In his “My Write” column (SMDP, Feb. 20, page 4), Bill Bauer derided the expenditure of city funds to support neighborhood organizations, which he feels poorly represent community sentiment. I offer in reply the following thoughts: 1. As the self-appointed vox populi of Santa Monica, Mr. Bauer has often lamented that City Hall turns a deaf ear to the wishes of residents, as in the plans for Euclid Park or the parking variance for the Unitarian Church. So why then would he object to City Hall spending roughly $50,000 per year, a small fraction of its annual expenditures of hundreds of millions, to foment community participation in civic affairs and to organize a collective voice for residential neighborhoods? And if he’s perturbed by the existing system, where’s his proposal for an alternative means “to represent neighborhood thinking?” 2. Mr. Bauer argues that neighborhood organizations cannot represent neighborhood thinking, since their membership numbers are less than the local population. Santa Monica For Renter’s Rights cannot presume to represent all renters and the Chamber of Commerce can’t purport to present the views of all business owners, yet these organizations have a disproportionate influence on the course of civic affairs. What’s wrong with seeking to empower neighborhoods so they have a similar stake in what transpires at City Hall? 3. Like a facile movie publicist lifting the choice portions of a review (as in a critic’s “Worth watching if you enjoy a poke in the eye with a sharp stick” morphing into the blurb “Worth watching!), Mr. Bauer took out of context my words in a letter to www.surfsantamonica.com and then misquoted me to boot.
What I wrote in reply to Frank Gruber’s assertion that Ocean Park Association (OPA) presumed to speak for the whole of Ocean Park was “We no more purport to be the voice of all in Ocean Park than the NRA can claim to speak for all gun owners or AARP can assert to be the voice of all seniors or the Vatican can presume to represents all Catholics.”
We realize it would be presumptuous for us to claim to represent all 13,000 Ocean Park residents and the diversity of their opinions, as the chances of every woman, man and child in our neighborhood joining OPA are about as slim as the odds of the Pulitzer committee ringing up Mr. Bauer with the good news of his nomination.
Instead, we represent our membership and believe it offers a fair sampling of neighborhood thinking. Yes, our numbers are not yet what we want them to be, although the 100 members cited by Mr. Bauer are actually more like 200. But I think we’re doing pretty darn well for an organization that’s been in existence for little more than a year. And if the city-sponsored mailer serves its purpose, our membership could easily approach 500 before we complete our second year, which would be a significant proportion of the Ocean Park population which votes in local elections and cares about civic affairs.
Rather than push for someone’s political agenda, we try to collect neighborhood opinion to the best of our ability. For instance, we solicited input from more than 600 Ocean Park e-mail addresses on the city’s budget priorities. And our signature effort to get City Hall to fund safety and beautification improvements on Ocean Park Boulevard was almost universally approved by the hundreds who have been asked to sign our petition endorsing this concept. So perhaps when we feel that walking safely across this street at rush hour is hazardous, we’re actually in tune with our neighborhood. In fact, the city’s open space element calls for Ocean Park Boulevard to serve as a recreational pathway and its parks master plan encourages narrowing and greening of streets, so our goals are even in tune with city policy. 4. It’s unfortunate that Mr. Bauer didn’t perform some basic due diligence and attend one of our meetings — they’re open to one and all — or at least contact me to seek some insight into our goals and methods. Instead, he seems to have prejudged OPA based on his own subjective bias. And if Mr. Bauer is really unhappy with the operation and direction of Wilmont, his own neighborhood organization, why not join it, get involved and change it for the better? Perhaps it’s easier to armchair quarterback and simply criticize the volunteer efforts and good intentions of others.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 28, 2006. Read the original PDF.