City Hall a fair target for letters to the editor
I love letters to the editor. It’s fascinating to see what’s on our readers’ minds.
There are always letters about Santa Monica’s homeless. Typical is the comment by Mike Kirwin (SMDP, June 13) who said that “people are fed up with the bums but the City Council is clueless.”
No Mike — and others, City Council is not clueless. They know exactly what they’re doing. They know what the problems are and ignore the cost to the community. They don’t give a damn. They’re on a noble cause and don’t hear complaints because they’re right and we’re not.
It’s about ego. Many of our city leaders fancy themselves as being on the cutting edge of social reform and deliberately refuse to acknowledge the damage their failed policies have done to Santa Monica, let alone make changes.
Letter writer, Jean McNeil Wyner, (SMDP, June 30) scolds Barnes and Noble booksellers on the Third Street Promenade for closing their restrooms to the public. She claims Barnes and Noble says they did it because “the homeless were making a mess.” My neighbor also recently complained to me that her Montana Avenue bank had terminated customer access to restrooms because of similar problems.
Private restrooms all over the city are now off limits to the public because of vandalism by transients and the mentally challenged. No store employee should have to unclog stuffed toilets or remove human waste and other biohazardous materials from fixtures, floors and walls. Even the city has closed public restrooms downtown because of the constant damage.
Wyner (who seemed to be equally annoyed that the bookseller isn’t a Chamber of Commerce member) and my neighbor should be directing their wrath at city leaders whose mission to save humanity is more important than our well being and quality of life.
Mayor pro tem Kevin McKeown (SMDP, June 30, page 6) responded to another letter writer, Klaus Mennekes, for opposing a proposed $11.50 hourly minimum wage for city employees and contractors. McKeown reiterated the old liberal economic myth that higher minimum wages will “afford our workers the dignity of making ends meet through their pay checks, not through food stamps.”
McKeown ignores the fact that rising wages including minimum wages, fuel inflation and higher prices. They restrict an unskilled, uneducated person’s ability to secure entry level positions. In time, workers fall even further behind the economic eight ball. Those on fixed incomes or Social Security really get nailed as prices go up. But, “pensioners” aren’t on McKeown’s radar screen, nor have the backing of the powerful labor unions behind the proposal.
There have been numerous letters about “tagging” the whale mural under the Fourth Street overpass on Ocean Park Boulevard. Tagging is a warning that says, “We’re angry. We don’t give a s**t about you.” Many street taggers are disenfranchised young hoodlums who have no tolerance for the law or basic rules of society — the same type of person who likely packs heat and would cap anyone in their way.
Pico Neighborhood Association Board member Jim Ries wrote (SMDP, June 22, page 4) and blamed just about everyone and everything — except his PNA — for the continued violence and gun play in the Pico area.
Where was the PNA when non-Pico Santa Monica Police civilian volunteers and former PNA board members handed out flyers in the “hood” a couple of months ago announcing a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the murderer of Jalonnie Carter? The PNA board was informed of the flyer distribution beforehand but were probably just too busy to help catch a killer. Nineteen-year-old Carter was shot down by an unknown assailant(s) on 20th Street in broad daylight last fall.
Members of a PNA Pico violence subcommittee addressed the city’s Social Service Commission Monday night and presented a draft plan of action. Although almost every point in their presentation has been discussed repeatedly over the years, the problem is that the present PNA leadership has a reputation of being difficult to work with, unwilling to put aside its own agenda and do whatever it takes for the common good.
However, the authors of the presentation were right about one thing: “More City Hall time and money is spent helping the homeless than addressing ongoing Pico neighborhood violence.”
One thing’s for sure. Until City Hall makes the Pico area the top priority, the bickering, posturing, letter writing and violence will continue. (Bill Bauer is a longtime Santa Monica resident and a freelance writer).
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 2, 2004. Read the original PDF.