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# Get it over it, Don
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/get-it-over-it-don-editor/
- Published: 2004-08-05T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T04:47:48.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Pico, #archive-import

*By Phil Hendricks Santa Monica*

In response to Don Johnson’s letter (SMDP, July 31, page 4). You seemed to be having a bad day.

I hope the Virginia Park mural goes up as planned. It will be a great addition to Santa Monica as a whole and the Pico neighborhood in particular. I look forward to using Virginia Park with the rest of Santa Monica’s residents and guests. The residents in the area have been extraordinarily patient as this glacial project has “progressed,” and I hope we all have a big party when it is finished. As to the cost of the mural, we will spend more each year just doing regular landscaping maintenance than we will on the one-time cost of creating the mural.

As to your oblique comments regarding Oscar de la Torre, an accomplished man in his own right — I wish we had 10 more like him and that the rest of us could accomplish a tenth of what he has.

As an aging “thug” and former “boy at risk” I would like you to give me a call and maybe we can all sit down and talk about stuff. How about it?

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 5, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/080504.pdf?ref=smdp.com)