By Mark Shepherd
The wheels keep turning inside those socialist minds on our busy-body City Council. Check it out: The council proposes to link all development — residential, industrial, commercial — to a tax for day care. Nobody will build anything in this city without paying into a community baby-sitting fund.
How is City Hall able to get away with this? It began with affordable housing.
Currently, the city confiscates without reimbursement, in my opinion illegally, 20 percent of all new multi-family units to give to low-income outsiders. The council commissioned a study, several years ago, that purported to prove a “nexus” — a linkage — between high-income residents who move into new developments and the city’s need for “affordable” housing. The rich new arrivals — but only those south of Montana Avenue — spend more money than current residents, which creates the need for low-income retail jobs, which creates the need for low-income housing. That’s the pretzel-logic theory. In coming months,it will be tested in a lawsuit against the city.
The thing is, where are all these new high-income residents? The way the renter-controlled City Council has made affordable housing it’s sole guiding mantra, one would think this city surely has been overrun with a skyrocketing population of new rich citizens. Wrong. The city’s population has remained essentially unchanged in 30 years. This is the way the renters want it. No new private construction. No new small businesses, no new neighborhood stores, bakeries or restaurants, no new townhomes replacing some of the dilapidated structures you see around town.
The SMRR party members on the council love this “linkage” concept so much they decided this year to try it out on outdoor art. Builders, if there are any, have to contribute to an art fund a percentage of their total cost of construction. Now comes day care. So, soon, I suppose, the renters will create the Santa Monica Department of Baby-Sitting, with an Assistant City Manager for Diapers, Pacifiers and Strollers.
But why stop there? What about global warming? What about the squirrels in Palisades Park? Personally, I propose a “linkage” for barbecue, because there is a proven nexus between outdoor grilled meat and one’s quality of life.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 20, 2006. Read the original PDF.