(Editor’s note: This is the second in a series that looks at the controversies from last week’s City Council Meeting’s first look at the 2023-2024 budget and the five year forecast. The first piece looked at efforts to repay trust…
The best Bike Month celebrations are the ones that celebrate a new project or new law. Yesterday Santa Monica was home to one such celebration. Supervisor Lindsey Horvath led a community bike ride that celebrated a newly opened dedicated two-way…
(Editor’s note: This is the first in a series that looks at the controversies from last night’s City Council Meeting’s first look at the 2023-2024 budget and the five year forecast.) At the start of the pandemic in the Spring…
Faced with ballooning pension obligations and decreased funds resulting from the pandemic, the City of Santa Monica is considering a host of fee and tax increases so that it can continue to provide the levels of service that residents have…
We’re proud to announce that our next podcast will feature Danny Ivanov, one of the newly elected Board Members for the Santa Monica Rent Control Board. A recent article at Next discussed an upcoming vote of the Rent Control Board…
Tucked away in the “consent calendar” for next Tuesday’s City Council meeting is a funding proposal to allocate another $327,969 to AG Coast (dba Panther Security) for an increased security presence on the pier on weekends to help the city…
Earlier today, I had a chance to sit down with Tom Huang, the filmmaker behind Dealing with Dad, which will be screening at Laemmle Monica Film Center (schedule) from May 19 through May 25. I’m biased, I’m an extra in…
After last year’s rent increase of 6.4%, the highest increase in Santa Monica in over four decades; the city passed Measure RC to try and prevent a similarly large increase from happening this year. In the first year after a…
This Monday, we’ve been working on several small issues for Santa Monica Next, including removing the “dynamic ads” from our website. As a result, we haven’t had a chance to update the content of the website. We’ll return to our…
Now that the dust has settled from last week’s City Council meeting where the Council unanimously approved a settlement with WS Communities, here’s a quick look at where things stand with the fourteen properties owned by WS today. From when…
The following is a press release from Santa Monica City Government. In response to City staff’s comprehensive annual update on addressing homelessness, the Santa Monica City Council on May 9, 2023, voted to extend the Local Emergency Order on Homelessness to May 31, 2024, and focus current and new investments to maintain and scale up initiatives to support vulnerable populations…
This settlement does not allow for new development, it limits new development – Caroline Torosis. Last night, the Santa Monica City Council approved a settlement with WS, a developer who had submitted 13 of the 16 “Builder’s Remedy” projects. Builder’s…
Tomorrow, Wednesday May 10, is the last day to give comment on the City of Santa Monica’s “Reframe: City Hall Mural” public process. “History of Santa Monica and the Bay District,” is a mural that appears inside the City Hall…
During the Builder’s Remedy debacle, when the city temporarily lost zoning authority because it passed a zoning plan that didn’t conform to state standards; 16 large developments earned automatic approval that were oversized compared to what the city would allow…
Yesterday, the City of Santa Monica released the results of the 2023 homeless count. Unsurprisingly, the count showed an increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness: 926 people experiencing homelessness were counted this year, up 15 percent from the…
