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...
Flying the Coop
As my friend and publisher, Damien Newton, noted in a recent post, I am moving on after four years as editor of Santa Monica Next. It has certainly been a transformative experience for me....
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...
A Taco Stand on the Corner in Santa Monica Is a Great Place for...
In the 2016 presidential election, a Trump surrogate promised a taco truck on every corner if Hilary Clinton won. This is one of many reasons I supported Hilary. However, as with most policy positions,...
Builder’s Remedy Debacle Shows Council Delivers the Wrong Kind of Change
During the 2020 campaign for Santa Monica City Council, the “Change Slate” swept into power promising to support the police department and to limit new housing development. Three members of the slate were elected,...
Community Voices: YIMBYism and the Cruel Irony of Metropolitan History
The following originally appeared on Streetsblog L.A. It is by David Levitus. Levitus earned his Ph.D. at USC with a focus on the history of cities, policy, and politics in the United States. At NYU, he majored...
Editorial: In Rush to Improve Coffers, City Shouldn’t Quickly Sell Kiosk Rights
At tonight's meeting, the Santa Monica City Council is expected to vote on whether or not to approve a contract with BIG Outdoor, an electronic billboard company, for a 20-year contract to own, operate,...
Community Voices: A Message from Santa Monica’s Interim Chief of Police
This letter originally appeared at santamonica.gov.
Dear Community Members:
Over the last several months we have experienced a series of high profile events in Santa Monica, coupled by an increase in overall crime. Naturally, this has...
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Santa Monica Next relaunched this week as a progressive non-profit news voice for a progressive city. Unlike its previous...
Let’s Be Real: Homelessness is a Housing Problem
No corner of the state has been untouched by California's homelessness crisis: the most recent count found that Los Angeles County has more than 65,000 homeless individuals and families, including more than 800 in...
Sending Santa Monica’s Affordable Housing to Palmdale Is a Toxic Mix of Climate Denialism...
Urban sprawl is the leading cause of air pollution, greenhouse gasses, wildfires, and other contributors to the global warming that is likely to end civilization as we know it. People who live in remote...
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,...
Santa Monica in 2018: Are All Politics Still Local?
The following post originally appeared on The Healthy City Local.
(Note: I haven’t written here about Santa Monica politics since my last blog last summer on the Downtown Community Plan, but I was invited to give...
How To Bust A Housing Boom and A Housing Boon
This article originally appeared on Healthy City Local.
I’m sure readers are trembling with anticipation after I ended my last post with this cliffhanger: aside from drastically reducing the advantage that residential development in downtown Santa...
School construction projects create a once-in-a-generation opportunity for safe streets improvements
Santa Monica City and school district have a rare opportunity to work together to make our City’s streets safer for children and families going to school. But they only have a few months to...
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