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Santa Monica Daily Press WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10, 2015
Volume 14 Issue 180
CRIME WATCH SEE PAGE 12
‘Affordable’ art studios miss Council’s mark BY DAVID MARK SIMPSON Daily Press Staff Writer
SMO The operators of a large studio
on public land that City Council set aside to remain affordable for artists are subletting at substantially higher rates than the low rate they pay to City Hall. Santa Monica Fine Art Studios, a 22,500-square-foot hangar located at the airport, was leased out to Yossi Govrin in the early 2000s at a greatly subsidized rate (starting at 37 cents per square foot per month but currently up to more than 47 cents per square foot with inflation) after council explicitly expressed a desire for the studios to be made available to lower-income artists. Despite that direction, auditing and affordability requirements never made it into Govrin’s contract. Govrin beat out MTV and
ADJOURNMENTS:
Folk singer, city employee, rent control activist remembered
Santa Monica College in scoring the lease to the hangar. Nearly three dozen artists rent studio space from Govrin. Recent rent documents obtained by the Daily Press show that Govrin charges artists more than three times per square foot what he is charged by City Hall for rent. In 2013, the Daily Press asked Govrin what artists pay for studio space and he flatly declined to answer, ultimately hanging up on the reporter. He also hung up on several follow-up phone calls. Following a Daily Press article, City Hall vowed to audit the leases of all of its Santa Monica Airport tenants and, 16 months later, provided the Daily Press with subrental rates that Govrin had voluntarily given to City Hall. SEE STUDIOS PAGE 6
Tower of trials Special projects pavilion accents new Crossroads School science facility Editor’s note: This is the third installment of a multi-part series about the new science complex at Crossroads School.
BY DAVID MARK SIMPSON BY JEFFREY I. GOODMAN
Daily Press Staff Writer
Daily Press Staff Writer
Editor’s note: This is a semi-regular feature that announces the deaths of people who lived in or impacted Santa Monica. Oftentimes the names and information are gathered from the ends of City Council meetings, when council adjourns in the memory of those who’ve passed.
OCEAN MOTION
Photos by Sam Catanzaro | editor@smdp.com
Youth surfers from local schools flocked to the beach Monday to celebrate World Oceans Day near lifeguard station No. 24. The event, organized by Santa Monica-based Surf Academy, included a variety of surf and beach games on a day dedicated to awareness and curbing pollution around the globe.
Gary Limjap (310) 586-0339 In today’s real estate climate ...
Experience counts! garylimjap@gmail.com www.garylimjap.com
CITYWIDE Three Santa Monicans — who fought segregation, gridlock, and rising rents, respectively — died last month. Guy Carawan, a folk singer and activist, was born in Santa Monica
While touring colleges in the region to gather ideas for a new science center, Crossroads School officials made a discovery of their own. During a trip to UC San Diego, they saw a project involving artificial intelligence housed in a research facility that was designed specifically for short-term projects and collaborative endeavors. “Teams of people came up with ideas as to what they wanted to research, took over a part of the
SEE ADJOURNMENTS PAGE 5
SEE SCIENCE PAGE 6
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