BRIAN MASER
THE CONDO SALES LEADER • 310.314.7700 CONDO SALES
CALL US FOR A FREE APPRAISAL • MASERCONDOSALES.COM
1760 Ocean Avenue Santa Monica, CA 90401
310.393.6711
Parking | Kitchenettes | WiFi Available
BOOK DIRECT AND SAVE SeaviewHotel .com
WEEKEND EDITION
11.28.15 - 11.29.15 Volume 15 Issue 14
@smdailypress
Starting from
88
$
+ Taxes
WHAT’S UP WESTSIDE ..................PAGE 2 COMMUNITY BRIEFS ......................PAGE 3 EDUCATOR SPOTLIGHT ................PAGE 4 CRIME WATCH ..................................PAGE 8 MYSTERY PHOTO ............................PAGE 9
Santa Monica Daily Press
smdp.com
Bad dental records Santa Monicans give local dentist an overall D satisfaction rating BY JENNIFER MAAS Daily Press Staff Writer
A recent report shows that Santa Monicans don’t believe their City is full of top-notch dentists. In fact, the inaugural Dentist Quality Report, conducted by healthcare discovery platform Opencare, shows that patients gave Santa Monica a D for “dental satisfaction.” The Dentist Quality Report evaluated cities and states nationwide across multiple metrics to determine where patients are most satisfied, as well as what key factors drive satisfaction. According to the report, the metric that correlates
Courtesy Photo
TOP RANKING: The Westside Aquatics under-10 water polo team will compete in a championship tournament Dec. 5-6. The team earned a top-3 ranking in the USA Water Polo CCA Zone Fall League this season, according to program director Matt Flanders.
100 years ago: Money ‘thrown away’ at church’s candidate forum This monthly feature uncovers Santa Monica’s history by compiling notable city happenings from a century ago. The stories are found in old newspaper archives.
BY JEFFREY I. GOODMAN Daily Press Staff Writer
Upset about money in politics? It’s not a new issue, as evidenced by a local candidate forum held at a Santa Monica church a century ago this month. The black pastor of Phillips Chapel Church at Fourth and Bay streets invited 12 candidates to
speak to about 100 congregants for five minutes each ahead of an upcoming City election. At the end of the forum, the candidates were asked to walk past a table on which the pastor was standing and leave “not less than a dollar,” according to an archived Los Angeles Times article. “While the coup was successful for the church, it called forth speeches from various members of the congregation, [criticizing] the idea that the colored vote of the community could be bought,” the article reads.
“Any money spent in this way is money thrown away,” attendee J.C. Rickman, a barber, was quoted as saying. MAN’S GRAVE AT CENTER OF CUSTODY BATTLE
Relatives were locked in a battle over the custody of the body of a man who was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Santa Monica a century ago this month. Attorneys and court officials were digging through law books to determine how to handle the case SEE HISTORY PAGE 8
strongest with overall satisfaction is the level of trust patients have in their dentist. To create the report, Opencare.com analyzed over 56,000 dentists across the United States. The analysis looked at over 250,000 individual online patient reviews on subjects such as a patients level of trust in their dentist’s decisions, how well the patient’s dentist explained medical condition(s), and the level of staff friendliness and courteousness at a dentist’s office. Opencare then evaluated cities and states against one another along multiple metrics. A detailed write up explaining the report’s methodology can be obtained by contacting Eva Tang, vice president of Data Science at Opencare. “After months of analyzing SEE DENTISTS PAGE 3
Daily Press announces new holiday lights contest The Santa Monica Daily Press is launching a Holiday Lights contest open to anyone within the paper’s circulation area. The contest will have two categories, one for residential displays and a second for commercial/nonprofits. Residents are encouraged to enter their favorite holiday lights in either category. There’s no limit on the number of entries that can be submitted and depending on the quantity of responses, the paper will publish photos of nominated displays in the days leading up to Christmas. Residential displays must be visible from a publicy accessable street. To submit a nomination, email the address of the display to editor@smdp.com with the subject line “residential lights” by
December 18 at 5 p.m. Commercial displays can be exterior or interior but must be visible to the public. Nonprofit groups and churches will be considered under the commercial category. Nominations can be emailed to editor@smdp.com with the subject line “commercial lights” by December 18 at 5 p.m. All kinds of seasonal displays are eligible for entry. The only rule is the display must include at least one illuminated element. Photos are not required with nominations, but will be accepted. All displays must comply with any local regulations. Winners will be chosen by the Daily Press Staff and residential winners will receive a prize donated by one of our advertisers.