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WEEKEND EDITION
12.24.16 - 12.25.16 Volume 16 Issue 36
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City gears up to count the homeless
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WHAT’S UP WESTSIDE ..................PAGE 2 FILM REVIEW ....................................PAGE 3 EDUCATOR SPOTLIGHT ................PAGE 4 COMICS ..............................................PAGE 6 CRIME WATCH ..................................PAGE 7
Santa Monica Daily Press
smdp.com
After December rains SoCal remains dry
BY KATE CAGLE Daily Press Staff Writer
The Santa Monica Homeless Count needs more volunteers for their upcoming tally of homeless people living in the City. Interested volunteers have until Wednesday, January 18 to sign up. The annual count collects information on the number of individuals and families living in shelters and on the streets. The count will start rain or shine at 10:30 p.m., January 25th. That night, teams of three to four people will fan out across the city on foot and in cars to cover every ally, street and park. It takes about 250 volunteers to cover Santa Monica’s 8 square miles. Last year, volunteers counted 728 homeless people, 416 of those were sleeping on the street - a three percent increase from 2015. No children or families were found unsheltered, however, the number of homeless people sleeping on the beach had greatly increased. Half of the homeless people counted had been living in Santa Monica for less than a year, a majority of them coming from outside the City. During the 2016 count, volunteers also gathered demographic information from 133 individuals over three nights. It typically takes a few hours to complete the overnight count, with some counters working until 3 a.m. Volunteers must be at least 18 years old and able to walk up to 2.5 miles unassisted. Parents may bring children ages 16 to 17 to participate on their team but no one younger. For more information, visit https://www.smgov.net/Portals/Ho melessness. kate@smdp.com
STORM DRAIN
Marina Andalon
Wet weather pushes water out to the ocean through local storm drains but the recent rains have done little to impact ongoing drought conditions.
BY KATE CAGLE Daily Press Staff Writer
Umbrellas are finally drying out, windshield wipers have a chance to rest and rubber boots are making their way back to the corner of your closet, but unfortunately Southern California’s drought still stands. In the past week, Santa Monica has received about 2 inches of rain, according to the California Irrigation Management Information System (CIMIS) weather station near the City. We need much more than that.
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“This it the sixth year of drought and we don’t see it ending anytime soon,” said Kim O’Cain, a senior sustainability analyst for the city of Santa Monica. Santa Monica’s rainy season picks up in January and February, and December’s numbers are slightly above the historical average of 1.88 inches, according to NOAA. While December did bring some rain, City leaders are less than optimistic about the future. “We need all the rain we can get because it does recharge our groundwater,” O’Cain said. “We have a goal to be self sufficient by
2020.” Right now, nearly 80 percent of the City’s water comes from local groundwater sources. It can take more than six months to see measurable impacts on aquifer levels after rainy days. In the meantime, the rain is helping the City’s trees that have been hit hard by six years of drought. Santa Monica has maintained emergency drought measures even after Governor Jerry Brown lifted mandatory water conservation requirements for the California in May. The other 20 percent of Santa Monica’s water is brought in from
SEE WATER PAGE 3
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other areas of the state. While Southern California remains exceptionally dry, rain and snowmelt in Northern California has improved the situation north of Santa Cruz. On Wednesday, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) announced plans to boost water supply from 20 to 45 percent of most requests because December storms produced rising reservoirs. “But the faucet can shut off suddenly and leave us dry for the sixth year in a row,” said DWR
Todd Mitchell
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