Editorials, letters to the editor, and other community opinions about Santa Monica.
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…
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…
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,…
[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…
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…
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…
…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.…
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…
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…
[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…
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…
Last week, the Santa Monica Daily Press reported that the Santa Monica Community College Board of Trustees is considering its own ballot initiative to be placed on the fall ballot. The $295 million bond measure would pay for on-campus upgrades…
There has been a lot of discussion about a meme we posted last week as part of our editorial encouraging Santa Monica residents not to sign the petition to put the LUVE proposal on this fall’s ballot. In the meme, a Donald…
At the moment, there is a group of committed no-growth activists circulating a petition to put an initiative on the ballot that would effectively make it impossible to build anything over two or three stories by requiring a popular vote…
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…
