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Put a stocking in it already
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It’s been said that fish and houseguests begin to stink after three days’ time. So what then to make of those households and businesses about town that keep firing up the Christmas lights night after night, even as we approach the middle of January? Nothing tarnishes the memory of a party quite like the guest that stays entirely too long.
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10 ways to fix Santa Monica
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That’s likely the perception of those outside Santa Monica’s borders, but residents know better; they know much work needs to be done and are fully aware of the problems that pervade the everyday lives of city denizens.
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Let’s hear what Weller had to say
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Few could blame the victims and all those touched by the Farmers’ Market tragedy of three years ago for wanting a piece of the man responsible, but even a piece has proven elusive.
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Needles and the damage done
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It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and, of course, the Palaeozoic Era.
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These are the good ol’ days
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This just in: Life is good.
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It’s crunch time, but where’s the pop?
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With less than two weeks to go before Election Day, it seems like most of the challengers are in need of some face time. Not TV ads or their smiling mugs on hastily planted street signs, but rather getting in the faces of the incumbents they are going to a great deal of trouble to try and unseat.
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The fine blue line
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Standing on the Third Street Promenade after dark these days may leave shoppers and residents experiencing a “Vanilla Sky” moment. In the Cameron Crowe film, Tom Cruise’s character awakens to a New York City devoid of people, famously sprinting through an eerie Times Square that has been abandoned, conspicuous for what it is missing.
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Troublesome grades
So long to Sack
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By all accounts, the city of Santa Monica is a national leader in its efforts to achieve sustainability, having adopted its Sustainable City Plan more than a decade ago and striving to maintain a consistent path toward the goals therein. Other cities’ residents should be so fortunate as to have elected officials consistently seeking ways to ensure that an enviable quality of life is not compromised while the city meets necessary environmental, economic and social needs.
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EDITORIAL
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Someone over at City Hall remembered his or her parent’s lesson that if something doesn’t belong to you, you should give it back.
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Keeping employees in town is the key
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While the rest of the country enjoyed a three-day holiday weekend, the majority of City Hall employees got a bonus day. That’s because they get every other Friday off, working what’s called a “9/80” schedule, meaning they work nine days from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. On the 10th day, they stay home — supposedly.
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City’s top cop a key post
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Like many departments in City Hall, the Santa Monica Police Department is finding itself in a transition now that police chief James T. Butts Jr. has officially left his post to head up security at Los Angeles’ four airports.
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Postal problems persist
Mass exodus should be seen as an opportunity
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Apparently Santa Monicans aren’t the only ones getting the run-around from the postal service. Congressman Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles) has been pressuring the United Postal Service since December to fix the delays in mail deliveries. But his efforts have so far been in vain — minimal improvement has been made, despite USPS officials saying the problem has been fixed.
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Change is difficult but inevitable. And once it’s embraced, it should be used as an opportunity.
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Common sense prevails at City Hall
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It’s no secret that Santa Monica government is notorious for its bureaucracy. In recent years, some City Hall employees were starting to earn a pretty decent reputation for being less than personable when dealing with the average citizen.
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Gangway opens floodgates for Pier
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On Tuesday, the City Council approved a new pier leasing and licensing agreement that opens up the floodgates to new opportunities for the city’s most recognizable landmark — the venerable Santa Monica Pier. Among the colorful ideas being floated about are the construction of a gangway that would extend into the bay and usher in a retro-era of commercial fishing and aquatic sight-seeing.
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City’s bite worse than its bark
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City Hall’s crackdown on one woman’s effort to rid Santa Monica of dog doo-doo is, well, a load of crap.
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Turn tail and run with it
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With shootings in the Pico neighborhood, a constituency increasingly up in arms over the homeless population, Farmers’ Market lawsuits, a defecting chief of police and overcrowded schools revving up, city officials once again find themselves preoccupied with the humane treatment of and euthanasia debates surrounding its squirrels.
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Take it to the streets
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For thousands of residents living on the south side of the 10 Freeway, the nighttime patrols by police helicopters with their roving spotlights have been a bit unnerving this past week. But then, so were the four gang-related shootings and the reported sexual assault that have occurred just since the Fourth of July.
