By Hannah Galloway Santa Monica
I have lived in Santa Monica for 14 months — not 20 years, like many of the people quoted in your Oct. 11 article “Has Dogtown had its day?” But I was equally horrified when I parked in the lot at Horizons West earlier this month and saw the demo permit.
The Horizons West/Zephyr-Dogtown building is one of my favorite in all of Santa Monica. Not because it is architecturally genius, but because of what it represents. It is a surf and skate culture icon, and it has survived these many years because there are so many people — in Ocean Park, Santa Monica and Los Angeles — who support it. Tourists I have taken there love it, and even if they didn’t know much about Dogtown and Z-Boys before they got there, they sure did when they left. History is preserved here, and I am so proud to live in a place where this still exists.
Green or not, mixed residential/commercial developments are the scourge of the 21st century. They are everywhere because they are lucrative to develop, and they are, at best, mediocre when complete. Should the owner triumph and demolish the building at the corner of Main and Bay streets, a part of history and an icon of the surf and skate culture that makes Ocean Park so unique will be gone. And that, in my opinion, will be tragic.
Ocean Park didn’t get its charm striving for mediocrity, and I encourage those who share this opinion to be vocal. Save this landmark before it is gone.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 16, 2006. Read the original PDF.