Community Voices: Mayor Ted Winterer Reflects on 2017 So Far
At Downtown Santa Monica, Inc.’s Annual Meeting on August 31, 2017, Santa Monica Mayor Ted Winterer delivered these remarks reflecting on highlights from 2017 so far, as well as the opportunities and challenges ahead. These...
Community Voices: What Not to Miss at Santa Monica’s COAST Open Streets Festival
This post by Santa Monica's public information coordinator Joseph Vandenorth originally appeared at santamonica.gov.
COAST is just around the corner on Sunday, October 1 from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. You might be wondering, "what's COAST?"...
Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Superintendent’s Statement Regarding DACA
The following is a message from Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Ben Drati regarding President Donald Trump's decision to terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
We understand the concern and...
Community Voices: Santa Monica Mourns with Charlottesville
The following is a letter from Santa Monica Mayor Ted Winterer and Mayor Pro Tempore Gleam Davis.
To the residents of Santa Monica,
We share the nation’s heartache following the events in Charlottesville. It’s painful to...
Community Voices: Happy Birthday, Social Security!
The following was written by former Santa Monica resident and activist Ernie Powell. Powell is currently an organizer and consultant with Social Security Works.
August 14 is Social Security’s 82nd birthday. All of us, young,...
Opinion: Three-Month Expo Bike Path Closure Offers Win-Win Safe Streets Opportunity
A popular segment of the new Exposition Bike path will close for three months for maintenance. . This long-term temporary closure provides an opportunity for Los Angeles City Councilmember Mike Bonin to pursue an easy...
Opinion: City Hall Built for a 21st Century Government
The following is by Susan Cline, city of Santa Monica public works director and Gigi Decavalles-Hughes, city of Santa Monica finance director.
Santa Monica City Hall is an iconic and historic building that has served this...
Opinion: The Only Certain Thing is Uncertainty
On Tuesday, the Santa Monica City Council faced a difficult choice: whether to require 20-30 percent of units in new construction downtown be affordable, or whether to leave the requirement at only 15-20 percent.
This...
Community Voices: A Letter from a New Resident to the Santa Monica City Council
The following is a letter sent by a recent Santa Monica resident to the City Council. It is reprinted here with his permission.
Dear City Leaders,
I am writing regarding the Downtown Specific Plan. Although...
Six Years of Process, and Then… Boom!
This post originally appeared on The Healthy City Local.
At the City Council meeting last Tuesday night on Santa Monica’s Downtown Community Plan (DCP) the ironies abounded. As planning staff has told us many times, the...
Community Voices: Why Is Everyone Else Traffic?
This post originally appeared on the blog of local community activist and organizer Luke Klipp. It was republished on Santa Monica Next's sister site, Longbeachize. Klipp serves as a Metro Board Deputy to Long Beach Mayor...
The Downtown Community Plan On Its Final Stage
This post originally appeared on The Healthy City Local.
After, in words taken from the staff report, “nearly six years in development” (not too much longer than it takes to get approval to build an apartment...
Op Ed: The Destruction of Bergamot Arts Center is Fake News
Bergamot Arts Center has been a vital part of the arts fabric of Santa Monica since its inception in the 1990s. On Tuesday night, the Santa Monica City Council will be asked to look at...
An Inconvenient Truth: Climate Change Takes A Backseat to Slow Growth in Santa Monica’s...
The purpose of plans is to help communities confront and prepare for their future. On preparing for a future with climate change, the downtown plan is an utter failure. Instead of focusing on the...
The Downtown Community Plan and the Lingering Impacts of the Great Recession
The question I ended my post with on Saturday was why would Santa Monica enact a Downtown Community Plan (DCP) that makes it easier to build commercial development than housing? Keep in mind that...
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