I get home and finish dinner it’s already 8 or 9 o’clock and time to put the kids to bed. By that time, I’m ready to go to bed, too. Maybe if there were more meetings on the weekends then I could go, but even then I’m busy spending time with my family.”
Mendez said she relies on others in her neighborhood to speak for her. She feels that neighborhood groups like the Pico Neighborhood Association serve a very valuable role in the community and believes they should be given more power to make change, much like Neighborhood Councils in Los Angeles.
She also suggested changing the way council members are elected. She would like to see the creation of council districts so that when elected, council members would not only be responsible for the entire city, but for individual neighborhoods as well.
“This would make it so the elected officials are more responsive to the needs of the neighborhoods,” she said. “They could advocate on our behalf and could be more focused on certain issues of importance to their constituents. Some people may not like this idea, but I think it could work here.”
One reason why people may not get involved is apathy, said Terry Cooper, director of the Civic Engagement Initiative at the School of Policy, Planning, and Development at the University of Southern California.
“If people feel as if their voice isn’t being heard, they lose interest and don’t show up,” Cooper said.
Some residents do feel that way, but for the most part it seems as if residents believe they can make a difference by helping to organize neighborhood groups.
Cooper said elected officials need to be aware of the “participation costs” associated with civic engagement. Those costs include taking time off work or hiring a baby sitter, the difficulties in finding parking for an event or travel time.
“And then once I get there, do I have to sit through two hours of something else before I can speak,” Cooper said. “There really is a hidden price tag.”
Another issue is homeownership. In Santa Monica, there is an overwhelming majority of renters. Renters tend to be less concerned about local politics and feel as if they do not have a strong connection to the city in which they live. That is not entirely the case in Santa Monica because of rent control, which has either allowed or forced people to stay in their apartments for long periods of time, however, as the benefits of rent control are eroded by the market, people are moving at a much faster clip.
“Renters also tend to be younger, and younger people tend to be less interested,” Cooper said. “To combat that you need to do a lot more organizing and get out there and contact them and help them understand how to participate.”
One man who knows about the hidden costs of participating is local peace activist Jerry Rubin, a fixture at council and community meetings. Rubin said one of the main reasons why he is able to attend meetings regularly is because it is his job as an activist to do so.
He has fun too (he’s a big fan of film), but he is definitely about the business of the city. Rubin helped organize Santa Monica Treesavers, a group of concerned citizens fighting a proposal by City Hall to remove 54 ficus trees on Second and Fourth streets as part of a streetscape project. Rubin feels Treesavers is a true representation of civic engagement, a group of residents who are trying their hardest to influence the council and make it reconsider its decision.
“I think for a lot of the meetings (City Hall) should get out and advertise more,” Rubin said. “But in the end, a lot of people just don’t like going to meetings. It’s like banging a head against the wall. It’s not like a concert or a movie. There’s an element of expected work to do.
“Really though, it’s not about the meetings, but what you do in between the meetings,” Rubin added. “Meetings are a way to get information and stay on top of the issues, but they are not everything.”
Rubin equated meetings to jogging, “it’s hard to get going, but once you’re finished, you feel good that you did.
“It’s all about taking that first step.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 19, 2008. Read the original PDF.