I Lost My Job at Caltrans for Speaking Out Against Highway Widening
This op/ed by Jeanie Ward Waller, former Caltrans Deputy Director for Planning & Modal Programs, has appeared at several news outlets including the San Francisco Chronicle and is reprinted here with the author's permission.
Cars...
Open Letter from SMMUSD Superintendent: Fall Celebrations and Events Build a Sense of Belonging
Dear Parents, Guardians, Staff, Students and Community Members,
As the weather cools and the leaves turn signaling we are getting close to the end of 2023, our students are feeling the warmth and comfort of...
This Halloween, Don’t Kill Any Kids With Your Car!
The following is a media release from Circulate San Diego.
Halloween is the ultimate pedestrian holiday with little kids and their parents out trick or treating dressed in fun costumes. But the deadliest monster in...
When in Rome, do as Santa Monicans do: get inspired about building a park...
The following piece first appeared on The Healthy City Local.
I was traveling in Italy earlier this month so thankfully I wasn’t around when the Santa Monica City Council had the mother of all nightmarish...
Op/Ed: The Long City Council Meetings Are Bad for Democracy, And All Solutions Should...
It seems that every meeting of the Santa Monica City Council there’s a debate or controversy caused by how darned long the meetings are. The seven person Council includes more than a handful...
Commentary: Daylighting is Now the Law. But it’s up to Cities to Make it...
The following article first appeared in Streetsblog San Francisco.
Governor Newsom signed A.B. 413 into law on Tuesday. As explained in the Tweet below from the advocates at Los Angeles-based Streets for All, A.B. 413 will, in...
Council Will Discuss Lottery to Pick Members of SMO Development Committee
When I interviewed Jesse Zwick for the first What’s Next podcast on Santa Monica Next, he proposed for our second segment a discussion of public participation. He argued that the current public participation process...
Covering for Covered 6: Santa Monica’s Institutions Failed on Bungled Security Contract
At last Thursday’s meeting of the DTSM Inc. Board Meeting, they announced that the contract with Covered 6 to provide additional private armed security patrols, with one member lethally armed at all times, to...
Waymo Arrives in Santa Monica
Waymo has arrived in Santa Monica. Yes, for several months Waymos have been riding around town gathering data and testing. Sometimes there's a test driver, other times there's not.
But Waymo is a passenger service,...
Metro Should Treat Walk and Bike Projects with the Respect They Deserve
This article first appeared at Streetsblog L.A. The author is none to Streetsblog but wished to remain anonymous because they work for a government agency.
Like many people around Los Angeles, I was excited about...
Power of Two: Pair of Public Commenters Cause Confusion and Delay Before Council Passes...
(Note: public speaker’s names are removed because I was uncertain of the exact spelling from the audio and didn’t want to misattribute a quote, especially the anti-Semitic ones.)
Never doubt the power of one speaker,...
Brock, de la Torre Respond to Next Piece Stating They Lied About Travel Budget...
At last night’s meeting of the Santa Monica City Council, Jason Mastbaum confronted Councilmember’s de la Torre, Negrete, Parra and Brock about their conduct at the July 25 City Council meeting where they maligned...
SM Spoke and Safe Streets Alliance Urge Passage of Item That Would Lead to...
Note: the original letter to Council called for passage of Item 16-E at last week's meeting. Given that the item wasn't heard and was pushed forward to next week's meeting; I have updated letter...
Public Records Show Brock, Other Councilmembers, Were Warned They Were Going Over Travel Budget....
Ahead of the July 25, 2023 city council meeting, Santa Monica city councilmembers Phil Brock and Oscar de la Torre placed a councilmember discussion item on the agenda “to assign unspent funds from the...
Tuesday’s Philibuster Foreshadows Future Council Gridlock
In advance of Tuesday’s meeting of the Santa Monica City Council, Councilmember Phil Brock placed two items on the agenda. By the end of the meeting the Council not only failed to consider either...
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