News from Santa Monica.
Last year, transit agencies and advocates warned that the state budget was heading towards a fiscal disaster and as the state budget cut hundreds of millions of dollars from transit operations. Advocates for safe streets were similarly alarmed that funding…
Last week on February 16, the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District finalized and submitted an application to the California Energy Commission’s CALSHAPE program for a $1.61 million grant to install MERV-13 filters (temporarily) and carbon dioxide detectors at schools across…
This article first appeared in Streetsblog NYC. It has been lightly edited for clarity for a Santa Monica audience. Deliver us from chaos! The city should make the “destructive” delivery apps pay for the right to operate in New Yorks’…
The following is a press release from the City of Santa Monica: The city will acquire a new artwork for its municipal Art Bank collection this month, thanks to a continued partnership with international art fair Frieze Los Angeles. The…
Santa Monicans hoping to see a simple resolution to the controversy surrounding the Stanton Macdonald-Wright mural in the City Hall lobby may be disappointed by the recommendations made for the lobby at Tuesday’s meeting (Agenda, Item 11A). Instead of a…
Following the pleas of struggling art gallery owners in the Bergamot Art District, the City Council voted unanimously to create an “economic support program” (Council Agenda, Item 16D) to help businesses in the short- and medium-term. Many of these businesses…
It’s been nearly eight years since Pico Neighborhood Association and Maria Loya v. City of Santa Monica in the matter of California Voting Rights was first filed and the case has now winded its way full circle back to the…
…well, $428,248.06 to be exact. That’s the cost for building permits, not previously obtained by management at Westminster Towers, yet required by the City’s Building and Safety Department. The 17-story building on 7th Street is preparing to commence a major…
At its meeting last week, the Santa Monica Democratic Club passed a resolution (link) that urged SMMUSD to immediately seek grants to afford to upgrade the HVAC units and air filters used in SMMUSD classrooms. Over the summer, the district…
This Saturday, the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District will hold its second hearing on maps that were submitted as part of a plan to create seven local elections for the district’s school board instead of the district-wide elections the district…
It must be bewildering to be a housing advocate, community advocate or planner in Santa Monica. In 2022, the state sanctioned the city for a housing element that didn’t produce enough housing…the so-called-builder’s remedy. In 2023, news broke that city…
A debate has broken out over the quality of clean air in Santa Monica’s public school classrooms. A group of Santa Monica parents and clean air advocates claim that the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District is backtracking on promises to…
People for Bikes, a national advocacy organization for bicyclists, released its list of the best new bike infrastructure in the country. Santa Monica’s newly installed 17th Street Bike Lanes ranked #16 on the list and the city celebrated in its…
Unhoused: A History of Housing in Santa Monica is an interactive art exhibit that opens this Friday and runs through the end of the year. According to the museum’s website, the exhibit “emphasizes that, “emphasizes that housing is not merely…
At Tuesday’s meeting, the Santa Monica City Council approved a series of changes to the city’s renter laws to protect renters from “drastic rent increases, unjust evictions and harassment,” per a press release from the city. Census data estimates that…
