GUEST COMMENTARY BY DR. GRUNING Checking out the facts
By Dr. Michael Gruning is a Santa Monica business owner and resident.
Local headlines have recently shed a spotlight on City Council incumbent Kevin McKeown. Recent stories cite the political ad opposing McKeown that has allegedly left one man featured in the ad feeling misrepresented. Instead of pointing fingers and placing blame on the ad regarding council member McKeown’s stance on homeless issues, perhaps it’s time to look beyond the rhetoric and accusations being tossed about.
The focus should be on the truth, the bare facts.
Kevin McKeown is completely out of touch with his constituency. Every year, when the city surveys its residents on the quality of life in Santa Monica, the number-one concern each time is homelessness and vagrancy. Rather than seeking long-term solutions as cities like New York did, Councilmember McKeown drags his heels and hides behind his SMMR (Santa Monicans For Renters Rights) platform, which states: “The rights of the housed and the un-housed are equal.”
This would be all well and good if there were an equal expectation on Mr. McKeown’s part for vagrants to be as responsible as their housed brethren.
Because of ongoing incidents of violence, like assaults and rapes by people illegally dwelling in the cliffs of Palisades Park, and because of an inability of firemen and para-medics to respond (the crumbling cliffs were too dangerous), City Council proposed an ordinance to prevent vagrants from sleeping in the cliffs for their own protection. Mr. McKeown’s response was: “Until suitable replacement housing can be found for these MCKEOWN, from page 4 people, I will vote against this.”
“Suitable replacement housing?” We are not talking about residents of Santa Monica who would have been displaced — these were squatters who came to Santa Monica because of the easy living, lax enforcement and great opportunity to panhandle residents and tourists alike.
In 2002, Mr. McKeown voted against an ordinance that made providing meals without proper county and city permits in a public space a misdemeanor, and over the course of eight years, has voted five times to maintain the status quo on the care and feeding of homeless in Santa Monica.
When was the last time you or your children felt safe to walk in Palisades Park or Reed Park, even in the daytime? The only carriages you see are those stacked with vagrants’ belongings. Equal rights — yes; Unequal rights — no. Why shouldn’t the law-abiding, taxpaying residents have an opportunity to occupy the same parks and park benches that the vagrants who have overrun them do?
While on the subject of Palisades Park,let’s talk about deadly disease. When the County of Los Angeles Health Department discovered that Palisades Park was teeming with flea-infested ground squirrels that can carry Bubonic Plague, they directed the city of Santa Monica to greatly reduce (euthanize) the ground squirrel population. Mr. McKeown belligerently resisted these efforts and suggested that the animals be given flea collars or birth control!...Sadly I’m not joking.
Mr. McKeown was also one of the only council members who voted against the police and fire departments’ requests to place surveillance cameras on public buses. Can we feel safe with this kind of reasoning from an incumbent councilmember?
Lastly, there is an arrogance of power that comes from being dismissive of the will of the residents all these years and getting away with it. Last year, when city council proposed a park on Euclid, the residents, almost to a person, objected to its creation unless the city agreed to build a fence around it so that it could be secured at night to prevent squatters and drug dealers from using it. Once again, councilmember McKeown showed his lack of respect for the wishes of the voters and lack of common sense by voting for the park (council members Bob Holbrook and Bobby Shriver voted against it).
If any of the foregoing seems familiar, it is because much of it has been culled from the pages of prior editions of the Santa Monica Daily Press. These are just the facts. Mr. McKeown’s record stands for itself. Just check his pattern of votes at city council — for the vagrants and against the best interests of his constituents. Forget the rhetoric and check the facts. Can we really afford four more years of Kevin McKeown?
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 3, 2006. Read the original PDF.