> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Bill Bauer: Official city plant, hotel purchase and other wacky city politics - URL: https://www.smdp.com/bill-bauer-send-comments-to-editor-smdp-com-im-so-wrong/ - Published: 2007-04-01T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-24T23:48:15.000Z - Author: Guest Author - Tags: Opinion, Malibu, #archive-import, Homeless OUR CITY POLITIC IS A WACKY WORLD of wonder and amazement. Take for example some of the recent actions of the City Council and Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District school board. Six weeks ago, the City Council approved Cannabis sativa as our “official city plant.” I have an issue with that because there are a number of subspecies and varieties of Cannabis. So which one is the city’s plant species? Acapulco Gold? Mexican Brown, Saskatchewan Blue? Would we name the official Santa Monica herb plant after a Mexican city or a Canadian province? Admittedly, there’s no subspecies called “Santa Monica Smoke,” so what’s a good city to do? Personally, I’d sit down, fire up a doo-bie and ruminate on it. Casa del Mar and Shutters hotels are under new management. The City has purchased both luxury beachfront hotels from the Edward Thomas Management Company for $425 million. But, the new properties won’t be resorts for the rich and famous much longer. Plans are to convert the hotels into housing for some of Santa Monica’s most chronic homeless. Councilman, Tevin McKeown is thrilled. But, will other cities take Santa Monica’s lead? Yeah. Right. Our "green” thinking parking and traffic management folks have come up with a spliffy idea: Biodegradable parking permits. Instead of plastic hang cards, the city will issue parking permits on tree bark, beginning next year. The new permits will be sliced, diced, stamped, embossed and emblazoned with the appropriate permit numbers and addresses. Motorists will be advised to avoid parking where there’s termites or beavers. Using an excuse such as, “A squirrel ate my permit,” won’t get you out of a parking citation. Members of the Santa Monica/Malibu Unified School District Board of Education have turned down an opportunity to take a suite of basic business courses that would give them the tools to better manage the school district. So, no classes in Accounting 101, Budgeting 1A and Beginning Bookkeeping which they so desperately need. Dodging classes is probably why they call them the “bored of education.” Some readers have commented on the recently unveiled city tourism slogan which is “What goes on in Santa Monica doesn’t go on in Vegas." One Daily Mess reader suggested, “Welcome to Santa Monica and enjoy the gridlock." Another reader suggested, “Santa Monica — where you can be a bum." My favorite is: “Where the crap hits the ocean." The Renter’s Rights leadership is proposing a “Santa Monica Landlord Month." Renters have been calling August, the month in which the Rent Control Board announces annual rent increases, “Landlord’s Month,” anyway. My hat’s off to the Bayside District Corporation for hiring greeters for the Third Street Promenade. Soon, we’ll have young, attractively dressed men and women escorting tourists through the downtown (Bayside) area. It’s just what we need — personal guides to squire out-of-towners past the vagrants and panhandlers. I wonder if they’ll also hand out face masks so visitors won’t have to smell the stinky alleys. The BDC is also hiring it’s own Homeless Outreach Team. The HOTs will also consist of young, attractively dressed men and women who will escort vagrants and panhandlers past the well-heeled tourists and direct them to critical services such as finding the best trash cans to loot for recyclables, identifying the cheapest places to buy Steel Reserve 40s, pointing out the best street corners for panhandling and hooking them up with purveyors of the “official city plant." They’re even going to host a cheap, rot gut wine tasting. I’ll bet a red carpet is on order — for sleeping on, of course. Lastly, groups like Critical Mass are proposing "Vehicle-free Santa Monica Sundays.” They want one day a week when gasoline powered vehicles would be outlawed on Santa Monica streets. Residents and visitors alike would have to ride the bus, peddle bicycles, push skateboards, sport roller blades or just plain walk. Nonresidents will have to leave vehicles in West Los Angeles.Vehicles on the 10 Freeway could pass through but wouldn’t be allowed to stop in the City including Santa Monica’s beaches. I think it’s a “mahhh-vel-uuss” idea. I hope the City Council will make exemptions for hybrids, nonpolluting vehicles and veterans of the Spanish-American War. I asked my neighbor to ride her bike for me. She said she’d be happy to pedal her butt all over town for a dollar. Complainers can E-mail if they don’t like this column. *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 1, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/040107.pdf?ref=smdp.com)