By John Blanchette Santa Monica
(This letter was originally addressed to Santa Monica City Council members). I have been a resident of the Ocean Park district of Santa Monica for 20 years, as a renter and a homeowner.
I love my community and I don’t want to see Main Street lose the character that initially brought me here.
“If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.”
How dare anyone try to ruin the businesses that make Main Street so vibrant and unique. There is no other place in Los Angeles that comes close to offering so much to its residents — top restaurants, coffee houses, saloons, unusual shops — all nestled in a historic zone bordering the Pacific.
I rarely visit other areas in the evening because of the endless amusement available on Main Street, moving from shop to shop, restaurants to coffee houses and bars or just sitting outside and watching the parade of life go by.
I can’t imagine living anywhere else. But some in the neighborhood want to change its character (“Businesses get loud over new noise law,” SMDP, Sept. 1, page 1). Main Street will die if the 10 p.m. noise ordinance passes, livelihoods will be lost, the enjoyment of the neighborhood will end, it will no longer be a destination for those in other parts of the city and Ocean Park’s property values will plunge. There’s a lot of history on this street, please don’t erase it.
I hope you won’t even consider this inane and counter-productive proposal. Leave Main Street and Ocean Park as it is — one of the most desirable, beautiful and exciting places to live in Southern California.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 4, 2003. Read the original PDF.