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# It’s time to get real and to get progressive, SM
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/its-time-to-get-real-and-to-get-progressive-sm/
- Published: 2005-01-07T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T05:57:28.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import, Homelessness

*By TED WINTERER*

It’s a new year. Thank goodness. 2004 was a tough year for those of us who fancy ourselves as progressive liberals.

I’m not talking about the re-election of that callous skinflint from Texas who’s too cheap to help tsunami victims while he lines the pockets of his extraction industries cronies. My doctor won’t allow me to discuss Dubya as it causes me acid reflux.

Rather, I’m referring to our local elections, which yielded yet another City Council composed of middle-aged white folks. It makes the Bush Cabinet look like the Rainbow Coalition (whoops, there goes the bile up my esophagus). In particular, I’m troubled we have yet another Santa Monicans For Renters’ Rights-endorsed majority controlling civic affairs, because SMRR governance of our city in recent years hasn’t been nearly progressive enough.

Such a statement might seem like apostasy in the face of local political orthodoxy. But it’s not surprising that SMRR has lost its leftist edge in the two decades since its daring rent-control initiative. History proves time and again that as revolutionary movements mature they lose their zeal and focus, and become more concerned with maintaining their power base and nurturing the bureaucracy through which that power is effected (consider the American, French and Russian revolutions). Moreover, SMRR’s only notable opposition has come from the Chamber of Commerce and others to the right of our local political spectrum. Absent any meaningful dissent from the left, it’s only natural that SMRR and its elected officials would stake out centrist positions to win the votes of those who might otherwise be lured by more conservative candidates.

Don’t get me wrong. I admire and respect all four of the SMRR-backed council members. And I believe the SMRR-dominated councils of recent years have done many things right and have assured that Santa Monica continues to be a great place to live. I’m just crazy enough to wish for more for our city and for a truly progressive City Council. One that, to cull some phrases from my Unabridged Webster’s definition of “progressive,” is “moving forward” and “marked by a continuing improvement.”

So I’m going brazenly suggest a few New Year’s resolutions for our City Council. I should note that I came up with these notions without the aid of high-priced consultants or they wouldn’t be ready until 2006: 1\. The city’s 10-year commitment to sustainability has laudably reduced our community’s environmental footprint. Now that the low-lying fruit has been picked, however, more difficult challenges lie ahead. Consider City Hall, for instance: The growth of its staff, expenditures and facilities is simply not sustainable at the pace of the last decade. Likewise, private development can’t continue at the rate of recent years or our streets will become gridlocked and the skyline a distant memory. It’s time for new approaches that consume far less instead of the old reliance on growing municipal revenue sources and on the tear-down paradigm of redevelopment. 2\. Our housing policies, which currently seem to produce only lower-income affordable projects or market rate (i.e. insanely expensive) apartments, have led to the exodus of much of our middle class. Let’s foster a healthy, diverse human ecosystem by building for the middle class and acknowledge that government-sanctioned gentrification, such as beach hotels, luxury apartments, a spiffy transit mall and a high-end retail mall, displaces small businesses. 3\. Progressivism includes a proud tradition of government reform. Thus, the City Council ought to have its own independent staff to assist in policy-making and support a charter amendment to make City Hall department heads more accountable to our elected officials. There should be a healthy and creative tension between the legislative and executive branches of our government rather than the current cozy symbiosis. 4\. It’s time for the city to pursue truly egalitarian policies that provide economic and social justice to all. Stop ignoring the Pico neighborhood. Don’t first renovate the parks north of Wilshire Boulevard and only then fund improvements to Virginia and Memorial parks. If the beach bathrooms in front of the luxury hotels can be upgraded, so can those in Ocean Park. And why spend untold millions on a Civic Center makeover when residential neighborhoods have pressing infrastructure needs? 5\. Finally, as I’ve noted in prior columns, it’s time for a truly progressive approach to homelessness. Create homes for these people. And, if the city can zealously enforce parking tickets and hedge codes, it can require civil behavior of those who live on our streets.

Happy New Year! Pax Vobiscum. (Ted Winterer is a writer and deranged pinko who lives in Ocean Park. After consulting his consultants, he has resolved to spend less time listening to Pacifica Radio and more time trimming the hair that sprouts out of his ears. He can be reached at ourtownsmdp@aol.com).

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 7, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/010705.pdf?ref=smdp.com)