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OCTOBER 4-5, 2014
9
Volume 13 Issue 274
Santa Monica Daily Press We have you covered
days
THE ROADS ISSUE
Some commissioners wants Lincoln improved ASAP BY DAVID MARK SIMPSON Daily Press Staff Writer
LINCOLN BLVD “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe,” is a quote often attributed to Abraham Lincoln (though the Abraham Lincoln Society Association can’t find proof that he actually said it). This is precisely what some Planning Commissioners hope city planners will avoid in their quest to overhaul Lincoln Boulevard. The commission reviewed the early plans put forth by city planners for the Lincoln Neighborhood Corridor Plan, which seeks to beautify, pedestrianize, and decongest the boulevard from the I-10 Freeway to Ozone Avenue. More than 30,000 cars drive up and down Lincoln everyday according to city planners and much of the retail is dedicated to auto repair. Most agree that it’s not the most beautiful stretch of Santa Monica but some groups have already started to change that. Beautify Lincoln, a nonprofit organization, has added dozens of murals on private property along the route. Traffic remains a problem. Residents want to see a reduction in the number of auto facilities, according to a poll conducted last year. Commissioners reviewed the tenets of the plan, which include streetscape design, a business improvement toolkit, and transit network enhancements. They mostly concurred with the direction of the plan, which is going to be laid out over the next 18 months. Some commissioners expressed a desire
Courtesy photo
PREORDER: Santa Monica brothers Mat and JP MacDonell recently raised $21,000 on Kickstarter to fund the BagTowel, a backpack with a beach towel sewn inside.
Matthew Hall matt@smdp.com
UGLY?: The City’s plan for Lincoln Blvd. calls for fewer auto businesses, more pedestrian friendly features and an improved aesthetic.
for immediate changes while others asked city planners to be careful not to get in the way of natural positive changes. Commissioner Amy Anderson noted that adaptive reuse of buildings has worked well on other parts of Lincoln. Commissioner Richard McKinnon agreed, noting that he’d prefer reuse to new, large buildings. “We could have block-long new buildings that will encompass parking of some sort,” he said, “or we could have what (some) are suggesting which is adaptively reusing buildings along there, redoing the
facade, encouraging people to get back on that boulevard, and as they repopulate they attract new sorts of businesses along there.” McKinnon noted that people have been asking for years for Lincoln to be improved and he urged the city planners to progress quickly. Senior Strategic Planner Peter James said he believed they would move fast, with the exception of some of the major proposed changes to the street. “That you are going to have a rolling program that gets underway is the best
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES While people in some other parts of the country are watching the leaves turn a kaleidoscope of fall colors as they con-
template unpacking winter clothes, California is roasting under an autumn heat wave. As high temperatures were ranging from the low 100s in Southern California to the 90s in the normally more temperate San Francisco Bay Area on Thursday, National
BY KELSEY FOWLER Daily Press Staff Writer
Weather Service forecasters warned that was just a warm-up for what was coming Friday and Saturday. “We’re looking at temperatures in the
CITYWIDE Mat MacDonell and his younger brother JP started the blog Urban Barrels to share their love of surfing, posting photos of people under wave-like “barrels” found outside the ocean - rock walls, bus stops or curving palm trees. Now, after a successful Kickstarter campaign this summer, the Santa Monica pair has raised almost $21,000 to create the BagTowel, aptly named “The Kicker.” The BagTowel is a backpack with a cotton beach towel sewn inside and a waterproof pocket made from recycled sailboat sails. The brothers are self-professed surfing addicts, but also played water polo and swam at Pepperdine University in Malibu. Their aquatic lifestyle has them going from the pool to the beach and back again, JP said.
SEE HEAT PAGE 7
SEE BAG PAGE 8
SEE LINCOLN PAGE 8
Triple-digit fall temperatures roasting California JOHN ROGERS
Santa Monica brothers ride Kickstarter wave to fund BagTowel
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