WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, 2012
Volume 11 Issue 159
Santa Monica Daily Press
DECKER BACK AT IT SEE PAGE 3
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THE PUMPING IT OUT ISSUE
Bergamot development stalls for now
‘Chain Reaction’ gets positive feedback from Landmarks Commission BY ASHLEY ARCHIBALD Daily Press Staff Writer
Major mixed-use project put off to end of year for further review of plan
CITY HALL The Landmarks Commission voted Monday night to start a landmarking process for public art piece “Chain Reaction,” a move which will set in motion a chain of events with uncertain consequences for both City Hall and the sculpture. If the application is eventually accepted, “Chain Reaction,” a 26-foot monumental piece by Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Paul Conrad that serves as a lurking warning against nuclear technology, would be the first public art piece in Santa Monica to win landmark status. “It seems on the face of it that there’s credible evidence it should be landmarked,” said Commissioner Roger Genser on Tuesday. “There are a number of elements there to be considered. It was made by a notable artist, it’s in a site-specific location and it has cultural influence.” The landmark designation provides protections and special process that makes it more difficult for structures and other landmarked things to be moved, demolished or altered. That could make things difficult for officials that suspect the piece may be badly damaged by two decades of exposure to the elements, and may need to be taken from its location in the Civic Center, immediately across from the RAND Corp., to a museum or other place for repair and upkeep. The extent of the damage is unknown, but the City Council has already agreed to allow staff to take the sculpture out of its public art collection if supporters of the sculpture haven’t raised enough money to save it by November. Test results on its materials and a structural
BY ASHLEY ARCHIBALD Daily Press Staff Writer
BERGAMOT STATION A major redevelop-
Hills. During the Santa Monica incident, which occurred the evening of April 20, police said the suspect hopped into a woman’s 2010 Mercedes and drove off just
ment of the former Papermate site previously scheduled for review in June will now be put off until the beginning of 2013, and a local anti-development group is taking credit. Santa Monica Coalition for a Livable City (SMCLC) announced in a release Tuesday that their opposition to the development, along with concerns from other neighborhood groups and even state agencies, had stalled the proposed Bergamot Transit Village, a 766,094-square-foot mix of apartments and shops slated for the east end of Santa Monica. City Hall, however, denies that the group had any influence, instead saying that both the final draft of an environmental document for the project and negotiations with the developer were taking longer than expected. SMCLC, which formed to fight a remodel of Santa Monica Place that included building three, 21-story condo towers, has long opposed Hines’ plan to build the project at the proposed size, saying that its traffic impacts were not accurately reflected in environmental documents and that the project was moving ahead of a wider planning effort for the area. The group hired a traffic engineer and an environmental attorney to parse through thousands of pages of documents and come up with alternative analyses. Those called the previous work “shoddy” and suggested that it was impossible to look at the Papermate site alone when a trio of developments totaling just under 700,000 square feet were planned on nearby Colorado Avenue.
SEE BANDIT PAGE 9
SEE PROJECT PAGE 9
Daniel Archuleta daniela@smdp.com
SEE SCULPTURE PAGE 10
IN PROGRESS: A worker inspects the 'Chain Reaction' sculpture late last month.
Police hunting for ‘Opportunistic Bandit’ Suspect wanted for series of robberies and crimes across Southern California BY KEVIN HERRERA Editor in Chief
DOWNTOWN Police are asking for the public’s help in apprehending a man they say has committed at least a dozen crimes in the Los Angeles area, including several car
jackings and robberies. The same suspect, dubbed the “Opportunistic Bandit” by police because of the types of crimes and victims targeted, is also believed to be responsible for at least seven other illegal acts in the cities of Santa Monica, Glendale, Pasadena and Beverly
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