Editorials, letters to the editor, and other community opinions about Santa Monica.
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…
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…
