FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2011
Volume 11 Issue 24
Santa Monica Daily Press
OSCAR GOES SILENT? SEE PAGE 18
We have you covered
THE FAVORITE THINGS ISSUE
No charges filed against teens in Samohi race case Youth, their parents ordered to enroll in diversion program, pay restitution to victim BY KEVIN HERRERA Editor in Chief
PUBLIC SAFETY FACILITY Two juveniles responsible for what has been described as a racial incident at Santa Monica High School this spring are enrolling in a diversion pro-
gram meant to keep kids from turning into career criminals. In a statement released by the Santa Monica Police Department Thursday afternoon, the teens, who are said to have chained an African-American member of the Samohi wrestling team to a locker and
yelled “slave for sale,” will participate in the Juvenile Offender Intervention Network, an arbitration process for youth created by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. In exchange, no criminal charges will be filed.
To participate in the program, which went countywide in 2003, parents and young offenders enter into a year-long contract in which the teens acknowledge responsibility for their acts and agree to pay restitution, SEE CASE PAGE 10
AFM to stay in Santa Monica BY KEVIN HERRERA Editor in Chief
in his project, or into the-city owned Mountain View Mobile Home Park. In the meantime, the company has spent a lot of money maintaining the park, Luzzatto told council members. “No good deed goes unpunished,” he said Tuesday.
DOWNTOWN The American Film Market, one of the world’s largest gatherings of independent filmmakers and distributors, will remain in Santa Monica through 2017, according to the Independent Film & Television Alliance. New agreements with 17 local hotels will keep AFM at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, the market’s home since 1991, with additional exhibition space continuing at JW Marriott’s Le Merigot Beach Hotel and with conferences continuing at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows. The Santa Monica Convention & Visitors Bureau estimates the market will contribute more than $100 million to the local economy over the next six years. The alliance, which produces AFM, had been flirting with the idea of moving the market to Downtown Los Angeles where it could command more affordable hotel room rates. That worried Santa Monica merchants and restaurateurs who have come to rely on the market to fuel the economy during the winter months when tourism tends to die down. Market attendees caught wind of the idea and launched an online petition calling on the alliance to keep AFM in Santa Monica because of its seaside location, wide variety of restaurants and retail. The threat to move also spurred Loews management to come back with a better deal after the alliance balked at a price hike pro-
SEE TRAILER PARK PAGE 12
SEE AFM PAGE 9
Daniel Archuleta daniela@smdp.com
TESTING THE WATERS: The City Council has floated the idea of looking into acquiring Village Trailer Park.
Council ponders trailer park purchase BY ASHLEY ARCHIBALD Daily Press Staff Writer
CITY HALL The City Council voted Tuesday to ask the owner of an embattled trailer park to sell his property, a potentially expensive proposition that would kill off planned city projects and that the trailer park ownership team has not considered in the past.
The request comes at the end of over six years of negotiations between City Hall and co-owner Marc Luzzatto to keep residents in their homes until details could be hammered out on a mixed-use condominium project proposed for the site. That included a tenant relocation plan that would move residents into deedrestricted low-income apartments included
Gary Limjap (310) 586-0339 In today’s real estate climate ...
Experience counts! garylimjap@gmail.com www.garylimjap.com
BACK OR UNFILED
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