Editorials, letters to the editor, and other community opinions about Santa Monica.
By now, I am sure that everyone has become familiar with the story of the Emperor who was so misled by his lackeys about the quality of his new (non-existent) clothes, he failed to see that he was naked. The…
If you’ve followed me at all over the past four years, the one thing you likely know is that I ran for office in Santa Monica to play a part in solving our region’s dire housing crisis. If you’ve heard…
Photo by Eli Gill: Tree trimmers get to work shorty after the passage of the Santa Monica Realignment Plan Last year, Santa Monicans took the decisive step of electing an entirely new city council, rejecting the old politics of Santa…
Whether taken as a proverb or a nursery rhyme, the lesson of the lost nail stands today as a warning of the escalating damage that can be caused by a seemingly trivial loss. “For want of a nail,” the saying…
Printed as submitted. Emphasis choices were those of the Dem. Club For more on the realignment plan, aka Renaissance Plan, click here and/or here. The Santa Monica Democratic Club Executive Board applauds the City Council and City Manager Oliver Chi…
I’ve just returned from a travel break and, of course, it’s tough to disconnect these days, even if your trip is to the moon. So…like you, I’ve been In Touch With The News, which is becoming more and more disconnected…
On Tuesday night, the Santa Monica City Council voted to end the Exclusive Negotiating Agreement with Revitalization Partners Group on a 4-3 vote. Two of the Councilmembers that voted to end the agreement sent statements to Santa Monica Next, which…
October 2, 2025 I am off to Japan and Hong Kong for a few weeks and will pick this wild ride up again in November.In the meantime, it looks as though the man-baby in the white house is truly cracking…
Right now, the city of Santa Monica has 3,598 market-rate and 642 affordable units that are approved but stuck, unable to break ground. The problem is this: the math doesn’t work to build new housing. Tariffs are raising prices on…
This endorsement also appears at Streetsblog California. Streetsblog California endorses Proposition 50, the Election Rigging Response Act. Streetsblog urges a yes vote, either by mail or on election day, Tuesday, November 5, 2025. Normally, Streetsblog would sit out a vote…
Sometime during the years of our country’s seemingly endless “Cold” War, President Richard Nixon and his minions developed a strategy they hoped would bring our enemies in North Vietnam to the negotiating table. Nixon wanted them to believe that he…
In Kurt Vonnegut’s darkly prophetic novel, Mother Night, the Reverend Doctor Lionel J.D. Jones is a minor character, but, like so many in that thinly disguised description of the growth of American Nazism in the 1930s and 40s, his character is…
“There he goes again,” as former President Ronald Reagan liked to say to his opponent, Jimmy Carter. Yet again, the current white house resident has posted a selfie in costume, this time posing as the demented Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore…
Imagine, it’s 1975 and you’re the mayor of a growing city that is attracting newcomers to good, well-paying jobs. That’s frustrating and you’re sick of it! For your city – something like Palo Bajo, Santa Marta, New Yonkers, or Oxford…
In 1903, Edison Manufacturing Company employee, Edwin S. Porter, put together a short silent film called The Great Train Robbery. Over the years, the film was widely identified as the first western movie, and it well may have been the start…