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Having a blast ... not
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Apparently, not everyone loves a parade, at least not in Santa Monica.
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Summer is time to shine
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Summer is upon us, and with that, tourism season is in full swing.
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It takes two to progress
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Any good relationship often means that one side must be willing to admit that they were wrong. And so it goes between the owners of Santa Monica Place — Macerich Co. — and the community at-large.
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Taking destiny in your hands
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In five days, millions of Californians can influence the future.
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Something about petition stinks
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Santa Monica voters will likely be asked to weigh in on the issue of adult marijuana use this November. On Wednesday, members of a movement called Santa Monicans for Sensible Marijuana Policy (SMSMP) turned in more than 8,000 gathered signatures — only 5,580 were required — in efforts to put a proposal on the ballot that would make the enforcement of marijuana use in the home the police department’s lowest priority.
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Being true to our schools
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With all of the issues that spotlight the negative aspects of living and doing business in Santa Monica, it’s important to remember that it’s the community that makes it so unique. Nowhere is that more apparent than the widespread support of the public school system, which is nothing short of remarkable.
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Going postal quite understandable
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The old adage that “neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet” stops the mail from being delivered doesn’t apply here in Santa Monica. And we hardly have any rain.
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Let’s all follow the money trail
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The powers-that-be in City Hall have finally decided that accountability is needed when it comes to providing services to the homeless population. It’s about time.
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The show really doesn’t have to go on ... and on
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It’s trying enough that because the Third Street Promenade is a public street we have to endure constant panhandlers and shady solicitors, but being forced to listen to would-be musicians butcher the Beatles and shred Sheryl Crow is enough to make residents want to stay away, and some visitors never want to return.
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Transit mall a lemon
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Finally, city leaders have publicly acknowledged that the Transit Mall turned out to be a failure, or at least not all that they envisioned. Call it a $15 million mistake since it is no more pedestrian friendly than when downtown streets were wider and didn’t have dedicated bus lanes. In fact, it has actually clogged traffic in some areas, especially on weekends, when cars are forced to sit in one lane of traffic.
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Brush up on classics
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If first impressions are everything, then downtown Santa Monica is in big trouble as a tourist and shopping destination. Judging from the conditions of the “passageway” to the Third Street Promenade from parking structures between Broadway and Santa Monica Boulevard, one would think we were in the middle of the ghetto.
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Time for neighbors to help shoulder load
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Now that Los Angeles County supervisors have allocated $100 million toward solving the homeless problem in 88 different cities, Santa Monica needs to go on the defensive. Why? Because supervisors will be looking at Santa Monica as one of five potential cities to put a “regional stabilization facility,” the main concept behind the plan approved Tuesday.
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Attack at library reveals city’s inadequate actions
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This month’s attack of a librarian should serve as a wake-up call to city officials that Santa Monica’s growing homeless population of mentally ill people and criminals has become a very serious issue that needs attention immediately.
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Less talk, more action
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It’s been 1 1/2 years since the City Council passed a law that was supposed to put more scrutiny on groups determined to feed the poor, the homeless and the hungry.
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Council has crossed the parallel lines
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Like so many other things, we wish our local government would get a move on in finding solutions to our problems. After all, elected officials promised they would when they asked us to vote for them.
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Take back our streets one corner at a time
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The community is once again grieving the loss of one of its young residents as a result of violence. And once we get past the grief, we will no doubt feel outrage. What we do with that outrage will be the biggest issue facing our community in the coming months.
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Merchants aren’t only ones operating in dark
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There’s a lot going on in this town and it’s nearly impossible to track every decision made within the walls of City Hall.
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Spend surplus to shed light, make clean sweep
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It appears Santa Monica is rolling in the dough.
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Woodlawn woes are grave matter for city
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As more and more dirt continues to be unearthed from the financial mess that’s been buried at the city’s cemetery for years, some light has been shed into the inner workings of our local government.
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Card carriers have reason to celebrate
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If the residents and visitors of Santa Monica haven’t been to the new Main Library yet, they should check it out.
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The party is over
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There’s a reason why we’ve made little progress in the fight against homelessness — it’s called “government not at work.”
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Administrators don’t get graded on a curve
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The effects of bureaucracy are at work once again in Santa Monica — this time in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District.
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