> ## 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.

# City shows signs of poor priorities
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/city-shows-signs-of-poor-priorities/
- Published: 2004-05-29T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T04:26:42.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Community, Promenade, #archive-import, Homeless

This past week, Q-line asked: Do you agree with the emphasis City Hall is putting on code enforcement?

Here are your responses: ✆ “Who cares how high somebody’s hedge is? As for the signs, the signs they are going after have been up for years. There are a lot of other things we could be spending money on. Like the homeless problem and maybe enforcing vagrancy laws.” ✆ “I personally think the city is going too far. The City Council needs to be completely redone, take out all the people in there at present and have new people refocus their efforts. Get some people in there that actually care about the working citizens here. I say the same thing every week, something must be done about the stinking, filthy, dirty homeless people that are living in the parks, the beach, and on the promenade. Get them out of here, bus them down to Beverly Hills. Let them deal with this. Code enforcement without doing something about the homeless is for the birds.” ✆ “City codes are put in place to inhibit the residents and businesses from turning the common area of a city into a slum or advertising sideshow. The common area of cities without some code enforcement would turn into a quagmire of discarded junk and worse. Mortals tend to be self-serving slobs with very little class or style and for the most part have total disregard for the aesthetics and well-being of the community. However, most people would like to leave that responsibility to another person. The other person doesn’t care either. When disregard reaches these levels, code enforcement happens.” ✆ “Yes, efforts by City Hall need to be refocused. The nonsensical, nitpicky codes they are harping on now are ridiculous. If they are the slightest bit concerned about the city, they should get rid of the homeless. The city has become smelly, filthy, and scary. They need to clean up after these people. I wonder, do they ever take a look around?” ✆ “I don’t agree with the code enforcement at all. They should be focused on the parks, the trees, the crime, and most importantly, the homeless. Where they hear the most complaint is where they should begin. I call in and respond to these questions and nothing ever happens. I cant wait to vote these people out of office.” ✆ “Being a property owner at one time, I liked having tall hedges. If something isn’t pretty, you got to cover it up. I don’t agree that the city should be able to determine what I do with my plants.” ✆ “Code enforcement has nothing to do with safety or education, just money. I cant imagine that City Council cares a thing about signs. Look at the street signs we are assaulted with since they took office, they outnumber the business signs by at least half. Forget the high minded rhetoric coming out of city hall and follow the money. It is as simple as that.” ✆ “This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. I know I sound like a broken record, but we all know there is a homeless problem here. Why does the council take all this money to look at signs and hedges when they should be giving these homeless people, including the teenager this paper interviewed, take that money and give these people jobs. Give them a bath, get them medical care, give them a shot. If that isn’t good enough, give it to the schools so teachers dot have to buy books with their lousy salaries or use it for better child care in the city, give it to Planned Parenthood to help women in the city with no health insurance. There is a lot of good that could be done. Hedges? Yeah right, great idea!!” ✆ “It takes more than beautification focus on signs and hedges to complete the process. When one visits any city, Santa Monica included, they look at the people and the buildings. All the tourists I have spoken to say they love Santa Monica, except for all the homeless. This is the biggest issue regarding beautification that has yet to be dealt with. You know what the city of Beverly Hills does with homeless people? They arrest them and bus them to other cities. If we were willing to do this, our once beautiful city would begin to change overnight.” ✆ “I absolutely do not agree with this. In my neighborhood, we have tons of traffic and wanderers from a nearby half-way house looking into our homes. We should have a ten-foot hedge as far as I’m concerned but I cant control that I guess. I think the emphasis should be getting rid of the bums around here, they are the only people being coddled and taken care of in this city. I saw an interview with some 20-year-old twerp the other day who has a perfectly good home but he would rather live on the street here with his girlfriend. He should be sent back where he came from. The police department is being hassled by having to enforce stupid codes on hedges and signs and they get hamstrung when they try to enforce codes to keep the bums in check. Well, there you go.” ✆ “The city is not interested in beautification. If so they would get rid of the stinking homeless people. Instead, they hassle business people and home owners because it is much easier to hassle people that actually have something to lose. Pathetic.” ✆ “Enforcing codes for hedge-height and signage is asinine when you are not enforcing codes for public urination, defecation and loitering, camping and sleeping in parks, and panhandling. It would seem the city council has its priorities out of whack.” ✆ “City Hall picks and chooses which codes to enforce. They don’t enforce the leaf blower law, or the fact that you are supposed to stop at stop signs, bums are just living in our parks, urinating and defecating everywhere. People just cant seem to see what a horror the city is becoming.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 29, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/052904.pdf?ref=smdp.com)