By MICHAEL J. TITTINGER Daily Press Editor
CIVIC CENTER Dogtown is dead.
The spirit that made Santa Monica famous is silenced a little more every first Friday of the month out on these streets. A populace that once celebrated righteous indignation sits disturbingly still while a band of bicyclists gets run out of town for stirring the pot.
This isn’t the Santa Monica that drew me some 3,000 miles from the East Coast, and it sure isn’t the “tolerant” beach town that served as a haven to extreme pioneers. All that 1970s nostalgia might as well be stuffed into a banker’s box and stashed in a museum storage bin, because those days are long gone. To posit this as a city intent on letting the people determine our future course is not only disingenuous, but a fraud.
The city of Santa Monica has jumped the shark, and I point to an encounter last Friday (Dec. 7) — smack in front of City Hall — as the moment a leather-clad Fonzie cleared the water-ski jump and ushered in a present from which none of us will return back.
I didn’t always feel this way, in fact, it was a tale of two cities just last week during my ride with Critical Mass — the best of times and the worst... well, you know how it goes.
For the uninitiated, Critical Mass is a loose band of bicyclists who gather at the Santa Monica Pier once a month to exercise their rights to the roads. Their tactics of not preselecting a route and “corking” intersections to keep the group from getting separated have put on notice the Santa Monica Police Department, who in turn, have taken to issuing tickets by the handful, for everything from corking to inadequate lighting to you name it.
The rides have been taking place for roughly two years, but strictly enforced by the police for just a few months. The onslaught of recent tickets — 32 were issued alone during November’s ride — has riders crying foul, accusing the police of selective enforcement. By taking a hard stance, the police have now seemingly backed themselves into a corner — either break up the ride completely or swallow some pride by working out a compromise.
It seems to be about power and pride, and in the end, we all stand to lose.
Riding west on Broadway around 6:30 p.m., the excitement (and tension) was palpable as Critical Mass gathered in Palisades Park. Clusters of cyclists made
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 15, 2007. Read the original PDF.