Momentum building too fast

Editor:

It is with great concern that I write today. My apprehension is concerning Community Corp. and the buildings that they have constructed and the projects that they have planned for the future.

I have lived in Ocean Park for over 30 years and, quite frankly, had not even heard of Community Corp. until one evening, I heard multiple gunshots and called the police to voice my concern. I was told that the incident was related to a building owned by Community Corp. I later read a story about this building in the local paper concerning a young woman that had been raped at that same building. I called the Community Corp. and asked them about this building and other buildings — the attitude was, “we know what’s right for the city, take it or leave it.”

After reading other articles in our local paper, I was made aware of the building under construction at Main and Pacific streets. I have visited this project several times and feel it is way out of scale for the area. Why should this agency be allowed to build so many buildings and not have the same rules and regulations that a private builder would have to abide by? These projects are having a profound effect on our city in several ways — the school district will have to absorb the children at a great cost to the property owners and the crime rate will be altered by the demographics of these buildings.

As a homeowner, I would suggest that (City Hall) stop this low-income building frenzy, take a deep breath and think about the cost of this social engineering and how it will effect our city in the future. Why not think about the senior citizens that live in Santa Monica and not low-income individuals from outside of Santa Monica?

It is my belief that most residents of Santa Monica have no idea who or what Community Corp. is until they find a monster building going up next door ... then, it’s too late.

Richard C. Wechsler
Santa Monica



Better ways to soak up funds

Editor:

When I read the article (“City Hall looks to soak up sun,” Jan. 4, page 1), I had to check to make certain that it wasn’t some sort of sly joke. Is the city of Santa Monica really paying a consultant almost half a million dollars to find 50 Santa Monicans who want to install solar equipment on their roofs? Why not just give the first 50 people $10,000 apiece to install solar equipment? Maybe 100 people at $5,000 each? Maybe $5,000 tax rebates to the first 1,000 property owners? How about 20,000 subscriptions to “Home Power” magazine and let their residents figure out their own path to saving energy and replacing fossil fuels with sun power?

A cursory check of available resources (online, library, vendors both local and national) would have revealed that there is an abundance of information available on this subject. There are dozens of solar equipment sellers and contractors more than willing to give free consultations and recommend equipment or full systems to fit any budget. The industry has an ongoing certification process to educate installers (usually qualified electricians) in the proper methods to calculate the equipment sizes needed and to install the equipment within the applicable building codes.

A city engineer could have easily used these resources to propose a few budgeted sample systems to give Santa Monicans an idea of what they might spend and how they might save on their electric and gas bills. There is plenty of help available from commercial sources and at the county, state and federal level to accomplish this without wasting money on outside consultants.

Whoever OK’d this consulting contract was obviously out in the sun way too long.

Joe Bates
Venice