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Volume 8 Issue 111
Santa Monica Daily Press RECIPES FOR ST. PATTY’S SEE PAGE 6
We have you covered
THE I TOLD YOU SO ISSUE
Shriver mulling run for attorney general BY KEVIN HERRERA Editor in Chief
DOWNTOWN City Councilman Bobby
bank for years. “I go with a very heavy heart,” Yamamoto said. “It’s been home for all of us.” The Dallas-based developer acquired the 47-unit apartment complex in 2007 with plans to construct a 26-unit condominium project in its place, but was met with resistance by residents who lobbied officials to landmark the building. The project at one point was proposed to have a mix of threelevel townhouses, duplexes, penthouse and affordable housing units. The appeal is scheduled to be heard by
Shriver, who was recently re-elected to another four-year term, is considering a run for state attorney general next year. In an interview with the Daily Press, Shriver, who is the nephew of President John F. Kennedy and the brother of California First Lady Maria Shriver, said he has had informal discussions with supporters who are urging him to become California’s top cop, but he is nowhere near making a final decision. Shriver, who was first elected to the City Council in 2004 after taking on City Hall over the heated hedge issue, said there are many factors that would play into a decision to run, most importantly his family, his wife having just given birth to a girl. Shriver said he also has some unfinished business in Santa Monica, mainly solving the homeless issue, which has been his main focus while sitting on the dais. “There are a lot of serious issues to consider, but the fact that people are thinking of me is interesting,” Shriver said Friday. The 54-year-old Democrat, who is the son of Sargent Shriver, the driving force behind the creation of the Peace Corps and the Democratic Party’s 1972 vice presidential candidate, is a relative newcomer to politics, having never been interested in following in his family’s footsteps until the hedge issue sparked a desire to run for public office. Shriver spent many years as a newspaper reporter, feeling he could make more of a difference using the written word. “But when I was elected, I was able to have influence … and realized I could use political office in the same way I used the newspaper,” Shriver said. Shriver’s sister recently said that she has no plans on running for public office in
SEE EVICTED PAGE 12
SEE SHRIVER PAGE 10
Brandon Wise brandonw@smdp.com
BOXED OUT: Surrounded by boxes, Betty Yamamoto, a 27-year-resident of 301 Ocean Avenue apartments, gets rid of paperwork on Friday afternoon, just days before she has to vacate her apartment. The owner of the apartments evicted all tenants in hopes of turning the landmarked building into condos. The developer is appealing the landmarks designation.
Forced to leave after a long fight BY MELODY HANATANI Daily Press Staff Writer
CITY HALL It was the scene of great triumph for a group of long-time renters fighting to save their apartment from demolition, a celebration over a decision by the Landmarks Commission to historically preserve the building. More than two months after the hearing in which the 57-year-old complex was deemed a landmark because of its association with late mayor Clo Hoover, the building today is nearly empty as just a small group of tenants remain, packing up their boxes and getting ready to leave this weekend.
While the building has been landmarked — a status that is being challenged by the developer Trammell Crow Co. — the eviction notices issued last year requiring that tenants move out by March 17 remains in place Betty Yamamoto, a retired researcher who spent her career at the West L.A. VA, called the past 26 years living at 301 Ocean Ave. “superb,” speaking fondly of a community where neighbors got along well. She plans to leave in the next few days to live temporarily with a sister in the San Fernando Valley, hoping to find a permanent home closer to Santa Monica where she has been visiting the same doctor and
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