(Last week, Santa Monica Next discussed a flyer circulating in the Ocean Park/Downtown neighborhoods by a group called Save Main Street. Usually, Next doesn’t allow for Letters to the Editor to be unsigned, but after a discussion over emails I decided to make an exception because I believe the authors to be working in good faith.)
Quick summary:
The flyer doesnt say this is an approved project currently underway, but people are making false claims that it does and calling it misinformation. We’ve been getting attacked, in particular by people in leadership roles with the Ocean Park Association, which leaves us even more worried that there really are interests behind the scenes, and we want to know this: will this happen in the next 2-5 years? But nobody will answer that question. And if they can’t say, then my OP neighbors deserve to know this is indeed a possibility and we may need to organize and fight it.
Detailed response:
I found out about this potential development a few weeks ago when I read this op-ed in the SMDP.
Then, a group of us who live in the OPA neighborhood found multiple mentions of this on the city’s own website (links below), which appear to corroborate much of what’s said in the op-ed. We made the flyer and started passing it out to neighbors. I put an AI image on it to illustrate what 8 stories behind Main St would look like. That AI image is very clearly labeled as AI, as I don’t want to be spreading any misinformation. It’s very clearly not a city-approved image The flyer also has QR codes featured prominently that lead to the City of Santa Monica website, showing multiple mentions of this 577 figure (not 557 as incorrectly stated in the Santa Monica Next article) So you can see for yourself: Page F-19 here, slide 9 here, page 7 here – and this last one says “577 affordable residences committed.” Committed! I don’t want to spread misinformation, so I focused on what I’d found in actual documentation, and cited that clearly.
Then, when we started asking city leadership about this, including the Ocean Park Association (OPA), the response we got was that this isn’t currently happening. We know that! The flyer even says so, very clearly. But it appears to be next in line after Bergamot Station (which was declared surplus land by the council and closed-door negotiations with developers are currently underway, according to Dan Hall), and based on what we’ve seen, it looks like it’ll be prioritized in a couple years at the latest. In the current housing element, 2021 – 2029, five city-owned sites are identified for development. Four of them are now underway, including Bergamot. Main St is the last one left on the list. So we’ve asked, will this happen in the next, say, 2-5 years? And we get no answers, which is obviously concerning.
And then the attacks started, which made this more personal and worrisome. When one of our members posted the flyer to Nextdoor, we were attacked and had our motives questioned by many posters, some anonymous, some were people we know, and some were even OPA Board members. People on one social media board found out personal information about one of our members and posted personal information about them. On another, the president of OPA said this was “politically motivated” and the result of “the worst of people.” They say this has been “debunked.” And I would LOVE for that to be true. But we still don’t know if they’ll prioritize this project in the next 2-5 years or not.
It’s possible the city council just can’t comment on that, maybe for administrative or legal reasons. Maybe even they don’t know. And I want to respect that, if that’s the case. But then where does that leave us, who live in the neighborhood and feel the need to oppose this if it actually is on the table? And what’s with all the attacks from the OPA? I think it’s reasonable to inform our neighbors of what we’ve found, and perfectly reasonable to ask clarifying questions. Everything I’ve seen on the city’s website points to this happening in the next couple of years, and people should know about it.
