Citizens welcome to suggest new sister cities
By LAUREN BONIFACIO Special to the Daily Press
And you thought you were an only child.
Some Santa Monicans might yet be unaware, but they all have sisters in Mexico, Asia and Europe, fathered quite legitimately by former president Ike Eisenhower.
Sister Cities International, a “People-to-People” program envisioned by Eisenhower in the 1950s, has thrived here. Over its more than four decades in existence, the Santa Monica Sister City Association has sparked relationships with four international cities.
“The real goal is for us to make friends, understand each other,” said Mel Risher, a five-time former president of the association and current vice president in charge of communication with Mazatlan, Mexico.
The sister city idea was christened in Santa Monica in 1961 as a committee under the City Council. Clo Hoover, a former mayor and city councilwoman, suggested that the first one be Mazatlan, a small-town beach city on the Pacific coast that she had just visited with her husband. The proper contacts were made, delegations were sent out and documents were signed, securing the cities’ relationship, Risher said.
Notable communications with Mazatlan have included Santa Monica’s donations of several surplus police cars, ambulances and fire engines to the city. In 1999, a Santa Monica police officer traveled to the Mexican city to contribute four patrol cars to the law enforcement agency there.
“There’s a lot of meaning to our assisting Mazatlan because there are so many people in Santa Monica who have a Latino background that there is a greater identification with that community,” said Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom.
Risher said that, although Mazatlan might need the help financially, the sister city relationship extends beyond material exchanges.
“Where people understand each other, they form bonds that last a lifetime,” Risher said.
In an instant, Risher can recall the year of arrival of the first exchange student to come to Santa Monica through the Sister City Association. His name is Manuel Urrutia.
“Needless to say, it worked out very well for me,” Urrutia said. “The continuous exposition, the continuous exchange of ideas does help out” in building a cultural understanding in the long run, he said.
After decades-long relationships, the association primarily refreshes its bonds with its sister cities through student exchange programs.
A delegation of students from Germany is expected this summer. Recently, a grant from the City Council helped the association send a girls’ soccer team from Santa Monica to Fujinomiya, Japan, for an international tournament. The team captured first place.
Santa Monica’s long-standing relationships with Mazatlan and Fujinomiya helped connect those cities, which have become sisters themselves, Risher said.
After a decade of existing as a city committee, in the early 1970s, the Sister City Association incorporated into the private nonprofit organization it is today. All association officers are unpaid, and the organization survives off member dues and donations, Risher said.
“We’re not a very rich organization except in culture and love for the world,” Risher said.
In the years after incorporating, the association also found new sisters.
At the suggestion of a Santa Monica business owner from Germany, in 1969 the association started a relationship with the businessman’s hometown of Hamm in Hamburg, Germany.
In 1975, the association connected with Fujinomiya.
More than two decades went by before the association approved another sister city, Ville d’Avray, France, in 1997.
Sister cities are chosen very selectively, said Sister City Association President Nat Trives, who was the mayor of Santa Monica when Fujinomiya became family.
Past suggestions for sister cities might not have been viable because “we haven’t found a common bond, a set of issues that we can work on together to make the sister city operation work,” Trives said. “We’re always open and willing to sit down and talk.”
Because Ville d’Avray is newer than Santa Monica’s other sister cities by more than two decades, Trives said the relationship has not yet developed.
“France is more dormant now because we haven’t gotten our pieces together yet with their delegation,” Trives said. “It takes time. If you don’t have the people involved, it can’t work.”
Anyone can make a suggestion for a new sister city. The process includes making a presentation to the Sister City Association, which would then make contact with the government and residents in the proposed city and possibly send a delegation to research if the city would be a right fit for Santa Monica. After receiving the approval of association members and the City Council, the bond can be made official.
Recently, the association has received sistership suggestions for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and cities in Korea, Israel, Austria and El Salvador.
Sentimo, a city in northern Italy, might be next on the list.
West Los Angeles resident Woodrow Clark, who was energy adviser to former governor Gray Davis, said he is planning to give a presentation on Sentimo to the Sister City Association.
“The Italians visited Santa Monica and know that it has very progressive energy programs, and they want people exchanges, business exchanges, educational exchanges,” Clark said.
“The Italians visited Santa Monica and know that it has very progressive energy programs, and they want people exchanges, business exchanges, educational exchanges.” — – WOODROW CLARK Energy adviser
A relationship between Santa Monica and Sentimo would work because alternative energy sources are piquing interest in northern Italy and all of Europe, Clark said.
“This is very fortuitous,” Clark said.
0 1 919 3 9E4 1 D19 3 D96 1 FFC 3 10B2 4 1201 3 151F 1 1520 3 169C 2 16A1 2
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 5, 2004. Read the original PDF.