Santa Monica Daily Press, November 04, 2003

Page 1

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2003

Volume 2, Issue 301

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Santa Monica Daily Press A newspaper with issues

City Hall wants a little help with homeless burden

L O T T O FANTASY 5 27, 3, 37, 17, 2 DAILY 3 Afternoon picks: 7, 2, 4 Evening picks: 8, 9, 0

DAILY DERBY 1st Place: 11, Money Bags 2nd Place: 7, Eureka 3rd Place: 3, Hot Shot

It’s time for other cities to buck up

Race Time: 1:40.51

(Editor’s note: This is the last article in an ongoing series covering the issue of homelessness in Santa Monica.)

NEWS OF THE WEIRD by Chuck Shepard

In Edmonton, Alberta, in July, Anthony Alan Burton pleaded guilty to a 2002 robbery that went down this way: He had wrapped his head in gauze, covered his face with silicon putty and rouge (and oversized glasses), grabbed a Samurai sword, walked into a Jehovah’s Witnesses hall, and screamed, “I am the evil that you have read about! This is the face of evil!” He was in the middle of collecting cash and credit cards from everyone when the police arrived. (A psychiatrist had testified that Burton had run out of medication several days before.)

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Nowadays the illiterates can read and write.” — Alberto Moravia

INDEX Horoscopes Do something different, Cancer . . .2

Local Community news . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Opinion Thinking Twice alone . . . . . . . . . . .4

State Peterson case and DNA . . . . . . . . .7

Mommy Page Paying attention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

National Bush gets another $1M . . . . . . . . .11

People in the News ‘Knucklehead’ tells all in book . . .16

BY JOHN WOOD John Wood/Daily Press

Crews place evergreen trees in the center court of the Third Street Promenade on Monday. The trees are part of downtown Santa Monica’s ‘Winterlit’ holiday theme.

Plastic trees a sure sign holidays in SM are near By Daily Press staff

In hopes of making downtown Santa Monica a holiday shopping destination, the decor purchased last year for $300,000 is being erected on the Third Street Promenade. Crews began setting up several fiberglass icebergs and faux evergreen trees on the outdoor mall on Monday. The decor is part of “Winterlit,” a five-week campaign now in its second season that is designed to draw shoppers here. The Bayside District Corp., which manages downtown with City Hall, announced the program last year and officials said the holiday festivities and decor would cost about $400,000 for five years of use. Last year, one of Bayside’s largest purchases was $331,865 for the holiday decor on the Promenade. Bayside also hired Ramsey Avery, an award-winning set designer who has done the art direction on two of Steven Spielberg films, to design the lighting display and Winterlit theme. That theme includes towering 18-foot tall illuminated trees, iceberg sculptures, ice shards dangling from light poles and a 30foot high canopy of stars and

lights. Winterlit will light the Promenade every evening from sundown to 3 a.m. through the first week of January.

The festivities kick off on Nov. 28 — the busiest shopping day of the year. The festivities kick off on Nov. 28 — the busiest shopping day of the year. The day will be full of music, entertainment and celebrity guests. Not only will “Surfing Santa” be on hand with his elves who will arrive via electric sleigh, he’ll host a breakfast with 150 children. Pictures will be taken with Santa and proceeds will benefit the Westside Food Bank, an area nonprofit organization. Radio station KOST 103.5 will host live entertainment from center stage on the Promenade starting at 2:30 p.m. There will be choruses, holiday carolers and other musicians. At 4 p.m., snow will fall at Santa Monica Place, thanks to a snow machine. The events of the day culminate See WINTERLIT, page 6

— JULIE RUSK

Daily Press Staff Writer

Manager of human services, City Hall

City Hall is refocusing its efforts to deal with the growing homeless population by looking to nearby cities to help shoulder the burden. While City Hall will continue to fund and expand a diverse network of programs designed to help the homeless, it’s time for the problem to be approached regionally, which means other cities need to step up to the plate, officials say. Many residents, merchants and homeless people have complained that because neighboring cities don’t offer services, needy people

from those cities come to Santa Monica, creating a higher demand locally for services. In many surrounding communities like Beverly Hills, homeless people aren’t accepted, which is why they flock to Santa Monica, some argue. In order to encourage other cities to help, City Hall now plays a role in several regional groups. One of those groups, which Mayor Richard See HOMELESS, page 6

Hospital agrees to pay $2 million to comatose car accident victim

UCLA officials agree doctors made a mistake

25, 1999 high on drugs. He climbed into the back seat of a friend’s car, which later crashed on a freeway in Riverside. Lawyers say the driver and the two passengers were on drugs. The two other people in the car suffered only minor injuries. Johnson’s parents sued UCLA for negligence after a doctor installed a tube into his brain to relieve pressure from internal bleeding four days after the accident. His parents said Johnson was coming out of his coma and was forced back into it by the tube, which led to a respiratory arrest. But lawyers for UCLA, who admitted the tube shouldn’t have

BY JOHN WOOD Daily Press Staff Writer

Under a settlement agreement hashed out last month in a Santa Monica courtroom, UCLA Medical Center will pay more than $2 million to a Malibu resident who was left comatose after doctors mistakenly installed a tube into his brain four years ago. Now 22 years old, Robert Johnson, left an all-night party in the early morning hours of July

Introduces

THE UNDER $10 DINNER SPECIAL ,

“We’re at a point now where we would be unlikely to tackle any major initiative without regional support.”

See VICTIM, page 7

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Santa Monica Daily Press, November 04, 2003 by Santa Monica Daily Press - Issuu