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WHAT’S UP WESTSIDE ..................PAGE 2 BRIEFS ..............................................PAGE 3 MY WRITE ........................................PAGE 4 KNOW BEFORE YOU GO ................PAGE 8 POLICE LOGS ..................................PAGE 10
MONDAY
11.02.15 Volume 14 Issue 303
@smdailypress
Santa Monica Daily Press
smdp.com
Business growing for new products made from old sails BY NICK SALAZAR Daily Press Intern
Two brothers are working to eliminate waste from discarded sailboat sails by innovating new uses for the recycled material. Mathew and John Paul “JP” MacDonell, founders of Urban Barrels, have expanded their product line and hired interns to increase the number of sails rescued from local landfills. The brothers launched a successful Kickstarter campaign in the summer of 2014, raising $21,000 to create a backpack constructed in part from recycled sailboat sails. “It’s been about a year since we launched our Kickstarter and now we’re kind of full throttle, Mat and I are working full time,” said JP, “We’ve just grown since we ended that Kickstarter campaign, month over month.” The brothers credit this growth in part to their recycled sailboat
sail program, which make their products both sustainable and unique. “A lot of our products are one of a kind,” said JP, “We’re making production runs that are limited, from one to 25 to 50.”
The process begins when a sailboat sail is damaged. “Once a sail is ripped or torn, if it can’t be repaired it will just literally be thrown away, which will then be taken to a landfill,” explained JP, “Our motivation was
to get ahead of this process.” The brothers have worked to spread the word about their recycling program along the California coastline. “We’ve just really gotten around, reaching out to sail shops
up and down the coast, and with friends and family that have boats in different marinas,” said JP. Urban Barrels’ has found a receptive maritime community enthusiSEE SAIL PAGE 5
Courtesy photo
SAIL: Urban Barrels takes old and unused sailboat sails and repurposes them. The products they create are inspired by the stories behind the sails.
Lobbying rules miss the mark for a second time
Millennial on a mission Samohi grad quitting job to volunteer abroad BY JEFFREY I. GOODMAN Daily Press Staff Writer
Amy Valdes could continue living Santa Monica, climbing the career ladder and enjoying a measure of stability. Or she could ditch it all to satisfy her longtime VALDEZ desire to travel abroad and help people in underserved communities. “If I don’t do it now, I’m never going to do it,” she said. Valdes, a 22-year-old Santa Monica
PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS HERE! Yes, in this very spot! Call for details (310) 458-7737
High School alumna, has weighed the options and made up her mind. She’ll soon be quitting her job as a customer service supervisor at Whole Foods and heading to Thailand for a two-week volunteering program that will kick off what she anticipates to be six months of personal growth, new cultural experiences and unforeseen challenges. “It’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” she said. “It’s still a little scary. I’m leaving my family and my home and my boyfriend. I’m going on a whim. But I feel like it’s something I need to do.” Valdes is part of a millennial generation that has shown an increased interest in volunteerism, according to several studies. Statistics from the Corporation for National and
Community Service show that 20.5 percent of Californians ages 20-24 donated their time to nonprofit causes in 2013. Valdes is going to Thailand on a program run by International Volunteer HQ, a New Zealand-based organization that places volunteers in countries around the world. The group has coordinated volunteer trips for more than 40,000 people in more than 30 countries since its inception in 2007. Valdes said she knows there are numerous volunteer opportunities in the U.S. but that she wanted to go somewhere where her impact would be even more powerful. She is planning to participate in an outdoor work program in the Chiang SEE SAMOHI PAGE 7
Gary Limjap (310) 586-0339 In today’s real estate climate ...
Experience counts! garylimjap@gmail.com www.garylimjap.com
BY MATTHEW HALL Daily Press Editor
Santa Monica officials hope the third time will be a charm for the City’s proposed lobbying ordinance. At their Oct. 27 meeting, Council heard the ordinance for the second time and the City Attorney’s office said they would need to bring the law back for a third hearing at a future date to accommodate the second set of revisions. Council took a first pass at rules for regulating local lobbying in July but deemed the original proposal too complicated. Instead, they
asked for a revision with direct reference to the rules already in place in West Hollywood. The City Attorney’s office presented the revised rules last week. “The revised ordinance is basic and simple,” said the staff report. “It would merely require lobbyists to register with the City, disclose minimal information about their lobbying activities, and pay a fee to cover costs of the registration program. Disclosure requirements relating to lobbyists' compensation, prohibitions on certain activities by lobbyists, exemptions, and remeSEE COUNCIL PAGE 5
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