He wants a safer, more artistic, scholarly 2004
Residents this year can expect to see less gun violence in an eastside neighborhood, a financially stable school district and more arts programs in Santa Monica.
Those are the priorities that Mayor Richard Blooms hopes to achieve in his last year as the city’s top politician. But he knows from experience they won’t be easy to attain.
Bloom said his top accomplishments in 2003 were guiding the city through a $16 million budget deficit and providing stability after the living wage measure failed for a second time — two issues focused more on holding together a cash poor and divided community than venturing into new territory, politically.
With his term as mayor set to expire at the end of the year, Bloom also will be up for reelection in November — along with City Councilmen Mike Feinstein, Ken Genser and Herb Katz. He said it’s too soon to say how the 2004 election will be different than others, but added that a political action committee being set up by the local Chamber of Commerce is sure to cause problems.
It will be the first time that the chamber will endorse candidates and raise money for their campaigns. The goal is to gain majority on the City Council, which is currently controlled by Santa Monicans For Renter’s Rights, a liberal group that for years has guided City Hall politics.
591,“For those of us who are considering running in November, it means earlier fundraising, it means more fundraising,” Bloom said. “I don’t think, frankly, it’s going to change the outcome of the election — and I think it’s going to create a more divisive environment at a time when we really don’t need that.
“I feel really strongly about it,” Bloom added. “I think much of the history of Santa Monica is a history that was not guided by chamber interests, unlike many other communities... Not to say the business community doesn’t play an extremely important role in the community and in elections, but that’s a very significant and qualitative difference than the chamber actively involving itself in the outcome of elections.”
With the election 11 months away, Bloom — whose New Year’s resolution is to build on his leadership skills and rekindle old friendships — has more pressing work to contend with. He said his top priority for the coming year will be battling gun violence in the eastside Pico neighborhood. Throughout 2003, incidents of drive-by shootings and stray bullets have been commonplace in the neighborhood. Police responded to close to a dozen shots-fired calls, most believed to be gang related. While most of the shots didn’t seriously injure anyone, the Pico neighborhood was the scene of Santa Monica’s only homicide — 19-year-old Jalonnie Carter was shot in the back in an alley east of 20th Street.
Though Bloom said he doesn’t want to predetermine how the issue will be tackled, he said a report on gun violence recently authored by the RAND Corp., a national think tank based in Santa Monica, could serve as a key point in a conversation that will involve the entire community.
“The key problem is an ongoing cycle of violence that ebbs and flows with time,” Bloom said. “We don’t seem to have been able to make it go away. And I started to think about that over the last few weeks and how we have this regional program now to end homelessness in 10 years... If we can really have a vision to end homelessness, I can’t imagine that in a community like Santa Monica, with the resources we have, that we couldn’t have a program for ending gun violence.”
Bloom acknowledged that the police department is already doing most of what is outlined in the RAND report but said it is important for everyone to take a closer look at the situation and redouble their efforts. He said he was interested in exploring more job and youth intervention programs, among other things.
“We need to look at every available resource... to end the problem. Not just deal with it, end it. That may take some time, but I think we ought to commit ourselves to doing it,” Bloom said.
“We need to look at every available resource... to end the problem. Not just deal with it, end it.” — —RICHARD BLOOM Mayor, Santa Monica
“This is one place where it’s appropriate for the city to take the lead,” he added. “I think it’s extremely important for a lot of this to be community driven. That’s what the Riley study from RAND showed and recommends. I think we need to convene some sort of meeting of the people who are interested in the community to put some ideas out there and then implement them.
“Most of what we’re doing, in terms of what the police department are doing, is in line with the kinds of programs that are recommended by RAND already. I think that there is probably some fine tuning that we can do.... I think that the thing that needs to happen is for the community to become more involved on a day-to-day basis in terms of intervention.”
4BB,A second priority, Bloom said, is cultivating the local arts — something Bloom has long championed. Though the Santa Monica Festival may be called off this year due to budget problems, Bloom said there’s still some money available and he hopes to use it to set up partnerships with local businesses.
“Frankly, I don’t think I did enough in the last year,” he said. “My ultimate goal, particularly in the downward economy that we’re experiencing, is to try to find ways for the local residents, and the business community, and the hospitality industry to energize the community with more music and more arts.
“We have a tremendous amount of artistic talent in the city and I don’t think we’re coordinating it to the best benefit of the people here.”
Bloom pointed to partnerships and sponsorships like the now-defunct annual folk festival, long sponsored by McCabe’s Guitar Shop on Pico Boulevard.
“What I would like to do is have a summit meeting of all of those who are a part of the fabric of the community and see where it ends up,” he said. “Basically, what I want to see is more access to music in the community and that means more open houses, more festivals and anything else that people want to see.
521,“We have tremendous business resources. A large part of the entertainment industry is based in Santa Monica — from music to performing arts, it’s all here and I think it’s a largely untapped resource,” he added, pointing to Harvelle’s Blues Club, Bergamot Station and the Santa Monica Museum of Art.
Bloom’s third priority is to stabilize funding for the cash-strapped Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. For the past few years, the district has depended on last-minute cash donations from City Hall to keep from slashing its programs. Bloom said that system isn’t fair to either entity.
City Hall staffers are currently reviewing various options, including the cost of possibly purchasing or leasing some properties from the school district and using them for open space or other purposes. In the meantime, school boosters are working on a possible ballot measure that would force City Hall to fork over a set percentage of its revenue each year, a proposal not looked kindly upon by council members.
“There’s a limit to how much that (amount) can be raised... Without a new funding source it becomes difficult to imagine increasing the city’s funding the way we need to,” Bloom said, adding that, “It’s really important for local government to maintain flexibility in how it allocates its resources.”
Still, Bloom said unless the bottom falls out of the local economy — which isn’t likely — City Hall should continue to fund area public schools.
“The bottom line is that it is really dangerous to engage in simplistic analysis when it comes to issues like this,” he said. “I have some skepticism, but its healthy skepticism.
“I’m not ruling out anything. I am hoping to find the right formula, I’m hoping it’s out there.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 3, 2004. Read the original PDF.