Editorials, letters to the editor, and other community opinions about Santa Monica.
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…
Unfamiliar with the Santa Methica sign saga? I’m jealous. But I’m also not going to write up an explainer again. You can catchup here. Above photo by Joni Yung. In the summer of 2024, the Santa Monica Coalition seemed to…
This article first appeared at the Healthy City Local. Recently I was in Bellingham, Washington, for a family event. In many ways, both historical and present-day, Bellingham is a lot like Santa Monica. Both cities were situated where railroads reached the sea…
What’s in a name? The name “Republican”, for instance. One would think it would denote a party devoted to principles that define a republic, which currently describes a form of government that is not a monarchy, but rather invests supreme…
As an ecologist and a constituent of both Senate District 24 and Assembly District 51, I have long appreciated being represented by environmental leaders. Yet, both Senator Ben Allen and Assemblymember Rick Zbur have traded their environmental credentials for political…
For 36 years I have spent almost every day walking these cool old deck boards on the Santa Monica Pier. I began my Pier career in September 1989 as a bartender at the old Boathouse Restaurant; today I am the…
August 22, 2025 To the residents of Santa Monica, It is with deep gratitude and reflection that I share the news that on today’s date, I submitted my letter of resignation to City Manager Oliver Chi. I will be stepping…
In Elia Kazan and Budd Schulberg’s 1957 classic, A Face In The Crowd, we were given a prophetic peek at the growing connection between media and politics and, perhaps, a hint on how that can quickly turn sour when exposed to…
Community Benefits. Inclusionary Zoning. Impact Fees. Discretionary Approvals. Transfer Taxes. More Input. More Analysis. More Procedure. For a generation, Santa Monica and many California municipalities have treated new development as a cash cow for a wide variety of pet projects…
The Very Newest Beautiful Newspeak In George Orwell’s iconic sci fi classic, 1984, the totalitarian government of the fictional superstate of Oceania invents and promulgates a new language called Newspeak. Using this change in language, they shrink the number and usage of words…
The idea that, given enough freedom to make foolish decisions, one may eventually use it to one’s own detriment, is expressed in a number of different languages as having enough “rope”. In Hindi, the full quote translates as “If you…
On a table in my living room, there is an arresting, kinetic sculpture of a circus tiger by New Mexico artist, Frederick Prescott. Prescott’s sculptures move because he attaches a weight to one of the elements, allowing you to give…
The following article comes to us from Streetsblog San Francisco. Photo: Caltrain in Redwood City, Streetsblog/Rudick Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy had an op-ed in the Sacramento Bee on Wednesday complaining about the state suing to stop his attempted clawback of $4…
I don’t write op/eds for Santa Monica Next very often. I see my role as a reporter from outside the city as presenting the news with context to help readers understand not just what’s happening by why it’s happening. But…
Author, Joan Didion, in her thought provoking book on coping with the death of her husband, referred to her recurring expectation that her husband would walk back in the door, or her inability to throw out his shoes, as “Magical…
