BLAST FROM THE PAST, from page 1 New group to tackle, traffic, development
A group of residents from this beachside community have formed a new neighborhood group to make their voices heard at City Hall.
Leaders of the recently formed Ocean Park Association (OPA) said they will focus first on building membership, lobbying for changes on Ocean Park Boulevard and urging residents to weigh in on an update to the city’s general plan, a planning document expected to control development throughout Santa Monica for the next two decades.
“Ocean Park is historically a very activist community and there are a lot of issues between the beach and Main Street, and development and preservation,” said Joel Brand, the group’s interim chairman and a seven-year resident. “There are a lot of things that go on in Ocean Park and I think there was a general feeling among the people who came together that the city wasn’t paying as much attention to Ocean Park as it was to some other neighborhoods.”
OPA fills a void left by the Ocean Park Community Organization, a neighborhood group that disbanded two years ago after an acrimonious legal dispute among some members of its board of directors. OPCO still has a committee dedicated to preserving an historic “shotgun” house (see related story) from the late 1800s, but the main group doesn’t hold formal meetings.
Neighborhood organizations are entitled to up to $4,000 a year in funding from City Hall. Brand said OPA likely will apply for that money once it’s been formally established. In the meantime, the fledgling group hopes to deepen its ranks by holding mixers, workshops and other community events in Ocean Park, according to Brand.
The first order of business will be to lobby for improvements to make one of the neighborhood’s key traffic arteries more friendly to pedestrians.
“Basically Ocean Park Boulevard was designed as kind of a freeway to a high-rise coastline that never got built,” said Brand, adding the group hadn’t decided what upgrades to push for, but would consider new plantings and medians like on Wilshire Boulevard.
“The idea in the early '80s was that the coastline of Ocean Park was going to become a series of high rises... Thankfully, we never got the walls of high-rise apartment buildings and, as a result, we really don’t need a freeway coming down Ocean Park Boulevard,” Brand said.
Another priority, he said, will be encouraging residents to weigh in on the general plan and thereby help shape the neighborhood’s future on everything from building heights to how traffic flows.
So far, turnout at OPA functions has been higher than expected, said Brand, adding some 15 to 25 people have attended previous meetings. The group will meet next on Sunday, March 13 at 4:30 p.m. in the community center at Joslyn Park.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 4, 2005. Read the original PDF.