Stories about Santa Monica history.
The oldest building in Santa Monica sits in the heart of the city’s downtown. The squat and unassuming brick structure, sandwiched between a youth hostel and an Italian restaurant, doesn’t look like much. But more than a century ago, when…
[pullquote align=left] When it comes to the goals of the anti-development side, as soon as one goal is achieved, a new, more extreme goal is created. [/pullquote]After Tuesday night’s City Council meeting Councilmember Sue Himmelrich might understandably have a “no…
Downtown Santa Monica today is one of southern California’s premiere destinations. People flock there from everywhere in the city, the region, the state, and even the world. But it wasn’t always that way. In fact, in the middle of last…
This article originally ran on The Healthy City Local. [pullquote align=left]The proponents of LUVE know that they have a problem politically with the housing issue. In their statements and writings in support, they deny that LUVE would prevent housing from…
The following piece was co-authored by Ernie Powell, former community organizer at the Church in Ocean Park and founding member, Santa Monica Pier Restoration Corporation and Sharon Gilpin, 26-year former resident, former Santa Monica Planning Commissioner and author of Save Our…
“The Santa Monica Life” is a semi-regular roundup of the local fun, food, drinks, and lifestyle goings-on in Santa Monica. When the fun is so close, it’s easy to leave the car at home and walk, bike, or bus to…
Today in Santa Monica, there is near-constant talk about the jobs-housing imbalance. The problem, simply put, is that because of decades of minimal growth policies, the city doesn’t have enough apartments, condos, or single-family homes to accommodate the vast majority…
With only about 10 days left in 2015, we thought we’d ask our readers to tell us what their favorite Santa Monica Next stories of the last year have been. Maybe you particularly liked one of our Throwback Thursday pieces. Perhaps you enjoyed…
This piece originally ran on The Healthy City Local. When Fay Wells went national to write, in the Washington Post, about what happened when a neighbor called 9-1-1 on her, she brought the issue of race to the attention of…
Let’s take a trip down memory lane with the help of the Santa Monica Public Library’s digital archives to a hundred years ago this week when The Evening Outlook announced the deal that would lead to the development of a…
“War is over — Now for business as usual” proclaimed the headline on The Evening Outlook from November 11, 1918. This month, 97 years ago, Santa Monica celebrated the world’s very first Armistice Day — aka Veterans Day — to mark the…
This piece originally ran on The Healthy City Local. As a member of Santa Monicans for Renters Rights (SMRR) I attended last Sunday’s annual membership meeting during which 11 members of SMRR’s Steering Committee were elected. Since the meeting I…
The following is a review of “Save the Pier,” a one-hour play recounting the grassroots fight in the early 1970s to stop the demolition of the Santa Monica Pier. Let me be blunt – I love the Santa Monica Pier.…
This article originally appeared on Healthy City Local. [pullquote align=left] [T]here is one boulevard in Santa Monica that is so degraded that even people who rarely accept the idea that Santa Monica might stand to change for the better in…
“END OF THE LINE,” the headline screams in all caps from the yellowed newspaper. The story is buried in the Communities section of the Evening Outlook, announcing a bit of L.A. County rail history. “The last train out of SM blows…
