When The Sky Isn’t Falling
This article was originally published on The Healthy City Local. I’ve been mulling over an article I read in the Daily Press a couple of weeks ago. The article was about how the owner of Cars with Class, the classic car…
Category Opinion
Editorials, letters to the editor, and other community opinions about Santa Monica.
Beginning the End at SMO
With the latest developments concerning the future of Santa Monica Airport (SMO), I’m willing to say that we’re at the beginning of the end. One way or another, the future of the airport will be sealed within two or maybe…
SMRR to members: go away
At the Santa Monicans for Renters Rights (SMRR) convention on Sunday a friend asked me if it was more fun attending the convention now as a regular member than as a candidate, referring to the fact that at the 2012…
Opinion: Is This SMRReally Happening?!
Santa Monica Next received the following opinion piece with a specific request that we not use the writer’s name. After a back and forth, we consented to publish it because the author feared reprisal, both professional and personal. We are…
We’ve Had a Hundred Years of Zoning and the World Is Getting Worse
This article originally appeared on Streetsblog Los Angeles. This week marks a noteworthy anniversary. The first city-scale zoning law in the United States was enacted on July 25, 1916, in New York City. The New York Times tells the story in an…
No LUVE in Santa Monica: The Problem with Real Estate Referenda
The following post was authored and submitted by Bryan Schonfeld, a Ph.D student in Politics at Princeton University. Last week, the United Kingdom voted, via referendum, to leave the European Union, harming its economy and much of its political system in…
LUVE: What We Don’t Need Now
This article first appeared on The Healthy City Local. When voters submit an initiative to enact a law, Section 9212 of the California Elections Code authorizes the relevant legislative body to commission a report analyzing the impacts the initiative would have,…
Moving Goal Posts and New Players: The Plight of Anti-Development Politicians
[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…
Housers, United By LUVE
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…
Making Laws Fuzzy Doesn’t Make Politics More Clear
This post originally appeared on The Healthy City Local. I’ve been traveling most of the past month, to places as far away as medieval Spain or as close as the contemporary music scene in Ojai. It’s hard to get Santa…
Review: The Expo Phase II Bike Path Is Going to Be Great…
…if they every finish it. Advocates for a bicycle path to run parallel to the recently-opened Phase II o the Expo Light Rail Line have long-contended that the Exposition Construction Authority viewed the fully-funded separated bike path as an afterthought.…
Community Organizing Wins the Day: Skills and Enthusiasm of Many to Build Expo for All
This post was written by Kathy Seal, co-chair of Friends4Expo Transit and was originally published on Streetsblog Los Angeles. Behind the May 20 opening of the Expo Line to Santa Monica lies the untold story of dozens of dedicated volunteers…
Hueston: You Have A Problem
In my post last week I wrote about certain aspects of John Hueston’s report to the Santa Monica City Council on the Elizabeth Riel firing and the Oaks Initiative. Last Tuesday evening Hueston presented his report to the council. There…
LUVE’s Labour’s Lost
[pullquote align=left] Residocracy wants to reduce traffic—the time price of accessing Santa Monica—by limiting the number of people who live here. That’s like trying to reduce the cost of the box seats behind home plate by reducing the number of…
More Riel Politics: The Hueston Report
Last fall I wrote a series of five articles (which start here) about the firing of Elizabeth Riel by the City of Santa Monica, in which I analyzed the documents and depositions that came to light after the City agreed…