 feet high, the building is a monstrosity in this neighborhood of primarily onestory and split-level houses and apartments. “It does not fit in with the neighborhood,” said Elena Livenson, who lives on 15th Street, directly across from the new apartment complex. “It’s really ugly,” she added.“It doesn’t have any architectural meaning.” Several residents have been complaining about the scale of the project, which planners say is actually less than the city’s maximum allowable size of 45 feet in the Broadway Commercial District. “It is totally out of place with the single-family homes in the neighborhood,” argued Clara Benrey in a recent letter to the editor (SMDP, Jan. 2, page 4). See APARTMENTS, page 12
City Hall looks to soak up sun BY KEVIN HERRERA Daily Press Staff Writer
Christine Chang news@smdp.com
CAN IT: A new affordable-housing complex at 15th Street and Broadway is being called genius and an eyesore by architects and residents, respectively.
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CITYWIDE — Residents and business owners looking to save money and do right by the environment will get the best deals on the latest solar technology, thanks to an initiative by City Hall to have Santa Monica become energy independent by the year 2020. Known initially as the Community Energy Independent Initiative, Solar Santa Monica is a two-year, pilot program designed by the Environmental Programs Division at City Hall to link residents and business owners with trusted suppliers of solar technology that could be purchased at a discount See SOLAR POWER, page 11
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